Tag: What’s NEXT in Marketing

AI-powered customer engagement strategies are transforming the way businesses interact with their audiences. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, companies can deliver hyper-personalised experiences, anticipate customer needs, and provide real-time support. This not only streamlines interactions but also fosters deeper connections and trust. 

With AI-driven insights, businesses can proactively address concerns, optimise marketing efforts, and enhance overall customer satisfaction. In an era where customer expectations constantly evolve, AI is no longer optional—it’s necessary to stay relevant and build lasting relationships.

To better understand what lies ahead for AI-driven customer engagement strategies, we sat down with Asnawi Jufrie, vice president & general manager of Southeast Asia at SleekFlow for our latest What’s NEXT in Marketing interview to better understand the importance of customised AI-powered customer engagement strategies, ethical considerations when implementing it, and the synergy between AI and human expertise.

How conversational AI is transforming customer interactions

Asnawi highlights that conversational AI is more common than people think–and that we interact with it daily. A recent Southeast Asian survey by SleekFlow revealed that 86% of respondents are familiar with AI-powered customer service, even if they don’t recognise it as ‘conversational AI.’.

This further highlights his point on how AI is making customer interactions smoother, faster, and more engaging by bridging the gap between brands and users, enhancing customer service by automating common inquiries while keeping interactions natural, and improving customer care by providing real-time assistance with minimal wait times. 

“Conversational AI is currently helping us form closer ties between brands and their users while actually reshaping the customer care segment,” Asnawi said.

He added, “With messages and with the tones of your messages, it’s a lot easier—by having different guardrails in AI—to actually determine what kind of intent or what kind of emotion this person is feeling.”

AI agents versus traditional automation

In the interview, Asnawi explained the key differences between AI agents and traditional automation tools, emphasising how AI-powered solutions are more adaptive, intelligent, and personalised compared to basic rule-based bots. Meanwhile, traditional automation tools function using pre-programmed rules and can only handle structured, predictable queries.

AI agents, on the other hand, use natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) to interpret context, intent, and sentiment. Unlike traditional bots, AI agents can handle unstructured human language, including slang, abbreviations, and variations in phrasing. They can learn from past interactions and improve over time, making conversations feel more natural and less robotic.

“Many times, people say, ‘I don’t want to speak with a chatbot.’ And I completely understand. Traditional bots follow structured rules, and that makes them feel robotic. The difference between AI agents and traditional bots is that AI agents understand unstructured, real-world conversations, while bots only follow a script,” he explained.

He also highlighted how AI agents are evolving beyond just answering questions; it can now analyse emotions and adjust interactions in real-time.

“Real-time sentiment analysis is a game-changer. AI agents can now detect frustration, urgency, or satisfaction in a conversation—and respond accordingly,” he added.

A good example of the key strengths of AI agents nowadays is how they are trained to understand regional dialects and cultural nuances, such as Singlish (Singaporean English) or Taglish (Tagalog-English in the Philippines).

While data notes that AI may eventually replace human intelligence for customer service in the future, Asnawi said that AI will only serve as an enhancement for said service.

“I believe AI will never fully replace human agents, but it will enhance their ability to focus on what really matters—providing genuine human connection where it’s needed,” he stated.

Key considerations for implementing AI agents

For Asnawi, successfully integrating AI agents into a business requires careful planning, strategic deployment, and a focus on privacy, ethics, and optimisation. One of the most important factors is data quality—since AI relies on past interactions to improve, businesses must ensure that their datasets are accurate, unbiased, and representative of their customer base.

Another critical consideration is privacy and security. AI systems often process large amounts of customer data, making them potential targets for data breaches. Companies need to implement strong security measures, including data encryption, secure authentication, and regular audits, to comply with regulations such as GDPR (Europe), PDPA (Singapore/Malaysia), and CCPA (California).

“Privacy and data security aren’t optional. AI collects massive amounts of information, and if mishandled, it can lead to significant legal and financial consequences,” he stated.

Moreover, he also noted that companies must customise their AI agents to fit their specific industry and operational needs. In his observation, many businesses make the mistake of copying AI strategies from competitors without considering how AI can best serve their unique workflow. AI deployment should be based on a thorough evaluation of customer touchpoints, identifying areas where automation adds value rather than creating friction.

“One of the biggest mistakes companies make is assuming that AI is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. Every industry has unique needs—AI must be tailored to those needs,” he said.

He added, “AI is a tool, not a replacement. The best customer experiences come from AI working alongside human agents, not instead of them.”

By using Sleekflow’s AI-powered automation and omnichannel messaging services, Asnawi highlights how they aim to help businesses to focus on personalised AI interactions that bridge the gap between brands and customers.

To view the full discussion, watch the video interview here:

If a brand’s media strategy is still chasing conversions, then it’s not leading—it’s being led. Measuring marketing effectiveness through last-click attribution is like judging a football match based solely on the final goal. Yes, the score matters. But what about the positioning, the teamwork, the creative flair, and the strategy that led to it? That’s where the magic—and the meaning—happens.

Today’s marketers are caught in a performance feedback loop, intoxicated by dashboards that glow with real-time data: clicks, conversions, cost-per-acquisition. These numbers provide a sense of certainty, a tangible result to justify investment. But they fail to capture the nuance of human behaviour. Real influence doesn’t reside in spreadsheets—it lives in memory, emotion, culture, and context.

“What changed the customer’s mind might not be the last thing they saw, but the first thing they felt.”

The Real Work Happens in the Middle

Consumer journeys aren’t funnels anymore. They’re not neat or linear. They’re chaotic, emotional, deeply personal—and heavily shaped by relevance and timing. A single Instagram post might spark curiosity. A recommendation from a friend might deepen trust. A nostalgic moment during a subway ride might ignite connection. But legacy attribution models reward only the last touch, ignoring the subtle, strategic layers that built momentum.

The player who scores gets the headline, but it’s the invisible buildup—the pass, the opening run, the defensive decoy—that truly shaped the outcome. Likewise, marketing ROI isn’t the product of one click. It’s collaborative. It’s cumulative. And it deserves to be measured that way.

Offline Media: The Power We Keep Ignoring

In many Asian markets, offline media is often seen as a legacy channel—glossy, expensive, hard to track. Not because it lacks impact, but because it doesn’t integrate neatly with digital dashboards. That’s a blind spot. A dangerous one.

In high-context societies—like much of Asia—presence is power. Physical visibility often carries more social weight than a digital banner ever could. The where and how a brand appears in the physical world—train stations, flagship stores, airports, billboards—signals more than awareness. It signals intent, identity, and cultural relevance.

Offline media isn’t background noise. It’s a stage. A story. A strategic signal.

Transit Advertising: Japan Sets the Global Standard

Japan’s approach to offline media is a masterclass in cultural integration. In cities like Tokyo and Osaka, transit advertising is not an interruption—it’s embedded into the urban aesthetic. It becomes part of the commute, part of the routine, part of people’s everyday lives.

Shibuya Station is a prime example. When Netflix transformed Harajuku into Hawkins, Indiana to promote Stranger Things, it wasn’t just a campaign—it was a cultural moment. Apple’s Marunouchi flagship store reflects both traditional Japanese craftsmanship and global design precision, becoming a destination in its own right.

Fashion houses like Dior and Louis Vuitton don’t wrap trains in Tokyo to drive impulse purchases. They do it to project aspiration and artistry. These carriages become moving canvases. Meanwhile, local giants like Sony and SoftBank use the same platforms to reinforce identity and national pride.

“In Japan, the commute isn’t just transit—it’s theatre. When done right, it becomes an immersive experience that lodges itself in memory.”

Lessons From the Field: Memory Over Metrics

Years ago, a global luxury skincare brand was preparing its entry into Asia. The client’s brief focused on clicks, impressions, and performance media. The agency team, however, proposed a different approach—a sensory takeover of a Seoul train station. The activation included scent pods, ambient lighting, and immersive storytelling panels that played out like a cinematic narrative as commuters moved through the space.

There were no trackable links. No QR codes. No pixels. Just emotion.

The results? Within three months, brand recall had tripled. Consumers didn’t just see the product—they felt it, talked about it, and remembered it. The product became part of cultural conversations, not just part of a retargeting sequence.

That moment crystallised a truth too many brands overlook: memory scales. Clicks don’t.

Other moments have echoed that insight. A Madame Tussaud’s experience in Bangkok. A bold, architectural activation by Brex in San Francisco. A surprise musical performance promoting Chicago at JFK Airport. These weren’t optimised for conversions. They were optimised for feeling. And that’s what made them powerful.

From Visibility to Relevance

Too many brands confuse being seen with being significant. But visibility alone doesn’t win love, loyalty, or market share. Relevance does.

Apple didn’t build brand equity through CPM efficiency. Netflix didn’t become part of the global pop culture canon by chasing impressions. They achieved it by making people feel something—by being contextually, emotionally, and culturally present.

That’s the kind of presence that doesn’t just show up in reports—it shows up in conversations, in hearts, and in habits.

The brands that integrate into people’s lives—whether through design, storytelling, or cultural fluency—create resonance. They build memory. And memory is the real brand moat.

Asia’s Unique Cultural Context: Why Memory Matters More Here

Asia isn’t one market—it’s a mosaic of markets, each with distinct languages, values, and social frameworks. But across the region, one theme consistently holds: high-context communication. In places like Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand, much is conveyed implicitly—through cues, settings, rituals, and repetition—not just through direct messaging.

That means the medium is just as important as the message. In Asia, where relationships and emotional trust take time to build, the subtle signals of brand presence—especially in public, trusted spaces—can carry far more weight than a performance ad.

It also means that interruptive, transactional marketing often backfires. Integration and emotional fluency matter. A brand that belongs, that feels native, will always outperform one that merely appears.

The Coming Shift: Smarter, Context-Aware Attribution

As physical and digital environments continue to blend, marketers face an urgent challenge: measurement must evolve. The next generation of attribution can’t just count interactions. It needs to interpret them. It must understand why a customer moved—not just that they moved.

Artificial intelligence will play a critical role in this shift. Emerging tools won’t just track digital clicks. They’ll read sentiment, interpret context, analyse narrative arcs, and correlate emotional triggers across time and touchpoints.

But even with smarter tech, one principle will hold: real ROI is orchestration, not isolation. No channel acts alone. Impact is co-authored—by creative, timing, placement, and cultural fit. The attribution models of tomorrow must reflect that.

Marketing Needs a New North Star: Memory

The current obsession with data has its place. But it’s made marketers forget the most important metric of all: Did people remember it?

Marketing isn’t just a performance game—it’s a memory game. And memory, unlike impressions or reach, compounds over time. It sticks. It spreads. It influences.

“You can chase the algorithm, or you can shape the memory.”

When brands shape memory, they create lasting advantage. They become part of culture, not just commerce. They earn word-of-mouth, loyalty, and emotional real estate.

Owning the Future by Shaping the Past

In Asia, the brands that endure don’t just show up—they belong. They don’t interrupt—they integrate. They don’t chase—they contribute.

In a region where trust is earned slowly and held tightly, marketing that’s grounded in emotional resonance, cultural respect, and physical presence can do what dashboards never will: build meaning.

That’s not to say performance marketing is obsolete. It’s not. Digital media still plays a vital role in closing the loop, activating intent, and capturing demand. But it cannot be the full story.

The real brand work happens before the click. Before the search. Before the pixel fires. It happens in the world. In the imagination. In the memory.

Final Thought: Brands That Shape Memory, Win Markets

As Asia continues to lead global innovation and cultural evolution, the stakes for brands grow higher. Noise is everywhere. Attention is fractured. Metrics are manipulated.

But memory? That’s immune to ad blockers.

Brands that want to win in this region need to shift their mindset. From short-term efficiency to long-term resonance. From chasing conversions to shaping conversations.

Because in the end, consumers won’t remember the ad that followed them around the internet. They’ll remember how a brand made them feel—in a subway, in a store, on a street corner, or at a moment when it truly mattered.

The brands that shape memory today will own the market tomorrow.

This thought leadership piece is written by Srikanth Ramachandran, Founder and Group CEO at Moving Walls

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT in Marketing 2025, a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for 2025 and beyond.

Do you remember the days when celebrities in glossy magazine ads were the pinnacle of marketing? Those days are long gone. Today, the person recommending you the latest holiday destination, restaurants to check-out this weekend might just be doing so from their bedroom, kitchen, or local cafes. The rise of influencer marketing has transformed how brands connect with consumers, and there are no signs of slowing down. As we step into 2025, one thing is clear: nano creators are leading the next wave of influencer marketing. 

First Blogging, Now Multi-Platform Creation 

The journey of influencer marketing began over a decade ago. In 2010, blogging was at the frontier of content creation. Bloggers reviewed products on personal websites and shared their experiences in long-form posts. These were often trusted sources for recommendations because they felt authentic and relatable. Fast forward to today, and the social landscape has evolved dramatically. 

Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and even newer entrants like XiaoHongShu have become the playgrounds for creators to share their lives and promote products. Influencers are no longer confined to a single platform or format – they create across multiple channels to reach diverse audiences. This shift reflects changing consumer habits; people now consume content in bite-sized pieces and expect it to be engaging and visually appealing.  

As traditional advertising effectiveness declined, brands realised that audiences respond better to recommendations from people they trust rather than advertisements. Influencer marketing filled this gap by providing authenticity that traditional marketing often lacked. 

The Big Shift 

One of the most significant transformations in influencer marketing has been the evolving relationship between brands and creators. Not too long ago, influencers were primarily seen as distribution channels – tools for brands to amplify their messages. They were hired for one-off sponsored posts designed to generate quick buzz around a product or service. 

Today, this dynamic has shifted dramatically. Brands now view creators as valuable partners who bring their own insights and creative direction to campaigns. These partnerships go beyond transactional arrangements: they are collaborative efforts where both parties work together to achieve shared goals. 

This shift has led to longer-term partnerships replacing one-off sponsored posts. Many brands are moving away from working with dozens of influencers for single campaigns and instead focusing on maintaining year-long relationships with fewer creators who genuinely use their products and align with their values. This approach not only builds trust but also ensure consistency in messaging – an important factor in a busy digital space. 

Bigger Isn’t Always Better 

While celebrities and macro influencers still command attention, the industry has discovered a new truth: smaller creators are becoming the rising stars of influencer marketing. Nano influencers with fewer than 10,000 followers are gaining traction because they offer something unique that larger influencers often lack: authentic connection. 

Nano influencers may not have millions of followers, but what they do have is a loyal and engaged audience that trusts them. Their content feels personal and relatable because it comes from someone who seems like a close friend rather than an unattainable celebrity figure. This authenticity translates into higher engagement rates and stronger conversion power. 

Consumers are increasingly seeking authenticity and trust in their online interactions making nano-influencers, with their intimate and focused interactions, highly appealing according to Starsandstories.

AI Is Reshaping How Influencers Work 

Artificial intelligence is transforming how creators work across the influencer ecosystem. AI tools now handle the time-consuming aspects of content creation, allowing influencers to focus on strategy and authentic connection. 

For the established creators, AI-powered editing tools now automatically colour-grade footage, generate captions, and even suggest optimal posting times based on audience analytics. But the biggest impact is happening at the nano influencer level, where AI has completely changed the workflow for this community. 

Brands are leveraging these technologies too. There are algorithms now that pair brands with the most aligned nano influencers based not just on demographics but on tones, values, and content style. This technology evolution has made nano influencer campaigns scalable in ways that weren’t possible even two years ago. 

The New Frontier 

As we look ahead to the next phase of influencer marketing, several trends indicate that nano influencers will continue gaining traction: 

• Brands are creating “community marketing hubs” – networks of hundreds of nano influencers who promote products within their specific communities, creating powerful word-of-mouth momentum through multiple trusted voices rather than a single celebrity endorsement. 

• New platforms dedicated to connecting brands with verified nano influencers are emerging, streamlining the discovery and partnership process. These platforms offer transparent metrics and standardised partnership terms.

• Rather than one-off posts, brands are developing ongoing nano influencer ambassador programs that foster deeper integration of products into authentic content. 

Navigating the New Landscape 

As influencer marketing continues to evolve, authentic connection matters more than ever. The future isn’t about reaching everyone – it’s about reaching the right people through voices they truly trust. And increasingly, those voices belong to nano influencers who may be small in follower count but are mighty in influence. 

Brands that understand this evolution will thrive by forming meaningful partnerships with creators who truly resonate with their target customers. The power has shifted permanently from brands to creators and their communities. 

The most successful marketing strategies will be those that embrace this new reality and work within it rather than fighting against it. As we navigate this evolving landscape, one thing remains clear – human connection remains at the heart of effective marketing, even as tools and platforms continue to change. 

This thought leadership piece is written by Hazel Yap, co-founder at Serious Media.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT in Marketing 2025, a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for 2025 and beyond.

Advertising is increasingly being shaped by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Particularly, it is changing programmatic advertising, for the right reasons. 

The rise of advanced advertising technologies has streamlined many processes, particularly in the diverse and complex Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. With each market in APAC presenting unique challenges, these innovations have enabled advertisers to navigate and optimise their strategies more effectively.

In MARKETECH APAC’s latest What’s NEXT in Marketing interview, Joyce Seah, Head of Client Success, APAC at Quantcast, explores the role of AI in programmatic advertising. She highlights how technology is transforming essential processes, enabling marketers to succeed amidst the highly nuanced APAC market.

Impact of AI on programmatic advertising 

“AI is no longer just a buzzword, it is reality,” says Joyce. All executions and activations in the marketing landscape are integrated with it, ultimately enhancing every part of the process brands use to engage with their prospects and customers.

One of the largest impacts AI has made is normalising hyper-personalisation. This used to be merely a goal for advertisers before, but is now achievable with relative ease.

“AI and machine learning is enabling advertisers to deliver highly tailored messages to individuals, and this is also something individuals have come to expect,” she said.

Essentially, advertisers today can create more relevant marketing experiences using accurate insights about their audiences’ interests, reach them on platforms they natively use, and deliver seamless messaging while adhering to global consumer privacy laws.

“We’re able to leverage real-time data to predict user preferences, and this is paramount because we know users change their preferences ever so often,” Joyce explained.

And it’s not just in advertising, technology is enabling teams to be more efficient in their jobs. According to a Deloitte Gen AI survey, 80% of Gen AI users said that it’s improved the speed at which they can complete tasks; leading to time savings of approximately 6.3 hours per week, for example.

“With AI and machine learning, we’re able to free up a lot of these people’s time to do actual creative and strategic work because we’re going to be able to remove a lot of the manual lever pulling,” she said.

Navigating APAC’s cultural nuances is key

While AI makes targeting easier, advertisers in the APAC region must take into account the region’s nuances if they are to use it effectively.

“When working in the APAC region, brands should consider localising creatives and messaging to align with the regional preferences for greater advertising impact,” Joyce said.

“Brands also have to realise that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to APAC, because of language and cultural differences,” she added.

As an example, Joyce shares how visual storytelling strategies would most likely resonate with audiences in Southeast Asia (SEA) and Australia, while those in Japan and South Korea would prefer direct messaging. 

“They will need to take a tailored approach which includes exploring and adopting technologies that can help them unify their marketing tactics and measurement efforts, including programmatic,” she said.

Drivers of innovation in APAC

Joyce also points out other ways in which APAC is leading innovative thinking for the rest of the world, for instance with the significant use of mobiles in the region.

“In APAC, especially in Southeast Asia, high mobile penetration and preference for mobile-first internet usage are the drivers of innovations behind mobile advertising technologies. Because of that, we are setting trends that influence mobile ad strategies globally,” she explained.

Joyce points to the popularisation of super apps as an example, citing the success of Grab and Gojek in SEA. Additionally, she comments on the proliferation of retail media networks.

“It’s part of our daily life. Consumers are more and more mobile in this region. Live commerce and retail media networks are part of our ecosystem now, we realise it’s one and the same,” she said.

In essence, the future of programmatic advertising lies in advertisers’ understanding and adaptability in markets that are increasingly becoming more bespoke, dynamic and customer-centric. 

“Using AI and machine learning is going to help advertisers in APAC uncover deeper insights into our very diverse cultural background, understand diverse consumer behaviours and therefore be able to generate and develop hyper-targeted campaigns that resonate across this very complex but wonderful region,” Joyce said.

While the highly nuanced cultures of APAC present challenges alongside opportunities, advertisers can gain an edge by harnessing technologies towards the right goal. Ultimately, most businesses aim to forge stronger connections with their audiences, and AI is one way to make the process easier as the media industry becomes more complex and diverse to navigate.

To view the full discussion, watch the video interview here:

Delivering personalised and impactful customer experiences at scale is a critical challenge for industry leaders. Consumers expect seamless, relevant interactions across multiple platforms, from social media and mobile apps to websites and in-person engagements. 

However, the complexities of cross-platform engagement require businesses to integrate advanced data analytics, AI-driven personalisation, and agile marketing strategies to ensure consistency and effectiveness. Companies that master this approach can deepen customer relationships, enhance brand loyalty, and drive long-term growth.

From leveraging real-time data insights to optimising omnichannel marketing efforts, businesses must adopt a holistic, customer-centric mindset to remain competitive. By understanding these complexities and implementing tailored engagement strategies, organisations can position themselves as market leaders in the era of digital personalisation.

These aforementioned objectives are what industry leaders from across Southeast Asia discussed in the recently concluded What’s NEXT in Marketing: Customer Engagement in 2025, which equipped marketers with transformative insights and strategies to meet evolving customer expectations.

How brands can engage with AI-powered customer engagement

Kicking off the webinar was a keynote presentation from Ranya Arora, senior strategic business consultant at Braze as she discussed the latest trends in customer engagement and how these strategies can help brands in their engagement strategies amidst a constantly changing online environment for consumers.

In the presentation, Ranya highlighted that proper customer engagement online is important, citing data from Deloitte which states that around 50% of Gen Z consumers are concerned that too much device usage is negatively affecting their physical and mental health. For Ranya, businesses should be wary when navigating this ongoing online fatigue from consumers.

“I think we all can agree that customer life cycle strategies are important in reducing that fatigue and the key benefits of doing that come into place because they allow you to have a better customer experience which helps you improve your marketing efficiency, as well as the core component of driving retention and profitability,” she explained.

To properly navigate the needs of customers online, brands must tackle these four particular challenges:

  • Marketers struggle with obstacles to both creativity and strategy in customer engagement
  • Many marketers still don’t have a clear view of their customers
  • Teams need more collaboration to close the customer engagement feedback loop
  • Most brands haven’t built a foundation for successful cross-channel marketing

“We believe that the fundamentals of growth will truly remain constant, which means if you acquire and activate your customers more efficiently and you engage and keep them around for longer, you will eventually make more money from the customer,” she added.

Ranya also added that the ‘secret sauce’ for consistent growth amongst businesses remains the same: consists of acquisition & activation, engagement, and monetisation. Moreover, she also stressed the importance of AI-powered strategies, stating that tools are designed to create (work smarter in crafting memorable customer experiences), personalise (tailor experiences, content, recommendations and journeys – all at scale), and optimise (automate experiences and maximise the potential of every touchpoint).

“AI-powered tools can recommend items that are most likely to resonate with every customer for different industry verticals–this could be products, games, songs, meals, and content among others. This links into orchestration and helps you serve up the right campaign or journey variant to the right person based on everything you know about them,” she further stated.

Integrating digital strategies across multiple platforms

Next up taking the spotlight is a fireside chat with Rajesh Grover, group vice president of AI, digital & omnichannel at Kanmo Group to discuss how their company enhances customer engagement by integrating digital strategies across multiple platforms for a seamless omnichannel experience. 

Moreover, the session–which was moderated by Fatima Baduria, regional journalist at MARKETECH APAC–also delved into how brands should leverage digital innovations to adapt to evolving customer expectations and maintain competitiveness in a dynamic market.

For Rajesh, regardless of the size of the business is knowing your customer–meaning who pays the business for products or services. Moreover, he also stressed the importance of making colleagues in the company understand why omnichannel is important for them–but also offering a piece of advice about using these technologies.

“There is no magic wand in terms of technology, which you can deploy in your companies or your business that will turn around your business if you don’t have a clear idea of what your customers need. And then it is all about mapping out your roadmap, not getting too ambitious, understanding and implementing it slowly, but fool-proof,” he explained.

In addition, he also highlighted how strategic implementation is also important, which means that brands should focus more on depth over breadth (i.e. better to execute a few things well rather than spreading too thin). Also, a strong feedback loop is essential where brands must think from the customer’s perspective to assess if their systems are truly working.

He also highlighted that many businesses mistakenly focus on adding multiple sales channels without properly integrating data and teams. For him, siloed data – different channels often operate independently without shared insights, leading to poor customer experience. Hence, personalisation should be a key strength in a brand’s customer engagement strategy.

“If you’re still relying on discounts to drive engagement, you’re missing the point of true personalisation. Personalisation isn’t just about using a customer’s name in an email. It’s about knowing what makes them feel valued,” he added.

On leveraging modern marketing technology to enhance customer engagement

Next up on the webinar was a panel discussion featuring industry leaders Dian Paskalis, country director of growth & regional vice president of online marketing at Cove Indonesia; Jogent Emmanuel Tan, marketing director at Domino’s Pizza Philippines; and Caroline Wee, vice president of brand and strategy at Loob Holding (Tealive) as they emphasise the importance of cross-platform engagement, discussing common challenges and effective strategies for seamless implementation across multiple channels. The session was moderated by Ranya Arora.

In the discussion, Karen emphasised the need for brands to be ‘real’ and authentic,’ ensuring that engagement is based on genuine customer needs rather than assumptions. Meanwhile, Jogent highlighted ‘personalisation’ as the key to capturing attention, as customers now expect tailored experiences rather than generic marketing. Lastly, Diyan focused on ‘connection,’ explaining that brands must shift from talking to customers to talking with them, fostering deeper relationships through meaningful interactions.

The discussion also highlighted how data and AI are transforming customer engagement by enabling personalisation at scale, but brands must use them wisely. Companies like Domino’s Pizza and Tealive leverage CRM tools and AI-driven insights to analyse customer behaviour, predict preferences, and tailor marketing strategies. 

It is worth noting, however, that scaling personalisation comes with challenges—over-reliance on data can lead to misleading assumptions, as what customers say they want often differs from what they actually buy. In order to avoid hyper-personalisation pitfalls, brands must balance automation with human intuition, ensuring that personalisation efforts remain practical, cost-effective, and genuinely beneficial to customers.

“Marketing today isn’t just about running ads—it’s about being where the customers are. People engage with brands across multiple platforms: social media, food delivery apps, e-commerce sites, and even offline stores. The key challenge? Making sure that branding, messaging, and promotions are consistent across all these touchpoints. That’s where data-driven marketing becomes so valuable,” Jogent said.

Carol also echoed these sentiments, stating, “A common mistake brands make is relying too much on first-party data without questioning it. We have to remember that what customers say and what they actually do are often two different things. Instead of making drastic changes based on survey results, we overlay multiple data points—transaction history, market trends, AI insights—to make better-informed decisions. The future of engagement isn’t just about collecting data—it’s about knowing which data actually matters.”

Speaking on the aspect of personalisation strategies for brands, Diyan offers up his advice, “There’s always a fine line between effective personalisation and over-complication. The effort needed to hyper-personalise can sometimes become too costly or too complex, and the return might not justify it. For example, in the rental market, people take anywhere from one week to six months to make a decision.”

He added, “If we invest too many resources into micromanaging their preferences in the first week, we might lose efficiency. Instead, we focus on prioritising the most impactful personalisation efforts—things that actually lead to higher conversions, rather than just making the experience more complicated for the sake of it.”

The webinar was attended by 187 attendees representing brands across Asia-Pacific such as 2GO Group, ALL IT Hypermarket Sdn Bhd., AboitizPower, Bayer, Burger King Malaysia, Carsome, Filinvest Land, Inc., Fitness First Singapore, Home Credit, Jollibee Foods Corporation, JustCo Global, Lamudi, Malaysia Aviation Group, Mastercard, Minor Hotels, National Heritage Board (NHB), Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCOM), Power Mac Center, PT. Nutrifood Indonesia, Reckitt, and Westpac, amongst others.

If you missed attending it, you can catch the on-demand access to the webinar, where brands explore strategies to boost customer engagement and loyalty. Register HERE for free.

In 2024, global losses from fraud exceeded $1 trillion USD as AI-powered scams, deepfakes, and data breaches escalated. But while security is critical, trust today extends far beyond protection. Consumers now expect reliability, convenience, and seamless experiences at every touchpoint. In an increasingly digital world, trust isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the ultimate differentiator.

One misstep—a misleading claim, a confusing checkout process, or unresponsive support—can erode trust instantly. And once it’s gone, it’s almost impossible to rebuild. Trust influences every purchase decision, yet it isn’t something brands can sell. It’s something they must prove through consistent, credible, and customer-first experiences.

Marketers play a pivotal role in earning and maintaining that trust—not through louder ads or flashier campaigns, but by creating intentional interactions that demonstrate value and authenticity. In industries where differentiation is tough, trust drives loyalty. Brands that prioritize trust won’t just attract customers—they’ll keep them.

To thrive in this “Trust Economy,” marketers must embrace three core principles:

  1. From Selling to Listening: Value Speaks Louder Than Volume

In crowded digital landscapes, attention is fleeting. Too many brands default to shouting louder—bigger ads, sharper slogans, endless content. But attention alone doesn’t create trust. Value does.

Consumers don’t want more noise; they want useful, reliable information that empowers them. Educational content, transparent messaging, and human storytelling are the tools that build long-term trust. The shift from selling to solving is key: marketers who guide rather than push will position their brands as trusted advisors, not just vendors.

To achieve this, content should be:

  • Informative: Provide educational resources that help customers make informed decisions.
  • Actionable: Share how-to guides, case studies, or success stories that offer real-world value.
  • Authentic: Reflect real customer experiences, not just marketing claims.

Whatever the format, the goal remains the same: deliver something useful. By proving expertise and sharing honest insights, marketers can foster deeper relationships and build credibility over time.

  1. Personalization That Respects, Not Overreaches

AI-powered marketing has unlocked unprecedented personalization, but it comes with a caveat: just because brands can use data doesn’t mean they should.

Consumers appreciate tailored experiences, but not at the expense of privacy or trust. Hyper-personalized recommendations and predictive marketing only work when they feel helpful, not invasive. The key is balance—using AI to enhance human connection, not replace it.

To build trust through personalization:

  • Use AI to anticipate needs, not manipulate behavior.
  • Be transparent about data collection and usage—trust grows when customers know what’s happening behind the scenes.
  • Empower customers to control their experience—personalization should feel like a service, not a sales tactic.

When done right, personalization fosters loyalty by showing consumers that brands truly understand and respect them.

  1. Building Community, Not Just Transactions

Trust doesn’t come from one-off campaigns—it’s built through consistent, meaningful engagement over time. In a digital world, consumers don’t just buy products; they buy into relationships, shared values, and a sense of belonging.

The rise of Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) models is proof of this shift. Traditionally, companies relied on intermediaries or third-party retailers to reach their audiences. With D2C, businesses can now bypass those layers, owning the customer experience end-to-end. This direct connection creates emotional bonds that drive long-term loyalty.

Yet trust doesn’t stop at individual relationships; it thrives within communities. Marketers must lean into active participation in broader industry conversations, fostering peer-to-peer trust and collaboration. To do this:

  • Engage in industry forums and events to showcase credibility and leadership.
  • Leverage user-generated content, reviews, and testimonials—consumers trust other consumers more than ads.
  • Create spaces for customers to connect, whether through online forums, live events, or social communities.

By investing in community-driven marketing, brands can position themselves as integral parts of their customers’ lives, not just vendors of products.

Trust: The True Currency of Brand Success

In an era of AI-driven fraud, digital misinformation, and rising consumer expectations, trust isn’t just a business imperative—it’s the foundation of sustainable growth.

Marketers have moved past the challenges of simply selling security. Now, their mission is to embed trust into every aspect of the customer journey. The brands that prioritize transparency, human connection, and consistent value creation won’t just capture consumer attention—they’ll earn the kind of loyalty that lasts.

By embracing this evolution, marketers can position themselves as architects of trust, building relationships with digitally savvy consumers in ways that go beyond traditional marketing. In the “Trust Economy,” trust isn’t just a differentiator—it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.

This thought leadership piece is written by Claire Weston, chief marketing officer of Coda.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT in Marketing 2025, a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for 2025 and beyond.

More than ever, brands seek performance solutions to drive efficiency and maximise outcomes on their ad spend. Fueled by the rise of digital platforms, automation tools, and sophisticated analytics, marketing performance has empowered businesses to optimise campaigns in real-time, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to tangible results. Higher quality media leads to higher return on ad spends for customers. 

The performance landscape is evolving rapidly, presenting businesses with opportunities and challenges. As competition intensifies, brand equity becomes a crucial differentiator, influencing consumer trust, loyalty, and long-term growth. Marketers are shifting their focus from short-term conversions to building stronger, recognisable brands that drive sustained engagement and customer lifetime value. 

In our latest What’s NEXT in Marketing interview, we sat down with Laura Quigley, senior vice president for Asia-Pacific at Integral Ad Science (IAS) to discuss how to navigate the changing landscape in marketing performance, the role of attention, and how marketers can strategically build brand equity through context-driven campaigns that foster consumer trust, enhance brand recognition, and drive long-term engagement while maintaining precise audience targeting. 

Future-proofing campaigns for impactful results

For Laura, driving performance equates to driving efficiency and outcomes, helping advertisers reduce media waste and safeguard brand equity in the evolving media landscape. Building and protecting brand equity, strategic brand positioning, and multi-channel strategies will drive brand performance in 2025, which has become essential.

“Brands are adopting more context-driven, personalised approaches while leveraging diverse channels like the open web, social platforms, connected TV (CTV), and digital video to engage consumers effectively, strengthening brand recall and fostering consumer trust”, she stated.

She also noted how marketers should be able to navigate these new changes, stating, “Marketers can future-proof campaigns by optimising placements, reallocating budgets based on attention outcomes, and ensuring brand-suitable environments. This ensures measurable, impactful results while enhancing ROI in a dynamic, consumer-first environment.”

In response to these new trends, IAS aims to help its clients protect and strengthen brand equity while driving performance by combining cutting-edge technology with actionable insights to safeguard brand reputation. 

“Through advanced tools like Context Control and Quality Impression™, IAS helps advertisers place their ads adjacent to brand-suitable and high-quality environments,” Laura added

How can thoughtful measurement improve campaign efficiency?

One of the things that Laura highlighted is that when ads are placed in contextually relevant environments, they not only protect brand equity but also drive stronger engagement and outcomes.

An instance of this in action is IAS’s partnership with Mastercard in Southeast Asia to support their global brand safety benchmark of 98% while reducing fail rates and invalid traffic in programmatic campaigns.

For context, Mastercard desired to receive real-time performance signals to help them efficiently optimise their campaigns before bids are placed on possible unsuitable environments. Moreover, the global financial brand needed a trusted global pre- and post-bid verification partner who could help execute an increased brand safety pass rate, reduce block rate/fail rates and reduce invalid traffic.

By implementing IAS’s pre- and post-bid solutions—including Contextual Avoidance and Fraud Detection—Mastercard achieved around 82% improvement in invalid traffic and 72% improvement in cost of quality impression.

For Laura, the partnership highlights how thoughtful measurement and optimisation can improve campaign efficiency while supporting broader brand goals.

“Marketers can benefit from setting clear safety and suitability guidelines, using pre-bid solutions to prioritise high-quality environments, and analysing campaign insights to refine their approaches. By embedding these practices, brands can drive performance while building long-term consumer trust,” she explained.

How to maintain brand equity while balancing results

Laura admits that looking ahead, driving performance will continue to operate in a complex and dynamic environment shaped by a fragmented media landscape and evolving consumer behaviours. 

For her, these shifts will likely present challenges in maintaining strong brand equity while delivering measurable results. To foster performance, Laura shares his three-pronged approach to how brands should navigate these challenges:

  • Attention and media quality metrics: Metrics that measure attention, engagement and media quality ensure that campaigns drive meaningful interactions and relationships between brands and consumers that strengthen brand equity.
  • Personalisation at scale: Effective personalisation goes beyond audience targeting and into contextual relevance. By aligning ads with the right content, brands can enhance engagement while maintaining efficiency. Contextual strategies ensure that messaging resonates at the right moments, strengthening consumer connections. 
  • Consistency across multi-channel strategies: As advertisers leverage various platforms, seamless integration and cohesive messaging are critical. This consistency strengthens brand identity and drives performance for long-term growth.

“Performance must shift to strategies that not only drive measurable results but also strengthen brand equity. Brands are increasingly leveraging contextual targeting, first-party data, and privacy-safe solutions to build trust with consumers and maintain compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA,” she said.

Laura also added, “Through transparent, granular reporting, IAS ensures brands have visibility into campaign performance and ad placement. IAS helps brands achieve measurable outcomes while fostering trust with consumers and advertisers.”

Flexibility and commitment to innovation

When asked about her advice for marketers to future-proof their brand equity and performance strategies, Laura mentioned that Marketers need to be agile and adaptable in their strategies. Moreover, prioritising trust and transparency through strategies like contextual targeting to engage audiences is fundamental. 

“Although third-party cookies continue to play a role, adopting new technologies and solutions is essential to ensure accurate optimisation and measurement. This is where attention-based measurements would provide deeper insight into engagement and allow marketers to optimise campaigns effectively,” she explained.

“By maintaining flexibility and committing to innovation, marketers can navigate these changes while building meaningful connections with their audience, ensuring long-term success in a privacy-first world,” she concluded.

***

The future of performance and brand equity lies in balancing data-driven precision and consumer engagement. Leveraging contextual targeting and privacy-compliant measurement tools will allow marketers to optimise performance while ensuring contextual and high-quality engagements. Ultimately, brands prioritising marketing effectiveness and data responsibility will drive sustainable growth and strengthen long-term brand equity in an increasingly privacy-centric digital landscape.

As the digital economy continues to expand in 2025, digitalisation remains a priority for MSMEs striving for long-term success. However, adopting digital solutions is not always straightforward. According to EY, two in five MSMEs find digital adoption daunting. At the same time, waning consumer loyalty and rising expectations are pushing businesses to rethink their marketing strategies and embrace digital tools to foster trust online.

How can MSMEs balance digitalisation with meeting customer needs without becoming overwhelmed? The key lies in understanding their customers’ unique shopping journeys and enhancing their experience incrementally with targeted digital solutions.

Making online shopping feel more human

While transactions are critical conversion points, what truly matters to consumers is the experience leading up to a purchase. Increasingly, consumers prefer shopping experiences that seamlessly fit into their lifestyles, helping them find the right products at the right time.

Take new homeowners, for example. Traditionally, they might visit a furniture store and rely on a sales associate to guide them from sofas and coffee tables to shelves and cabinets. Customers enjoy experiences like this as it reassures them that they are in good hands, and helps them trust that the associate understands and proactively addresses their needs.

Through technology, MSMEs can replicate this personalised shopping journey online. Today, e-commerce platforms like Shopee deploy AI-powered solutions such as tailored search results and smart product recommendations. These tools require minimal effort from small business owners but significantly enhance the customer experience, making online shopping feel more intuitive and personalised.

Earn trust by working with genuine, trustworthy advocates

As consumers become more savvy, driving purchases requires more than just trustworthy and personalised browsing experiences. A 2024 Kantar survey commissioned by Shopee found that Southeast Asian shoppers also rely heavily on recommendations from other consumers when making purchase decisions. In addition to user reviews, MSMEs can also explore other touchpoints and sources to tell their brand story and help consumers trust their brand.

One effective approach is partnering with affiliates—including established content partners and trusted key opinion leaders (KOLs)—to promote their brands and products. Traditionally, brands have to individually vet and negotiate with affiliates for such collaborations. Today, MSMEs can use simple solutions to find relevant KOLs and choose cost-effective partnerships, whether through fixed per-post payments or commission-based models tied to sales.

For instance, a local seller of professional-grade photography and filming equipment can collaborate with budding content creators on affiliate marketing campaigns. These affiliates, who may be everyday consumers rather than influencers, can then share product demos, reviews, and experiences through social media posts, short videos, or personal livestream sessions. This enables potential buyers to learn about products authentically from a third party while also allowing other users to contribute by sharing their own experiences, further reinforcing credibility and trust.

Convert trust to loyalty by delivering on your promises

Unlike brick-and-mortar retail, the e-commerce customer journey doesn’t end at checkout. When it comes to online shopping, a seamless fulfilment experience can also contribute greatly to fostering brand loyalty. Shopee’s 2024 survey highlights this, with shoppers ranking timely deliveries as a top priority. However, many MSMEs, especially those new to online selling, struggle with logistics and inventory management due to limited resources, fragmented supply chains, and unpredictable demand. These occasionally lead to stock shortages, delayed shipments, and dissatisfied customers.

To overcome these hurdles, MSMEs can leverage digital solutions to optimise inventory planning and logistics. By analysing past sales trends, AI-driven forecasting tools help businesses predict demand surges and maintain sufficient stock, reducing the risk of cancelled orders. Additionally, working with logistics partners that provide accurate delivery date estimation enables MSMEs to provide customers with greater transparency and confidence in their purchases. These technologies not only enhance fulfilment efficiency but also help small businesses build stronger customer relationships.

The rapid pace of change—driven by technology, economic shifts, and evolving consumer behaviour—means that simply having an online presence is no longer enough. To earn trust and long-term loyalty, MSMEs must provide a seamless and reliable shopping experience. While this may seem daunting, modern technology makes it easier than ever for small businesses to meet rising customer expectations, build credibility, and position themselves for sustained growth in 2025 and beyond.

This thought leadership is written by Huiyan Pan, Regional Marketing Lead, Shopee

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT in Marketing 2025, a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for 2025 and beyond.

The continued advancement of available technologies has added a hitch in the advertising industry, widely experienced by brands — the expanding number of channels needed to traverse in a single campaign. While technology undoubtedly greatly contributes to making campaigns easier, it also adds a degree of complexity in one aspect.

In MARKETECH APAC’s latest What’s NEXT in Marketing interview with StackAdapt’s Asia-Pacific vice president of sales, Liam McCarten shares how channel proliferation, whether deemed a minor issue or advantage, can be navigated with artificial technology (AI) to innovate campaign performance.

Means of attribution, measurement that empowers

There is a constant increase in marketing complexity as time passes, with customers gaining multi-channel journeys in their brand interactions across various touchpoints. As 2025 begins, attribution and measurement remain a priority.

More specifically, Liam suggests that multi-touch attribution models and incrementality and measurement solutions will continue to be at the forefront of innovation that will ensure a holistic view of the consumer journey, but with the added aspect of tracking offline conversions.

By prioritising solutions that address the current needs of marketers, Liam shares how this can empower brands beyond providing efficiency.

“One of the things that we focus on just at the product level is allowing our partners to make data-driven decisions with ease, so at the root of what we’ve built is a unified dashboard that allows our client to consolidate performance data across a number of channels,” Liam said.

“This provides clients with a comprehensive view of performance. It then allows them to make quick, informed, and real-time data decisions. This enables three core things: planning of advertising, execution of advertising, and analysis of their programmatic advertising campaigns,” he said.

Apart from using the company’s own data to deliver this, StackAdapt works with its partners for third-party data, enriching its analysis of audience behaviour and campaign performance.

“At StackAdapt, we’ve developed a number of in-house tools that measure across the funnel. Something that we’ve built is StackAdapt Football Attribution. This helps brands and agencies track offline impact, thus allowing them to understand how online ads drive offline outcomes, such as store visits,” Liam explained.

Revolutionising with AI

At the core of the evolving means of attribution and measurement is AI, which has ultimately revolutionised every aspect of executing campaigns. Liam shares how at StackAdapt, AI has innovated decision-making, targeting, and campaign performance.

“From a decision-making perspective, we focus on real-time bidding analysis, particularly around bid stream data to ensure that the right impressions are aligned to the right campaign goal, and ultimately, our partners get the most out of their ad budgets,” he said.

To improve targeting, Liam highlights how StackAdapt’s ‘Page Context AI’ tool personalises ad placements using audience browsing behaviour. According to him, targeting will remain hyper-personalised, enhancing its analysis and giving way to predictive analytics.

Additionally, Liam observes how advancements in AI make fraud prevention easier while eliminating other manual tasks.

“As we see advances in large language modules and AI agents, it’s going to revolutionise all the tedious aspects of media workflows, whether that be creating basic media plans, analyzing data sets quickly for initial observations, or creating efficiency and processes that will allow marketers to refocus their efforts in more high-value areas,” he said.

However, Liam goes beyond efficiency as the main benefit of leveraging technology. More specifically, he is concerned with the kind of AI innovation and the differentiation that can be observed in the competitive market.

“I think it’s really important to not be so focused on just efficiency, which is where the conversation is ultimately today, but on how it can deliver performance and growth and innovation,” Liam said.

Cross-channel strategies

With the advancement of AI comes the multiplication of channels needed to traverse the marketing industry.

“We’re at a point where we’ve never seen such a proliferation of channels in the digital marketing ecosystem. And I have a lot of empathy for brands and agency leaders with the volume of channels and platforms that they’re required to navigate,” Liam said.

In this regard, Liam emphasises how it is essential to build uniformity to simplify processes, which is among StackAdapt’s priorities. He shares how the platform provides a single view that, beyond simplifying workflow, delivers rich insight for cross-channel strategies.

“The reality is, if you look at the marketing ecosystem, channel proliferation is not going to slow down. It’s probably going to increase. Being able to manage that with a finite amount of resources is something that we really double down on and a lot of value that we bring our partners,” he said.

Through StackAdapt’s user-friendly platform, Liam says they seek to aggregate usable and actionable data, ensuring impactful performance for brands across channels, all while empowering their decision-making.

To view the full discussion, watch the video interview here:

Asia-Pacific is leading the global marketing technology adoption with spending expected to reach $20 billion in 2025, according to data from Statista. MarTech adoption in APAC promises seamless campaigns and data-driven strategies, yet marketers are struggling to keep up with shifting consumer expectations, delivering hyper-personalized seamless customer experiences. The underlying issue? Fragmentation.

Disjointed platforms make data integration both time-consuming and resource-intensive. According to MARTECH 2030, these hurdles often result in marketing campaigns operating in isolation, unable to deliver cohesive and seamless customer journeys and making it difficult to demonstrate ROI.

Take the retail sector, for instance – Lack of interoperability between platforms compels brands to invest in operational workarounds shifting the focus away from strategy. On the other hand customers receive inconsistent and conflicting messaging eroding brand loyalty.

The problem is not only technical—it’s strategic. Compounding the technical challenges is also a lack of expertise. This is evident given that recent data shows that nearly 70% of CMOs in APAC are not fully equipped to maximise martech investments.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities

The APAC marketing automation software market size alone is projected to grow from USD5.70b in 2025 to USD9.98b by 2030, according to Mordor Intelligence, which highlights the region’s accelerating digital transformation. While the martech challenges persist, it also opens doors for progressive brands to transform these obstacles into opportunities for growth and differentiation. 

By leveraging unified systems and emerging trends, here’s how some brands are staying ahead of the curve to deliver exceptional customer value. 

  • Harnessing Generative AI and Predictive Analytics – Predictive analytics and generative AI anticipate customer behaviour, create bespoke content addressing individual preferences, and activate campaigns seamlessly. For instance, DBS Bank (Singapore) leverages both solutions with its NAV Planner, offering hyper-personalised financial planning advice based on customer transaction behaviour and goals. This not only improves customer experience but also encourages loyalty and long-term value.
  • Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) for Omnichannel Excellence – The rise of e-commerce and omnichannel retailing has made unifying cross-channel data the holy grail for providing seamless and personalised experiences. CDPs can bridge this gap while also guaranteeing compliance with stringent data governance requirements. Lazada (Singapore) employs a CDP to unify customer data across platforms per Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). This enables them to innovate responsibly, achieving a balance between personalisation and privacy.
  • Platform-Agnostic Ecosystems for Flexibility – Brands most commonly fail at integration due to rigid, single-platform MarTech stacks. Platform-agnostic approaches enable businesses to fit, innovate, and customise operations to suit personal needs without sacrificing cost-effectiveness. Airbnb’s tech stack is a hybrid of different tools like Segment (CDP) and Tableau for analytics to create hyper-localised campaigns centred around the interests of the users. Having such a modular approach provides the teams with leverage to offer focused communications without sacrifices to innovation or scalability.
  • Outsourced Marketing Operations for Specialized Expertise – Addressing skill gaps and technology integration challenges can prove to be challenging for marketing teams. Outsourcing operations to specialist vendors ensures that campaigns are both competitive and successful. L’Oréal engages with global organisations like Accenture to improve consumer experience. Other local solution providers in the region offer martech and digital operations (CRM, analytics, and e-commerce integration), helping brands to focus on strategic priorities.
  • ROI-Driven Models for Focused Investments – With marketing budgets shrinking by 15% YoY and growing expectations of measurable results, CMOs are prioritising partnerships with martech providers offering proven, ROI-driven solutions over unproven solutions. Banks and financial services organisations, for example, are leveraging solutions that guarantee measurable outcomes, such as improving lead conversion rates or making campaigns more efficient. This aligns marketing spending with business goals.

Developments to watch:

  • Agentic AI: Unlike traditional AI, which primarily provides insights and recommendations for humans to decide, agentic AI automatically creates and implements marketing strategies via real-time data analysis, customer action prediction, and dynamic campaign optimisation. For instance, a streaming company will be able to anticipate trending genres in different markets, introducing localised campaigns to promote related content to stay ahead of the curve.
  • Hyper-Personalisation at Scale: AI-driven insights are enabling businesses to deliver hyper-personalised experiences. For example, a food delivery business can use AI to send push notifications with meal recommendations based on the user’s real-time location, order-history and time of day, resulting in a higher conversion rate.
  • Interoperability through Standardisation: By adopting standardised workflows and centralised data operations, businesses will not only improve data accuracy but dissolve silos and reduce redundancies. This will enable a seamless omnichannel consumer experience- like personalised emails will be in sync with social media ads and loyalty app promotions.

Best Practices for optimal Martech adoption:

To achieve martech’s complete potential, marketers must begin with fundamentals to start delivering consistent value, reducing inefficiencies and increasing ROI. The following tips will drive ROI-focused and AI-ready adoption to lower customer acquisition costs (CAC), improve customer retention rates (CRR), and foster stronger customer relationships. 

  • Prioritise building a strong data foundation for unified customer views and deliberate scaling strategies. 
  • Foster collaboration between marketing, IT and solutions providers to establish data governance standards and implement tools for consistent data validation.
  • Establish standardised protocols for data entry, storage, and transfer to ensure that all integrated systems can interpret and process data uniformly. 
  • Use middleware tools to bridge disparate systems and ensure seamless integration with minimal IT intervention. 
  • Ensure integration services and support teams are provided by vendors to tailor their platforms to your brand’s specific needs
  • Implement a monitoring system to track the health of integrations and troubleshoot potential issues before they escalate. 
  • Small-Medium Enterprises should consider affordable Low-Code/No-Code Platforms for integrations, workflows, and lead management with minimal technical expertise.

As Philip Kotler famously said, “Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value.” The future of marketing in APAC hinges on bold decisions and swift action. The time to bridge the fragmentation gap is now!

This thought leadership is written by Raushida Vasaiwala, Strategic Advisor for Martech & SaaS Sales

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT in Marketing 2025, a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for 2025 and beyond.