Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market may be one of the fastest-growing globally, but its fragmented landscape often makes regional expansion challenging for brands.
Consisting of multiple countries, cultures, and behaviors, brands typically struggle to bridge the gap between high-level strategy and ground-level execution. With this in mind, Intrepid Asia’s newly appointed regional head for performance marketing, Qaid Johar Gheewala, steps in, intending to move beyond marketplace management to becoming a holistic growth partner, not just for local brands but internationally.
Prior to this, Qaid served as the head of performance media for Publicis Groupe from 2022 to 2025, with prior experiences as director, performance marketing specialist, and business executive for Entropia, Denstu Aegis Network, and WPP Media, respectively.
Precision, agility, and connectivity
When asked what pushed Qaid to take on the role, his response was centered on scaling growth. But beyond that, he pinpoints how essential it is for Intrepid Asia to drive growth with one element in mind: deep integration.
For Qaid, this means ensuring that their proprietary technology and localised expertise become integral components of their clients’ regional infrastructure.
Hence, the SEA region is never one to be taken as a linear landscape. Stepping into the role, Qaid described the market landscape as dynamic, with these three priorities in mind: precision, agility, and connectivity.
With this, he expounded on moving their company’s brand reach to high-intent and data-driven performance, prioritising ROAS, or return on ad spend impact, as well as strengthening their connected commerce strategy & capabilities.
This, according to him, would help them capture the ‘discovery-based’ shopping habits of their clients. This would eventually lead to ensuring that their presence across the SEA markets is seamlessly integrated, driving value despite market differences.
“The opportunity lies in the shift toward ‘Omni-channel 2.0.’ It’s no longer just about being on marketplaces (Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop); it’s about the convergence of digital touchpoints, offline-to-online (O2O) experiences, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels,” he emphasised.
However, he also noted the increasing challenge of the complexity of data privacy, attribution, and inflated customer acquisition costs. To stay ahead, he shared how they developed ‘customer-centric brand building’ and ‘performance media’ strategies, powered by market intelligence to predict trends rather than react to them.
Boots on the ground practice
In the next 6 months, Qaid looks forward to building digital commerce capabilities and operational excellence. “The aim is to solidify our internal processes and deeply integrate our proprietary tools to ensure every marketing dollar our clients spend is converting into business outcomes.”
Looking further, he also aims to spend his first year in the role by successfully defining strategic indispensability in the SEA region. To do so, he shared, “When a senior marketer thinks of Southeast Asia, Intrepid Asia should be at the top of mind as the growth partner behind their regional success story.”
To encapsulate regional success, Qaid highlighted the importance of brand consistency, especially in navigating the ‘glocal’ challenge. “Brand consistency is maintained through a unified regional framework, adapted to clients’ requirements, reporting with key metrics, quality of service, along with our core values.”
Qaid also highlighted how they exercise this by having their ‘boots on the ground’.
“Each of the six SEA markets has its own nuances in language, shopping behaviour, payment preferences, and festive seasons. We empower our local teams to ‘translate’ the global brand voice into the local vernacular, ensuring that while the brand’s identity remains intact, its message resonates at a street-level,” he elaborated.
Looking ahead, Qaid remains focused on positioning Intrepid Asia as a key growth partner for brands expanding across Southeast Asia. Through deeper technology integration and stronger connected commerce capabilities, he aims to help brands navigate the region’s complexities while unlocking long-term digital growth.
