INSIGHT
Distinctive Assets: How Brands Build Memory, Recognition, and Sales
# Distinctive Assets: How Brands Build Memory, Recognition, and Sales --- #The shelf does not reward subtlety Walk into any supermarket. You have 3 seconds before the shopper's hand moves. Three seconds to register, recognise, and remind them why they trust you. Most brands burn those seconds being tasteful. Tasteful does not sell. Recognisable sells. The cruel maths: a shopper walks past 30,000+ SKUs in an average store. Your pack gets a glance, not a study. If they can't pin you in half a second, you lost the sale to a competitor with a louder colour, a bolder shape, or a weirder mascot. This article is about the cheapest growth lever in marketing that almost nobody is pulling properly. Distinctive assets. The stuff that makes a brand findable, memorable, and ultimately, sellable. --- > **TL;DR** > Distinctive assets are the colours, shapes, sounds, characters, and signatures that make a brand instantly recognisable, even with the logo stripped off. Byron Sharp proved they drive growth more reliably than positioning. Most brands underbuild them, then over-protect them with rigid guidelines that kill versatility. The brands that win build a wide toolkit and let it flex across every touchpoint. --- ### Most brands are not forgotten because they are bad They are forgotten because they look like everyone else. In FMCG, the average shopper recalls roughly 3 brands per category unprompted. Three. Out of dozens. If you're not in that mental shortlist, your media budget is buying awareness that evaporates the moment they enter the store. The reason most brands miss the shortlist is not bad product. It's that they built a brand without distinctive assets. They have a logo, a font, a colour palette pulled from a 2019 Pinterest board, and a tagline nobody remembers. **That is not a brand. That is a stationery kit.** --- ### The idea that quietly rewired modern marketing In 2010, Professor Byron Sharp and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute released *How Brands Grow*. It did to marketing what Moneyball did to baseball. The core argument: brands grow by reaching more people, more often, with more recognisability, not by positioning themselves into a narrow tribe. Differentiation is mostly an illusion. **Distinctiveness is the real game.** His follow-up work with Jenni Romaniuk gave us the formal framework: Distinctive Brand Assets. The non-brand-name elements (colour, shape, character, sound, packaging cue) that trigger the brand in the consumer's mind faster than any tagline ever could. Most marketers nod and then ignore it. They keep chasing "purpose" and "story" while their pack still looks like everything else in the aisle. --- ### Distinctive assets are buying shortcuts The brain does not want to think at the shelf. It wants to recognise and move on. Distinctive assets are the brain's shortcut. Tiffany Blue tells you "luxury jewellery" before you read a word. The Toblerone shape tells you "premium chocolate from somewhere fancy." The McDonald's golden arches work at 100 metres in any language. These are not decoration. They are commerce. They reduce friction at the moment of purchase, which is the only moment that matters. If your brand requires a shopper to read to recognise it, you've already lost. **Reading is failure. Recognition is the sale.** --- ### Pringles, Coke & Heineken: 3 brands that don't need their logo to sell **Pringles.** The tube. Nobody else uses it. Cover the logo, blur the mascot, and a 6-year-old still tells you it's Pringles. The shape is the brand. The crisp shape inside the shape (stacked, identical, saddle-curved) is the brand inside the brand. **Coca-Cola.** Strip the logo. You still have: the contour bottle, Coke Red, the dynamic ribbon, the Spencerian script, the polar bear, the sonic mnemonic. Six assets, any one of which alone signals Coke. That is asset depth. **Heineken.** Green bottle. Red star. White-on-green wordmark. The "e" tilted at a smile. Across 190+ countries, the green-and-red combination does 80% of the work before a word of advertising lands. What these three have in common: none of them rely on the logo alone. **The logo is one asset in a portfolio. The portfolio is the brand.** --- ### 6 distinctive assets most worth owning Ranked by what actually moves units at shelf and screen. 1. **Colour.** The fastest mental shortcut. Cadbury Purple. Tiffany Blue. UPS Brown. Owning a colour at the category level is the single biggest equity move you can make. 2. **Pack shape / silhouette.** Coke contour, Toblerone prism, Absolut bottle. Shape is recognisable from 10 metres in a way no graphic ever is. 3. **Character / mascot.** Tony the Tiger, the Michelin Man, the Geico Gecko. Characters outperform faceless brands on recall by 30 to 40% in long-running studies. 4. **Typography / wordmark.** Coca-Cola's script, Disney's signature, FedEx's hidden arrow. When the letters themselves are the brand, you can't be copied. 5. **Sound / sonic logo.** The Intel chime, the Netflix "ta-dum", the McDonald's "ba da ba ba ba". Worth more than most logos and a fraction of the cost to build. 6. **Repeated visual device.** The Burberry check, the Nike swoosh placement, the Adidas three stripes. Patterns scale across every touchpoint without ever needing a logo. **If you own 2 of these, you're a brand. If you own 4+, you're an empire.** --- ### Does your brand have distinctive assets? A quick audit Five questions. Answer honestly. 1. If I strip your logo and tagline off your pack, can a shopper still name you in 2 seconds? 2. Do you own a colour at the category level, or are you sharing it with three competitors? 3. Does your brand have a sound? A character? A signature shape? A repeated device? 4. Could a junior designer recreate your brand using just the toolkit, without ever opening the guidelines doc? 5. Has your brand looked recognisably itself for at least 5 years? Score: 0–1 yes means you have a logo, not a brand. 2–3 means you have foundations. 4–5 means you have real equity and you should be defending it. **Most brands I audit score 1.** --- ### The killer mistake that hurts 90% of rebrands Refreshing for the sake of refreshing. Every 3 to 5 years, a new CMO arrives. They want a stamp. They commission a rebrand. The agency, sensing a fee, agrees the brand "needs to evolve." The colours shift, the wordmark gets a haircut, the mascot is "modernised." What just happened? You torched the recognition equity you spent millions building. Tropicana lost around $30M in sales in 2 months when they rebranded their packaging in 2009 and dropped the iconic orange-with-a-straw. They reverted. The damage was done. **Refresh the execution. Never abandon the asset.** Gap learned the same lesson in 2010 when their 6-day logo change ended in public reversal. The market does not want your evolution. It wants to find you. --- ### How to redesign for success — build a brand asset toolkit Pack is your most-used media channel. Start there. Every brand should be redesigned not as a logo plus a 60-page guidelines PDF, but as a toolkit of distinctive assets that travel together. Colour, shape, character, type, sound, device. Each one designed to work alone and in combination. Here's the real test of a toolkit: can your agency build 50 different executions across pack, OOH, digital, retail, sonic, and motion, where every single one feels unmistakably you, without ever repeating the same composition? If yes, you have a toolkit. If no, you have a logo and a hope. This is where most rebrands die. They deliver a beautiful keynote. Then the brand hits 12 freelancers, 4 production agencies, and 3 markets. Within 18 months, it looks like 18 different brands. **Toolkit thinking prevents that.** --- ### Distinctive assets compound — if applied correctly Most marketing spend depreciates. The TVC stops running, the influencer post slides off the feed, the campaign ends. Distinctive assets do the opposite. Every impression builds on the last. Year 1, the colour is noise. Year 5, the colour is the brand. Year 20, the colour is the category. **Tiffany Blue did not happen in a campaign. It happened in a century of consistency.** This is the part most CFOs do not understand and most CMOs cannot defend. Distinctive assets are an investment with compounding returns, not a line item to cut when the quarter looks shaky. The brands that win this game decide on their assets early, commit to them obsessively, and resist the urge to change them every time leadership turns over. That commitment is the moat. --- ### Don't forget: versatility beats consistency The classic brand guidelines doctrine: "be consistent." Use the logo this way. Spacing this much. Same composition every time. That doctrine made sense in 1995. In 2026, it is a recipe for invisibility. The modern shopper sees your brand on TikTok, a shelf, a billboard, a delivery box, a retail screen, and a podcast intro in the same hour. If every touchpoint looks identical, you are wallpaper. If every touchpoint mixes the same assets in different ways, you are everywhere. The new doctrine: **consistent signature, infinite variety.** Same colour, different layouts. Same character, different roles. Same sound, different remixes. The brands still applying 1995 hyper-consistency are losing share to brands that have learned to flex. Build the toolkit. Trust the toolkit. Let it dance. --- ### Closing Distinctive assets are not a creative exercise. They are a commercial decision. The brands that win the next decade will not be the ones with the cleverest taglines or the most lyrical purpose statements. They will be the ones a shopper recognises in half a second, on any screen, in any context, with or without their logo attached. Audit your assets. Build the toolkit. Defend it. Let it travel. What's the one asset your brand could own at the category level, that you are currently sharing with three competitors?
MAY 24, 2026
The Rise of Microbrands Small brands are no longer staying small For decades, scale was the moat.
The Rise of Microbrands Small brands are no longer staying small The giants won because they could manufacture cheaper, distribute wider, advertise louder, and survive longer than everyone else. If you wanted to launch a consumer brand in 1995, you needed factories, retail relationships, agency retainers, and enough capital to survive a brutal fight for shelf space. Most challengers died before the customer even saw them. Then the internet broke distribution. Now a 4-person team with a Shopify account, strong packaging, and one viral TikTok can outsell companies that spent twenty years building retail dominance. This is the rise of the microbrand. Small, highly focused brands built for niche audiences, digital-first discovery, and cultural relevance instead of mass-market scale. They are not trying to become the next Unilever on day one. They are trying to own a very specific corner of attention. And increasingly, they are winning. Not because they are bigger. Because they are faster. The old model was built for scarcity Historically, brand growth depended on access. Access to media. Access to shelves. Access to manufacturing. Access to distribution. Television advertising alone acted as a moat. Most small brands simply could not afford visibility. Shelf space worked the same way. Large retailers preferred large suppliers because reliability mattered more than experimentation. The result was predictable. Big brands became bigger because the system itself rewarded scale. But digital commerce changed the equation. You no longer need permission to exist. You can launch a brand tomorrow. You can manufacture in small batches. You can advertise directly through social platforms. You can build audiences before products. You can sell globally before entering a single physical store. The barriers collapsed. That does not mean building brands became easy. It means the game changed. Microbrands do not sell products. They sell identity. The biggest misunderstanding about microbrands is assuming they compete through price. They rarely do. Most microbrands win because they feel culturally sharper than legacy players. The customer is not buying soap. They are buying aesthetic. Not coffee. Identity. Not skincare. Belonging. Large corporations are built to optimise consistency. Microbrands are built to optimise emotional relevance. That difference matters. A global FMCG company needs mass appeal. A microbrand only needs intense appeal within a small audience. That intensity creates loyalty. And loyalty creates margins. This is why consumers will happily spend more on a niche matcha brand in minimalist packaging than a cheaper supermarket alternative sitting three feet away. The product matters. But the signal matters more. The internet rewards specificity Mass marketing was designed for broadcast media. The internet rewards narrowcasting. Algorithms do not care about broad demographic targeting anymore. They care about engagement. Which means highly specific brands suddenly have unfair advantages. A microbrand built around cycling culture, Korean skincare routines, sustainable pet food, mushroom coffee, or minimalist parenting can dominate its niche because the algorithm keeps feeding it directly to the exact people most likely to care. Large brands struggle here. Not because they lack resources. Because they lack sharpness. Corporate messaging tends to smooth itself into generic language designed to offend nobody. Microbrands do the opposite. They pick a tribe. Then they speak its language obsessively. That focus feels authentic because it usually is. Many microbrands are founded by people who genuinely belong to the culture they are selling into. That credibility is difficult for large organisations to imitate. Packaging became media One of the biggest reasons microbrands exploded is that packaging itself became content. Historically, packaging was designed mainly for shelf visibility. Today, packaging also lives on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube unboxings, and customer-generated content. Your customer is no longer just consuming the product. They are broadcasting it. This changed the economics of design. A beautiful package is no longer a cost. It is distribution. Brands like Glossier, Liquid Death, Graza, and countless niche DTC startups understood this early. Their products were designed to be photographed. The packaging became the advertisement. That is an enormous shift. It means small brands can now generate visibility organically through design systems that encourage sharing. The shelf still matters. But now the shelf is also social media. Speed is becoming more valuable than scale Large organisations optimise for risk reduction. Microbrands optimise for speed. That difference is becoming lethal. A traditional corporation might take twelve months to develop, approve, manufacture, and launch a new product. A microbrand can test five concepts in the same period. This matters because culture now moves faster than most corporate systems. Trends emerge overnight. Consumer language evolves weekly. Aesthetic movements appear and disappear within months. Speed is no longer operational advantage. It is strategic survival. The brands winning today are often the ones capable of reacting fastest to shifts in attention. Not the ones with the biggest annual budget. Microbrands understand modern trust Consumers increasingly distrust polished corporate messaging. Especially younger audiences. They grew up inside advertising saturation. They recognise performance branding instantly. Microbrands often feel more human because they are closer to the founder, closer to the customer, and closer to the community. People trust people more than institutions. That sounds obvious. Yet many large brands still communicate like legal departments wearing sneakers. Microbrands behave differently. They show behind-the-scenes content. They embrace imperfection. They respond directly to comments. They involve customers in development. They speak casually instead of corporately. The result feels less manufactured. Ironically, that perception itself becomes a competitive asset. Most large brands are structurally bad at internet culture The internet rewards participation. Large companies are built around control. Those two things collide constantly. Microbrands thrive because they can move inside culture naturally. They can make jokes quickly. They can experiment without committee approval. They can sound like actual humans. Meanwhile, legacy brands often produce content that feels reverse-engineered by compliance teams. Safe. Polished. Forgettable. The problem is not intelligence. It is structure. Large organisations are designed to protect existing equity. Microbrands are designed to gain attention. Different incentives create different behaviours. And in a digital environment driven by engagement, attention tends to outperform caution. Retail is changing because discovery changed Retail used to create discovery. Now discovery often happens before retail. Customers arrive already informed. They saw the product online. They watched reviews. They saw creators use it. They joined the hype cycle before stepping into a store. This reverses the traditional funnel. Retail no longer introduces the brand. Retail validates the brand. That shift benefits microbrands enormously because they can build demand digitally before negotiating physical distribution. Large retailers increasingly want digitally proven brands because the audience already exists. Shelf space is becoming downstream of attention. Not the other way around. Most microbrands will still fail This part gets ignored. The rise of microbrands does not mean every niche startup becomes a billion-dollar company. Most will disappear. Because branding alone is not enough. Product quality still matters. Operations matter. Supply chains matter. Margins matter. Retention matters. The internet lowered the barrier to entry. It also increased competition dramatically. Consumers now face endless options. That means many microbrands succeed at generating initial hype but fail to build durable memory. Attention without systems eventually collapses. This is where many founders confuse virality with brand building. They are not the same thing. Virality creates spikes. Brands create repeat behaviour. The companies that survive long term are the ones that convert cultural relevance into operational resilience. That transition is difficult. The future belongs to portfolio ecosystems Ironically, many large corporations are adapting by buying microbrands instead of competing directly. Why? Because microbrands are now functioning as cultural R&D departments. They move faster. They detect trends earlier. They connect with emerging consumer behaviours before corporations even notice the shift. Acquisition became the shortcut. Big companies increasingly operate like portfolio managers rather than singular master brands. This is likely the future. Not one giant brand dominating everything. But ecosystems of smaller, culturally specific brands operating under larger operational infrastructure. Consumers want specificity. Corporations want scale. Portfolio models deliver both. Distinctiveness matters even more for small brands One mistake many microbrands make is confusing aesthetic trends with brand assets. Minimalism alone is not a strategy. Neither is beige packaging. If your brand looks identical to every other startup in the category, you disappear. The same rules still apply. Distinctiveness matters. In fact, it matters even more when budgets are small. The strongest microbrands understand this instinctively. They build recognisable packaging. Recognisable tone. Recognisable community language. Recognisable visual systems. The goal is not merely to look premium. The goal is to become memorable. That difference separates real brands from temporary aesthetics. Closing The rise of microbrands is not a trend. It is the logical outcome of what happens when distribution fragments, algorithms reward specificity, and consumers begin valuing identity as much as utility. The giants are not disappearing. But the monopoly of scale is. The next decade will belong to brands capable of moving quickly, speaking culturally, and building emotional relevance within highly specific communities. Not every brand needs to be massive anymore. It just needs to matter deeply to the right people. And increasingly, that is enough.
MAY 24, 2026
How Gen Z and Gen Alpha Connect Differently with Brands
How Gen Z and Gen Alpha Connect Differently with Brands The next generation of consumers did not grow up in the same internet Marketers keep talking about Gen Z and Gen Alpha like they are the same audience. They are not. One grew up during the rise of social media. The other was born inside algorithmic reality. That difference changes everything. Gen Z remembers transition. Gen Alpha only knows immersion. Gen Z watched the internet become culture. Gen Alpha assumes culture is the internet. Brands treating them identically are already behind. Because the way these generations discover, trust, interact with, and emotionally connect to brands is fundamentally different. And the gap is widening faster than most marketers realise. _______________________________________ Gen Z grew up curating identity Gen Z came of age during the explosion of Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and early TikTok. The internet for them was social-first. Profiles mattered. Personal branding mattered. Aesthetic identity mattered. This generation learned to express themselves publicly online. That shaped how they connect with brands. For Gen Z, brands function as identity signals. What you wear, drink, use, stream, and post says something about who you are. This is why Gen Z gravitates toward brands with strong values, cultural positioning, and aesthetic coherence. They do not just buy products. They buy association. The brand becomes part of self-expression. This is also why authenticity became such an overused marketing buzzword. Because Gen Z developed highly sensitive radar for performance. They grew up watching influencer culture evolve in real time. They know when something feels manufactured. Or worse. Desperate. _______________________________________ Gen Alpha is growing up inside algorithmic entertainment Gen Alpha interacts with the internet differently. They are not browsing. They are being fed. TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Roblox, AI recommendations, personalised feeds, gaming ecosystems, and endless algorithmic content streams shaped their digital environment from birth. Their experience of media is less intentional and more immersive. This generation is growing up in a world where discovery is automatic. The algorithm decides what matters. That changes how brands compete. For Gen Alpha, visibility is not about being followed. It is about being surfaced. Which means brands increasingly need to behave like entertainment systems instead of advertising systems. This generation does not separate content, gaming, creators, memes, and commerce neatly. Everything blends together. The brand is not interrupting the experience. The brand is expected to be part of the experience. _______________________________________ Gen Z values alignment. Gen Alpha values engagement. This is one of the most important distinctions. Gen Z often connects with brands through values. Sustainability. Inclusivity. Ethics. Mental health. Social positioning. Whether fully genuine or partially performative, those signals matter because Gen Z sees consumption as an extension of identity. Gen Alpha behaves differently. They are less interested in ideological alignment and more interested in stimulation. Does it entertain me? Can I interact with it? Can I customise it? Can I remix it? Can I play with it? Gen Alpha expects participation. Static brands will struggle with them. _______________________________________ Attention spans did not collapse. Standards increased. One of the laziest narratives in marketing is claiming younger generations have no attention span. That is not true. They have no patience for boredom. There is a difference. Gen Z and Gen Alpha can both spend hours consuming content. But the content must earn attention immediately. These generations grew up inside infinite-scroll competition. Every piece of content fights against millions of alternatives. That environment trained them to filter aggressively. Brands therefore face a brutal reality. You are no longer competing against your category. You are competing against everything. Netflix. TikTok. Gaming. Creators. Memes. Group chats. The entire internet. Which means modern branding increasingly behaves like entertainment architecture. Not traditional advertising. _______________________________________ Gen Z still separates creators and brands Mostly. Gen Alpha often does not. Gen Z witnessed the rise of influencer culture from the beginning. They still distinguish between corporate messaging and creator-driven content. Gen Alpha is growing up in blended environments where creators, platforms, avatars, games, AI personalities, and brands coexist fluidly. To them, a Roblox activation, a virtual skin, a creator collaboration, and a product launch may all feel like part of the same ecosystem. This changes brand strategy dramatically. The old campaign model is weakening. Future brand systems will likely behave more like persistent digital worlds than isolated advertising bursts. Brands are becoming ongoing environments. Not just messages. _______________________________________ Community matters differently now Gen Z helped normalise online communities. Discord groups. Fandoms. Niche TikTok circles. Digital subcultures. Community became central to internet identity. But Gen Alpha is taking this even further. For them, digital interaction is not secondary socialisation. It is socialisation. Gaming spaces, creator ecosystems, virtual experiences, and online collaboration are integrated directly into everyday life. That means brands capable of facilitating interaction gain enormous emotional advantage. The future strongest brands may look less like companies and more like participation platforms. People increasingly want to belong around brands, not merely purchase from them. ________________________________________________________________________________ Aesthetic literacy is now universal Younger generations consume enormous volumes of visual content daily. As a result, their aesthetic expectations are significantly higher than previous generations. Bad branding stands out immediately. Cheap design signals low credibility. Generic content gets ignored instantly. This creates pressure on brands to operate with cultural and visual sharpness at all times. Especially online. Because every touchpoint now acts as branding. Packaging. Comments. Captions. Motion. Memes. UI design. Everything communicates. The brands winning younger audiences understand this intuitively. They build cohesive worlds instead of isolated advertisements. _______________________________________ The biggest mistake brands make with younger audiences Trying too hard. Nothing collapses credibility faster. Gen Z and Gen Alpha both grew up around highly mediated digital behaviour. They recognise forced relevance instantly. When brands chase slang awkwardly, mimic meme culture poorly, or insert themselves artificially into conversations, the reaction is usually brutal. The internet punishes desperation. The strongest brands therefore do something surprisingly simple. They understand their role. Not every brand needs to behave like a comedian. Not every brand should try to become culturally viral. The brands that win tend to understand where they naturally fit inside the consumer's world. Then they execute consistently. _______________________________________ Future brands will behave more like media companies This shift is already happening. The line between brand, entertainment, creator, platform, and community is dissolving. Future successful brands will likely need: • Content ecosystems • Creator partnerships • Community infrastructure • Interactive experiences • Personalisation systems • Digital environments • Ongoing narrative worlds In other words, branding itself is becoming more dynamic. Not static identity. Living systems. This evolution matters especially for Gen Alpha because they are growing up expecting interactivity by default. Passive consumption increasingly feels outdated. _______________________________________ Closing Gen Z and Gen Alpha are not simply younger consumers. They are products of entirely different digital environments. Gen Z connects with brands through identity, values, and cultural alignment. Gen Alpha connects through immersion, participation, and algorithmic engagement. One generation learned to express itself online. The next generation is growing up inside digital ecosystems where the boundary between entertainment, commerce, creators, and brands barely exists anymore. The companies that succeed over the next decade will not merely advertise to younger audiences. They will build environments people want to participate in. Because increasingly, the strongest brands are not being watched. They are being lived inside.
MAY 24, 2026
Building Brand in an AI Era AI is about to flood the world with average content
Building Brand in an AI Era AI is about to flood the world with average content This is the part most marketers still do not fully understand. AI is not just another productivity tool. It is a content multiplier. An enormous one. Over the next few years, brands will generate more ads, more visuals, more copy, more videos, more campaigns, and more automated communication than at any point in history. The cost of producing content is collapsing. Which sounds exciting. Until you realise what happens when everyone gains the same capability simultaneously. The internet fills with noise. Not because AI makes bad marketing. Because AI makes average marketing infinitely easier to produce. And when average becomes abundant, distinctiveness becomes priceless. _______________________________________ The scarcity has shifted Historically, production capacity created advantage. The companies capable of producing more content, buying more media, and operating larger creative teams usually dominated attention. AI changes that equation. Execution is becoming commoditised. The new scarcity is no longer production. It is taste. Judgement. Strategy. Distinctiveness. Creative direction. In other words, the tools are democratising. Which means brand itself matters more than ever. Because when everyone can generate content quickly, consumers need stronger signals to decide what deserves attention. _______________________________________ Most AI-generated marketing will look the same This is already happening. Scroll LinkedIn for five minutes. The same polished graphics. The same sterile copy. The same motivational tone. The same hyper-clean AI aesthetics. The same recycled structures. AI systems are trained on existing patterns. Which means average inputs tend to produce average outputs. That creates a dangerous future for brands relying purely on efficiency. Because optimisation without identity eventually leads to sameness. And sameness destroys memory. The brands that survive the AI era will not be the ones generating the most content. They will be the ones generating the most recognisable content. _______________________________________ Distinctive assets become survival systems In a saturated AI environment, distinctive assets stop being optional. They become navigation tools. Consumers will increasingly rely on recognisable colours, visual systems, tone of voice, sonic branding, mascots, typography, and recurring creative devices to filter overwhelming volumes of content. Recognition reduces cognitive load. That matters enormously when feeds become infinitely crowded. This is why the strongest future brands will likely behave less like campaign machines and more like highly consistent sensory systems. Every touchpoint reinforcing memory. Every asset strengthening recall. The brands with weak identity systems will disappear into the algorithmic blur. _______________________________________ AI increases the value of human taste Ironically, AI may elevate human creativity rather than replace it. Because the bottleneck shifts. Generating ideas becomes easy. Choosing the right ones becomes difficult. The future competitive advantage is not prompt writing. It is creative judgement. Knowing what feels culturally sharp. Knowing what feels emotionally resonant. Knowing what should not be generated. That last point matters. Restraint is becoming a premium skill. Just because brands can produce endless content does not mean they should. Volume without meaning accelerates irrelevance. _______________________________________ Brand consistency is evolving Traditional brand guidelines were built for slower media environments. Fixed layouts. Fixed logo rules. Fixed executions. AI changes the scale and speed of adaptation. Brands now need systems capable of producing enormous variation while still feeling unmistakably recognisable. That is a different challenge. The future belongs to flexible identity systems. Consistent signature. Infinite execution. The core assets stay stable. The outputs become dynamic. This is especially important because AI-generated media will increasingly personalise itself in real time. Consumers may see entirely different versions of the same brand depending on platform, context, behaviour, and preference. Without strong underlying identity systems, fragmentation becomes inevitable. _______________________________________ AI will not fix weak strategy Many companies secretly hope AI will compensate for mediocre branding. It will not. AI amplifies whatever system already exists. Strong brands become more scalable. Weak brands become more efficiently forgettable. If your positioning is unclear, AI scales confusion. If your visual identity lacks distinction, AI multiplies sameness. If your communication feels generic, AI produces generic faster. Technology does not solve strategic weakness. It exposes it. _______________________________________ Human connection still matters One interesting paradox of the AI era is that human signals may become more valuable precisely because synthetic content increases. Consumers will increasingly look for proof of humanity. Founder visibility. Behind-the-scenes content. Real voices. Community interaction. Imperfection. Not because people reject AI entirely. But because trust becomes more important when artificial production becomes widespread. This creates an unusual future where brands simultaneously become more technologically sophisticated and more emotionally human. The strongest companies will balance both. _______________________________________ The internet is entering synthetic media overload AI-generated video, AI-generated influencers, AI-generated images, AI-generated music, AI-generated voices, AI-generated articles. The volume will become overwhelming. This changes consumer psychology. People adapt to abundance by filtering harder. Attention becomes even more selective. Which means emotional clarity matters more. Brands must communicate faster. Sharper. More recognisably. The middle ground becomes dangerous. Forgettable brands will vanish quickest because there is simply too much competing material. _______________________________________ Creativity is shifting from production to orchestration This may be the biggest transformation of all. Historically, creative work involved manual execution. Designing. Writing. Editing. Animating. Producing. Increasingly, creative leadership will involve orchestration. Directing systems. Combining tools. Curating outputs. Building coherent brand worlds across enormous volumes of generated material. The role of the creative person does not disappear. It evolves. Much like photography did not kill art. And digital music did not eliminate musicians. The tools change. Taste remains. _______________________________________ The brands that win will feel unmistakably themselves This is the core lesson. In an environment where content becomes cheap, identity becomes expensive. The future strongest brands will likely share several traits: • Strong distinctive assets • Clear strategic positioning • Recognisable tone of voice • Flexible but coherent design systems • Human emotional signals • Cultural awareness • High creative judgement Not because AI replaces branding. Because AI intensifies the importance of branding. _______________________________________ Closing The AI era is not killing creativity. It is killing average. Brands can now generate more content than ever before. But consumers are also filtering more aggressively than ever before. That means future growth will not come from volume alone. It will come from recognisability. Clarity. Taste. Distinctiveness. The brands that thrive over the next decade will not simply use AI efficiently. They will use it while remaining unmistakably human. Because when every company can generate infinite communication, the rarest thing left is a brand people actually remember.
MAY 24, 2026SEE MORE
ANALYSIS
Unilever Exits Food
Unilever Exits Food The age of the FMCG super-conglomerate is ending For decades, the logic of giant consumer conglomerates was simple. Own everything. Soap. Ice cream. Shampoo. Tea. Mayonnaise. Detergent. Skincare. Frozen food. Toothpaste. Snacks. Scale was the strategy. The bigger the portfolio, the stronger the distribution leverage, manufacturing power, retail negotiation, and marketing efficiency. That model built empires. Now the model is cracking. When companies like Unilever begin pulling away from parts of food, it signals something much bigger than portfolio restructuring. It signals that modern consumer behaviour no longer rewards broadness the way it once did. The old FMCG machine was designed for mass-market predictability. Modern consumers behave more like fragmented microcultures. And food categories are increasingly becoming difficult terrain for legacy giants. _______________________________________ Food became culturally unstable Food used to be operationally simple. Large brands won through shelf dominance, pricing power, and habitual purchasing behaviour. Consumers bought what was available. Now food operates like culture. Health trends shift monthly. Ingredients become political. Consumers obsess over protein one year and gut health the next. TikTok can create overnight demand for categories that barely existed six months earlier. Speed became critical. Large corporations struggle with speed. Especially in food. The operational complexity alone slows adaptation. Reformulation cycles, supply chain coordination, retailer negotiations, and regulatory layers make fast movement difficult. Meanwhile, smaller challenger brands move aggressively. The result is predictable. Large FMCG companies increasingly dominate legacy volume while smaller brands dominate emerging relevance. That is a dangerous long-term position. _______________________________________ Margin pressure is changing the game Food is also becoming less attractive financially. Commodity volatility, supply chain disruption, inflation, and retailer pressure have squeezed margins heavily in many categories. Compare that to beauty. Or wellness. Or premium personal care. The economics are dramatically better. A premium skincare product can achieve margins many food brands can only dream about. Which means conglomerates are increasingly asking uncomfortable questions. Why stay heavily exposed to lower-growth, lower-margin, operationally difficult categories when capital performs better elsewhere? That logic drives restructuring. Not sentiment. _______________________________________ Younger consumers do not trust food giants the same way This part matters enormously. Trust dynamics changed. Younger consumers increasingly associate large food corporations with artificiality, overprocessing, health concerns, environmental damage, or outdated industrial systems. Whether fully fair or not is irrelevant. Perception shapes behaviour. Smaller food brands often appear cleaner, more transparent, more ethical, and more culturally aligned. That perception creates pricing power. Ironically, many challenger brands win before consumers even taste the product. The branding does the work first. Minimal packaging. Ingredient transparency. Founder stories. Lifestyle positioning. The emotional framing changed entirely. Food branding now behaves more like fashion branding than industrial packaged goods. Legacy corporations were not built for that environment. _______________________________________ Retail no longer controls discovery Historically, supermarkets controlled visibility. If you owned shelf space, you owned attention. Today discovery increasingly happens online. Consumers encounter products through creators, social feeds, health influencers, podcasts, niche communities, and recommendation algorithms before they ever enter a store. That changes competitive dynamics dramatically. Smaller food brands can now build demand digitally before negotiating retail distribution. Which weakens one of the greatest advantages large corporations historically possessed. Shelf dominance still matters. But it no longer guarantees cultural dominance. And increasingly, culture drives purchasing behaviour. _______________________________________ Large food portfolios became strategically messy Another issue is focus. Conglomerates built through decades of acquisitions often end up operating enormous portfolios with wildly different strategic realities. Ice cream behaves differently from plant-based nutrition. Condiments behave differently from wellness beverages. Consumer expectations evolve differently across each category. Growth patterns differ. Margins differ. Innovation cycles differ. At some point, the complexity becomes inefficient. This is why many global companies are simplifying. Fewer categories. Stronger concentration. More investment behind areas with higher future potential. The era of “own everything” is slowly being replaced by “own the most strategically valuable things.” _______________________________________ The wellness economy changed food forever Food used to compete mainly on taste, convenience, and price. Now it competes against wellness identity. Consumers increasingly evaluate products through the lens of: • Longevity • Mental health • Fitness • Gut health • Protein • Functional ingredients • Sustainability • Clean labels • Lifestyle alignment This transforms food from commodity into self-optimisation. That is a completely different emotional framework. The winners in this environment are often brands capable of feeling specialised. Scientific. Authentic. Focused. Large conglomerates often struggle to communicate those qualities credibly because consumers perceive them as too industrial. That perception gap matters. _______________________________________ The future belongs to fewer, stronger ecosystems Ironically, companies like Unilever exiting parts of food may actually strengthen them long term. Because the future likely belongs to tighter brand ecosystems with clearer strategic coherence. Not sprawling portfolios built primarily for scale. The strongest future consumer companies will likely focus heavily on: • Premiumisation • Wellness • Beauty • Personal care • Functional consumption • Lifestyle positioning • High-margin emotional categories Food increasingly behaves like a battlefield of fragmentation and rapid cultural volatility. That makes it difficult terrain for giant bureaucratic systems. _______________________________________ This is not the death of food giants Important distinction. Large food corporations are not disappearing. Scale still matters enormously. Supply chains still matter. Distribution still matters. Global manufacturing still matters. But scale alone no longer guarantees emotional relevance. And emotional relevance is increasingly where pricing power comes from. The companies that survive this transition will be the ones capable of combining operational scale with cultural agility. That is extremely difficult. Most organisations are built for one or the other. Not both. _______________________________________ Closing Unilever stepping away from parts of food is not just a portfolio decision. It is a signal. A signal that the old FMCG model built around massive category ownership is slowly evolving into something narrower, sharper, and more strategically selective. Food is no longer merely industrial consumption. It became identity. Lifestyle. Wellness. Culture. And in environments driven increasingly by speed, specificity, and emotional perception, giant legacy systems lose some of the advantages they once depended on. The future consumer economy will likely reward companies that are not simply large. But culturally adaptive. Because increasingly, relevance moves faster than scale.
MAY 25, 2026
The Decline of Alcohol
The Decline of Alcohol Alcohol is losing its cultural monopoly For most of modern history, alcohol occupied a privileged social position. Celebration meant alcohol. Networking meant alcohol. Dating meant alcohol. Luxury meant alcohol. Adulthood itself often meant alcohol. Entire industries, rituals, and social structures were built around it. Now something unusual is happening. Younger generations are drinking less. Not slightly less. Structurally less. And the implications stretch far beyond beverage sales. Because alcohol is not merely a product category. It is a cultural system. When consumption patterns shift, culture shifts with them. _______________________________________ Gen Z changed the social equation One of the clearest drivers behind alcohol decline is generational behaviour. Gen Z approaches alcohol differently from previous generations. Historically, drinking symbolised freedom, rebellion, social belonging, and adulthood. But younger consumers grew up inside permanently documented digital environments. Every mistake can become content. Every bad night can become searchable. That changes risk perception. Previous generations could disappear into the night. Gen Z grew up under surveillance culture. Social media made self-image permanent. Which means losing control publicly became far less attractive. Sobriety increasingly signals discipline, wellness, productivity, and self-awareness. That is a dramatic cultural reversal. _______________________________________ Wellness became status This may be the biggest transformation of all. For decades, excess signalled status. Luxury dining. Expensive whiskey. Champagne culture. Late nights. Now optimisation signals status. Fitness. Sleep quality. Mental clarity. Cold plunges. Protein intake. Longevity. Performance. The modern aspirational consumer increasingly treats the body less like something to indulge and more like something to manage strategically. Alcohol conflicts with that mindset. It damages sleep. Hurts recovery. Impacts mental performance. In wellness-oriented cultures, alcohol increasingly behaves like friction. Not aspiration. _______________________________________ Consumers still want the ritual Important nuance. People are not necessarily rejecting social ritual. They are rejecting intoxication. That distinction explains the explosive growth of: • Non-alcoholic spirits • Functional beverages • Adaptogenic drinks • Premium sparkling water • Sophisticated zero-proof cocktails • Wellness beverages Consumers still want social participation. They still want ceremony. They still want identity signalling. But increasingly without the physical cost. The opportunity therefore is not simply “less alcohol.” It is replacement ritual. The brands understanding this shift earliest are winning aggressively. _______________________________________ Alcohol branding stopped evolving culturally Many alcohol brands still communicate using outdated emotional frameworks. Nightlife. Partying. Escape. Masculinity. Excess. Traditional luxury. But culture moved. Especially online. Modern consumers increasingly value: • Authenticity • Wellness • Mental health • Balance • Productivity • Emotional intelligence • Self-control The emotional codes surrounding alcohol therefore feel increasingly disconnected from emerging identity systems. Especially among younger urban audiences. _______________________________________ The internet changed social behaviour Historically, drinking often functioned as social infrastructure. Bars. Clubs. Parties. Shared physical environments. But digital life transformed socialisation itself. Gaming. Discord. Streaming. Group chats. Creator ecosystems. Online communities. Many younger consumers now socialise extensively without physical nightlife environments. That reduces alcohol exposure naturally. The relationship between social connection and drinking weakens. That structural change matters enormously. _______________________________________ Economic pressure also matters Alcohol is expensive. Especially premium alcohol. In many cities, nightlife itself became economically difficult for younger consumers. High rent. Economic instability. Rising living costs. Expensive hospitality. The economics of frequent drinking no longer feel sustainable for many consumers. At the same time, younger audiences increasingly prioritise experiences differently. Travel. Fitness. Technology. Fashion. Self-development. Alcohol now competes against a broader range of lifestyle spending categories than it once did. And increasingly, it loses. _______________________________________ Sobriety lost its stigma Historically, refusing alcohol often required explanation. Now moderation increasingly feels socially acceptable. Or even aspirational. That is culturally significant. Movements like “sober curious” helped normalise reduced drinking without requiring full sobriety identity. Consumers no longer see alcohol choices as binary. They fluidly move between drinking and non-drinking occasions. This flexibility weakens habitual consumption patterns. Which historically drove enormous portions of industry revenue. _______________________________________ Premiumisation may save parts of the industry Ironically, while total consumption may decline, premiumisation may still strengthen profitability for some brands. Consumers increasingly drink less frequently but more selectively. That creates opportunities for: • Craft products • High-end spirits • Luxury positioning • Experiential hospitality • Collectible consumption The future alcohol market may therefore become smaller in volume but stronger in premium value. Mass consumption weakens. Occasion-based consumption strengthens. _______________________________________ The future of alcohol is identity repositioning The biggest challenge facing alcohol brands is not operational. It is emotional. They must redefine what alcohol means culturally. Because the old narratives are losing power. Future successful alcohol brands may need to position around: • Craftsmanship • Taste sophistication • Moderation • Ritual • Experience • Social connection • Wellness balance Not reckless excess. The industry is slowly moving from intoxication marketing toward lifestyle integration. That transition will define the next decade. _______________________________________ Closing Alcohol is not disappearing. But its cultural dominance is weakening. Younger generations are reshaping consumption through wellness culture, digital behaviour, economic pressure, and changing social identity systems. The future consumer increasingly values optimisation over excess. Control over escapism. Function over intoxication. And the brands that survive will not simply sell alcohol. They will sell modern social ritual. Because increasingly, consumers still want connection. They just no longer want the hangover.
MAY 25, 2026
Influencers x Brands
Influencers x Brands Influencers are no longer media channels This is where many companies still misunderstand the creator economy. Influencers are not merely advertising placements anymore. They are media brands. Cultural distributors. Trust systems. Entertainment ecosystems. In some cases, more powerful than traditional publishers. For years, brands approached influencers like rented attention. Pay for post. Track impressions. Measure engagement. Move on. That model still exists. But the creator economy evolved far beyond campaign mechanics. Today, creators increasingly shape purchasing behaviour, aesthetic trends, language, cultural relevance, and even product development itself. The relationship between influencers and brands is no longer tactical. It is structural. _______________________________________ Trust fragmented away from institutions Historically, large institutions controlled public influence. Television networks. Magazines. Celebrities. Publishers. Brands themselves. Social media fragmented that system. Consumers increasingly trust individuals more than corporations. Especially younger audiences. Creators feel human. Immediate. Relatable. Consistent. Audiences follow them daily. Sometimes for years. That repeated exposure creates intimacy. And intimacy creates persuasion. This is why creator recommendations often outperform polished corporate advertising dramatically. The message feels socially transferred rather than commercially delivered. That distinction matters. _______________________________________ Influence became infrastructure Many industries now rely heavily on creators for discovery. Beauty. Fashion. Food. Technology. Fitness. Travel. Gaming. Books. Even finance. Consumers increasingly encounter products through creator ecosystems before encountering traditional advertising. This reverses historical marketing flow. The creator often introduces the brand first. The brand validates later. Which means creators now operate as discovery infrastructure. Not merely amplification. _______________________________________ The strongest creators behave like brands Ironically, the best influencers increasingly resemble companies. Distinctive visual identity. Recognisable tone. Audience positioning. Community behaviour. Merchandise. Products. Recurring content systems. The strongest creators build emotional consistency over time. That consistency generates loyalty. Which eventually converts into economic power. Many creators are now launching: • Beverage brands • Skincare brands • Fashion labels • Supplements • Technology products • Education platforms Because audience ownership became more valuable than media buying. _______________________________________ Most brand collaborations still feel transactional This remains one of the biggest weaknesses in influencer marketing. Too many partnerships still feel obviously commercial. Forced scripts. Awkward integration. Overcontrolled messaging. Audiences recognise this instantly. The strongest creator-brand relationships feel native to the creator’s existing world. The product fits naturally. The communication style remains authentic. The creator retains creative control. That flexibility matters enormously because creators understand their audience dynamics better than most brand managers do. _______________________________________ Attention is shifting from polished to personal Traditional advertising optimised polish. Creators optimise connection. That is why low-production creator content often outperforms expensive campaigns. Consumers increasingly prioritise: • Relatability • Personality • Realness • Entertainment • Emotional immediacy Over corporate perfection. This does not mean quality disappeared. It means emotional realism became more persuasive than visual polish alone. Brands still operating entirely through traditional advertising language increasingly feel distant online. _______________________________________ The algorithm changed influence economics Historically, celebrities required mass visibility. Today algorithms can create micro-celebrities at enormous scale. Niche influence became commercially viable. A creator with 50,000 highly engaged followers may now outperform a celebrity with millions of passive followers. Why? Because specificity creates trust. And trust drives conversion. This fundamentally changes how brands should think about partnerships. Mass reach alone is becoming less important than audience relevance. _______________________________________ Influencers are becoming product collaborators The relationship is evolving again. Brands increasingly involve creators earlier in development. Not just promotion. Because creators understand audience psychology in real time. They receive immediate behavioural feedback daily. Comments. Questions. Engagement patterns. Trend signals. This makes creators surprisingly valuable as cultural intelligence systems. Many companies still underestimate this. They treat creators as distribution. When increasingly they should also be treated as insight infrastructure. _______________________________________ The future belongs to ecosystem partnerships One-off sponsorships are weakening. Long-term ecosystem relationships are strengthening. The strongest future partnerships will likely involve: • Product co-creation • Community integration • Shared storytelling • Ongoing collaboration • Audience participation • Event experiences • Platform ecosystems Why? Because audiences increasingly prefer continuity. Not isolated campaigns. Brands behaving like temporary guests inside creator worlds feel forgettable. Brands contributing consistently to those worlds feel culturally embedded. That difference matters. _______________________________________ Creators are replacing parts of traditional advertising Not completely. But meaningfully. Large campaign production still matters. Brand building still matters. Mass media still matters. But creators increasingly dominate: • Discovery • Recommendation • Cultural relevance • Product education • Community behaviour • Trend acceleration Which means modern marketing systems increasingly require hybrid structures. Traditional brand strategy combined with creator-native execution. The companies understanding this balance earliest will likely dominate attention. _______________________________________ Closing The creator economy is no longer a side channel. It became one of the central operating systems of modern consumer culture. Influencers now shape discovery, trust, purchasing behaviour, aesthetics, and identity at global scale. The brands that succeed in this environment will not treat creators like rented billboards. They will treat them like cultural partners. Because increasingly, influence itself became infrastructure. And the future of branding belongs to the companies capable of participating naturally inside the communities where attention already lives.
MAY 25, 2026
Asia Brand Conference 2027
Asia Brand Conference 2027 Asia is no longer following global branding trends It is increasingly creating them. For years, global branding conversations were dominated by Europe and the United States. Western agencies defined the frameworks. Western case studies shaped the industry. Western consumer behaviour drove strategy models. That era is shifting. Asia is becoming one of the most important brand laboratories in the world. Not simply because of population size. But because of behavioural speed. Digital adoption. Platform innovation. Commerce integration. Mobile ecosystems. Creator economies. Social behaviour. Consumer intensity. The future of branding may increasingly be previewed in Asia first. Then exported globally later. _______________________________________ Asia operates at internet speed Many Asian markets evolved digitally under different conditions from Western economies. In several regions, mobile technology leapfrogged traditional infrastructure entirely. Consumers adapted quickly. Which created unusually advanced digital behaviour. Social commerce. Livestream shopping. Super apps. Integrated payment ecosystems. Creator-driven retail. Gamified commerce. These behaviours became normal in parts of Asia years before Western markets fully understood them. This matters enormously because branding increasingly behaves like platform interaction rather than traditional advertising. And Asia already operates comfortably inside that environment. _______________________________________ The future consumer is hybrid One of Asia’s greatest strategic advantages is behavioural hybridity. Consumers move fluidly between: • Physical and digital commerce • Luxury and street culture • Global and local identity • Tradition and futurism • Community and individualism This creates unusually dynamic consumer environments. Brands therefore need to operate with far greater cultural flexibility. Rigid Western-style brand systems often struggle in these conditions. Asian markets reward adaptability. Speed. Local nuance. Emotional intelligence. _______________________________________ Asian consumers are highly platform-native This is another critical difference. In many Asian markets, consumers are deeply integrated into platform ecosystems daily. Shopping, messaging, entertainment, payments, creator interaction, delivery, gaming, and community behaviour often happen inside interconnected digital systems. This changes how brands function. Branding becomes less about isolated campaigns and more about ongoing ecosystem participation. The brand is not merely communicating. It is continuously interacting. That interaction-heavy environment creates important lessons for the future global economy. _______________________________________ Creator culture is accelerating faster in Asia Asian creator ecosystems are evolving rapidly. Particularly across: • Beauty • Fashion • Gaming • Food • Technology • Lifestyle commerce Creators increasingly function as retail infrastructure, community leaders, and cultural translators simultaneously. This deeply influences purchasing behaviour. The distinction between influencer, entrepreneur, entertainer, and retailer continues collapsing. Asia is not merely participating in this shift. It is accelerating it. _______________________________________ Asian branding is becoming visually bolder Historically, much global premium branding followed minimalist Western design language. Clean. Muted. Restrained. Many emerging Asian brands behave differently. More expressive. More energetic. More digitally native. More comfortable with intensity. This reflects broader internet culture shifts. Modern consumers increasingly encounter brands through screens first. Which rewards visual impact. Motion. Colour. Distinctiveness. Asia’s digital ecosystems adapted aggressively to those realities. _______________________________________ The luxury market is shifting east Luxury itself is increasingly shaped by Asian consumer behaviour. Travel. Fashion. Beauty. Hospitality. Premium experiences. The influence of Asian purchasing power continues growing globally. Which means understanding Asian cultural dynamics is no longer optional for international brands. It is strategic necessity. Brands that fail to understand this shift risk building for outdated consumer assumptions. _______________________________________ Asia is becoming a strategic branding hub The future importance of conferences like Asia Brand Conference 2027 is not symbolic. It is structural. Because the branding industry increasingly needs: • Cross-market intelligence • Platform-native thinking • Creator economy understanding • Cultural agility • Digital ecosystem strategy • AI integration frameworks • Consumer behaviour forecasting Asia sits directly at the intersection of many of these transformations. Which makes the region strategically important not merely as a market. But as a predictive environment. _______________________________________ The next era of branding will be multi-polar The future brand economy will not be dominated by one cultural centre. It will become increasingly multi-polar. Ideas will emerge simultaneously from: • Seoul • Bangkok • Singapore • Shanghai • Tokyo • Jakarta • Mumbai • Dubai • Los Angeles • London This decentralisation changes the entire industry. Global branding increasingly means understanding multiple behavioural systems simultaneously. The companies capable of navigating those complexities will dominate. _______________________________________ The future belongs to adaptive brands The biggest lesson emerging from Asia may be this: Modern brands cannot remain static. Consumers move too quickly. Platforms evolve too rapidly. Culture shifts too aggressively. The future strongest brands will likely behave like adaptive systems. Flexible. Interactive. Community-driven. Platform-native. Culturally responsive. That evolution is already visible across many Asian markets. _______________________________________ Closing Asia is no longer simply adopting global branding frameworks. It is increasingly shaping the future direction of the industry itself. The region’s speed of digital behaviour, platform integration, creator ecosystems, and cultural hybridity make it one of the most important strategic environments in the modern consumer economy. The future of branding will likely be faster, more interactive, more community-driven, and more digitally immersive than the industry historically expected. And increasingly, many of those future behaviours are appearing in Asia first. The brands paying attention now will have advantage later. Because the future global consumer may already exist somewhere inside Asia’s digital ecosystems today.
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