For decades, brand building in Southeast Asia was done through campaigns that not only spread awareness but also shaped culture and built trust across markets. Nike told us to “Just Do It.” Dove redefined what “Real Beauty” meant for women in the region. McDonald’s made “I’m Lovin’ It” feel local through language, music, and culture. By embedding themselves in everyday life, these brands earned trust and, with it, control over how their stories were told.
That era has faded, and this brand-led approach to culture is no longer sufficient. Consider what happens when a brand launches a well-produced regional campaign, earns solid press coverage, and still finds its narrative reframed within 24 hours by a Reddit thread in the Philippines or an inaccurate AI summary.
This is the reality for brands today. Our Digital 2026 report states that audiences navigate seven or eight social platforms a month and that up to 40% regularly use generative AI tools like ChatGPT. A single story can shift multiple times within a day.
Brands can no longer shape their narratives on their own. Instead, how a brand is understood is shaped by different voices: journalists, creators, online communities, algorithms, and generative engines all influence brand perception now. A single campaign, no matter how well-crafted, no longer guarantees brands control over their narrative perception.
To move forward, brands must navigate through this multi-voice landscape, as trust is shaped not only through what they say, but by how consistently they are represented everywhere else.
From KOLs to KOx: Rethinking Influence
This shift to a multi-voice landscape has direct implications for how brands think about influence and creators. It is no longer about activating a few key voices, but understanding how different voices come together to shape perception.
Key Opinion Leader (KOL) strategies were once the default brand-building playbook. Brands co-created with high-profile creators to elevate status while leveraging micro and nano-influencers for local relevance.
Today, numerous voices simultaneously shape brand perceptions in what we’ve observed as a KOx ecosystem, composed of four distinct groups that create and define meaning beyond a company’s own narrative. Their levels of authority and influence vary, but together they shape how audiences make sense of a brand.
Brands can no longer shape their narratives on their own. Instead, how a brand is understood is shaped by different voices.
Within a KOx ecosystem, voices like regulators or policymakers confer legitimacy; traditional KOLs act as topic thought leaders; amplifying voices like journalists and influencers increase narrative reach; while consumers act as brand advocates or validators.
Since consumer habits and digital environments are so varied across Southeast Asia, taking a KOx approach makes it easier for brands to break through fragmentation. Looking at just one example from our Digital 2026 report shows that WhatsApp is nearly ubiquitous in Malaysia (91.2% monthly users) and Indonesia (90.8%), but barely used in Vietnam (17.4%). A regional campaign needs more than local language adaptation. It needs to understand which voices and platforms shape perception in each market.
A KOx approach allows brands to identify the right voices of influence that would work best for them. The multi-channel plans that most brands are used to may distribute the same campaign across several platforms, but a KOx approach identifies and communicates according to the role that each voice plays, the audience it speaks to, and how it translates key messages.
It is no longer about activating a few key voices, but understanding how different voices come together to shape perception.
For instance, a recent Singapore Tourism Board initiative had artists co-create stories rooted in different cultural perspectives, alongside partners like the National Arts Council. The foundation is being set with companies and institutions already paying attention to the need for multiple voices and perspectives. From here, the next step is to engage the entire KOx ecosystem where regulators, creators, the public, and other voices can establish credibility, shape understanding, amplify reach, and strengthen brand belief.
Importantly, these voices do not operate in isolation. What a journalist reports, a creator interprets, a community debates, and an algorithm surfaces do not sit in isolation. They quickly converge into a shared understanding of the brand. An AI engine can reframe a strong campaign, and a creator can be questioned in a community. As these signals accumulate, they reinforce or contradict each other in ways that shape what people ultimately believe.
Marketing to Machines: A New Reality
Human-led influence is one part of the equation. Generative engines are fast becoming another set of powerful voices. Globally, over one billion people use AI every month, while Southeast Asian users spend up to 16 minutes per visit on tools like ChatGPT.
These tools compress the consumer journey, bringing together reviews, comparisons, recommendations, and even direct shopping links into a single response. In doing so, they pull from multiple sources and bring them into a contextualised narrative. This output often resembles expert advice rather than a list of search results, giving these answers greater influence over how audiences evaluate their options.
This shift is already influencing how customers shop. 74% of APAC consumers surveyed by Visa say they use AI to discover, track, or learn about products. AI has created a strong second option for traditional search, reshaping how people discover and evaluate brands.
The risk is significant and still underestimated. Imagine a brand that has refreshed its positioning, updated its messaging, and run a regional campaign. Yet older coverage, inconsistent press releases, and weak social sentiment still dominate the data that AI engines draw from. When a consumer asks ChatGPT to compare the brand against a competitor, the output reflects an outdated version of the brand, and the consumer takes it at face value. The brand did not author the narrative, but it owns the outcome.
Imagine a brand that has refreshed its positioning, updated its messaging, and run a regional campaign. Yet older coverage, inconsistent press releases, and weak social sentiment still dominate the data that AI engines draw from.
This is where the shift becomes important. What is said across journalists, creators, communities, and past content does not stay separate. At that moment, AI is no longer just a tool, but a stakeholder in how a brand is defined.
It’s why ‘marketing to AI’ is critical in 2026. Brands must ensure that their content ecosystem provides AI engines with accurate, consistent, and relevant data, structured in ways that can be easily understood, prioritised, and repeated.
Brand-Building in a Multi-Voice World
Brand building in Southeast Asia no longer follows a top-down model. Brands are no longer defined solely by what they say, but by how they are interpreted, reshaped, and repeated across multiple voices. Culture itself is no longer driven by brands alone, but formed through these interactions.
In a region where audience behaviour and trust vary widely, this requires actively monitoring what is being said across social platforms, news media, and AI environments, and responding with intent.
Ultimately, effective brand building will depend on understanding how these voices interact, which ones carry weight at different moments, and how they come together to shape both perception and culture.
Upali Dasgupta is the Senior Marketing Director for Meltwater, Asia Pacific and Japan
