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Not long ago, misinformation was something PR teams cleaned up after. Today, it’s something brands must defend against in real time. Across Asia, we’re seeing a structural shift: false narratives are no longer fringe noise. They arrive as CEO statements that never happened, product recalls that were never issued, or political positions a brand never took. Powered by generative AI, these stories now look, sound, and circulate like truth; especially in private channels where verification comes last. For communications leaders, the question is no longer if a deepfake hits your brand. It’s whether your organisation is built to protect reality before fiction becomes belief. When Technology Starts Writing Your Reputation The real danger of deepfakes isn’t technical sophistication. It’s emotional credibility. In Asia’s messaging-app culture, people trust what arrives from friends, family, and community groups faster than what appears in formal media. A manipulated voice note from a “CEO”, a ...

What if the most powerful asset in your PR strategy isn’t what your brand says, but what others say about you? In 2026, earned media isn’t making a comeback. It’s being re-priced. Across Asia, we’re seeing a shift in how people discover, evaluate and decide on brands. As AI reshapes search and recommendation, audiences are no longer persuaded by polish alone. They’re persuaded by proof; what journalists, analysts, creators, customers and independent voices say about a company, not what the company says about itself. Search is no longer a list of links. Platforms like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity behave more like answer engines. They don’t just rank pages. They synthesise authority. Imperfectly, sometimes unpredictably, but consistently enough to favour brands that appear credible across the web, referenced by others and grounded in real-world validation. That quietly changes the role of PR. For brands across Asia, earned media is no longer just about awareness. It now influe...

Trust isn’t built by what brands say. It’s built by what people experience. Across Asia, consumers interact with brands in multiple ways: news coverage, social media, websites, WhatsApp messages, and customer support. Yet many organisations still operate in silos, with PR, marketing, and customer experience functioning independently. Here’s the challenge: if your press release sounds inspiring but your support replies feel robotic, people notice. If your ad promises one thing and service delivers another, trust quietly erodes…… often before you even realise it. By 2026, silos won’t just slow teams. They can limit credibility and loyalty. But the path to integration isn’t straightforward. Differences in team priorities, tools, budgets, and culture mean seamless collaboration is aspirational, and achieving it requires more than wishful thinking. Why Convergence Matters Consumers Experience Brands as a Whole Audiences don’t separate PR, marketing, or customer service. They experience your...

This article is a deliberate counterpoint to our earlier piece, “Phygital Experiences: How PR Bridges Physical and Digital in 2026.” Together, they reflect a reality most communications leaders face today: phygital is powerful, but only when strategy leads and experience follows. Phygital has become one of the most overused words in communications. Too often, it is treated as a shortcut to relevance rather than the outcome of clear strategy. The uncomfortable truth is this: most phygital campaigns fail. Not because the technology is immature, but because the thinking behind them is. AR filters do not fix weak narratives. Hybrid events do not rescue unclear positioning. Virtual experiences do not compensate for brands that lack meaning or momentum. In many cases, phygital simply amplifies confusion faster and at greater cost. There is also a fatigue that few are willing to admit. Audiences are selective. Not every interaction deserves immersion. Not every campaign warrants participatio...

What if your next PR campaign didn’t just tell a story, but expected people to step inside it? By 2026, the line between physical and digital is no longer blurred. It is functionally irrelevant. Audiences do not experience channels. They experience continuity or they disengage. This is where phygital stops being an innovation play and becomes operational reality. For PR teams in Asia, this shift is uncomfortable because it exposes an old truth. Most communications strategies were never designed to be experienced. They were designed to be distributed. That model is breaking. This piece looks at what phygital really means for PR in 2026, why it matters now, and how to use it without confusing technology with progress. Why Phygital Matters Now Immersion is no longer a differentiator Audiences in Asia have moved faster than most brand strategies. They are already comfortable with: AR-enhanced discovery Hybrid participation without friction Experience-led value, not message-led persuasion T...

What if the conversations shaping your brand never appear on your dashboard? In 2026, the most influential discussions about brands are no longer happening on public platforms. They are unfolding quietly inside WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels, Discord servers, and closed communities you cannot see, scrape, or track in real time. This is dark social. And in Asia, it is not a fringe behaviour. It is the default. For PR leaders, this changes the job fundamentally. Visibility is no longer the main challenge. Relevance is. If your strategy is optimised only for public platforms, you are managing optics, not reality. Many organisations still confuse activity with influence. Why Dark Social Now Dark social has existed for years. What’s changed is its weight. More than 70 percent of online sharing now happens through private channels. Across Asia, platforms like WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat, and Telegram dominate daily communication. Gen Z and Millennials, in particular, prefer private spaces for...

Brand discovery is changing, whether most organisations are ready for it or not. As large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity become default starting points for questions, visibility is no longer about who ranks highest on a search results page. It’s about who shows up inside an answer. Adweek* recently described LLMs as the new information gatekeepers, synthesising content rather than pointing users to links. What matters to these systems isn’t volume or optimisation tricks. It’s whether information looks trustworthy enough to repeat. That distinction is subtle, but it changes everything. Globally, Reddit has emerged as one of the most-cited sources across major AI platforms. Not because it is polished, but because it is messy, opinionated, and visibly human. The conversations there follow real questions, real disagreements, and real consensus-building. That’s how models learn what “helpful” looks like. But Southeast Asia doesn’t have a Reddit equivalent. And that’s ...

The Board-Level Reality Crises in Asia-Pacific can escalate rapidly, but outcomes depend on a mix of market dynamics, regulatory frameworks, cultural norms, and public expectations. AI is increasingly embedded in crisis response, offering speed and insights, but its effects are neither uniform nor guaranteed. For instance, a product recall in Thailand may escalate differently than a regulatory alert in Singapore due to local media dynamics and social norms. Boards should recognise that AI can accelerate response, but its reliability varies by context. Governance, human judgement, and situational awareness remain critical. Bottom line: AI can inform action. Boards ensure that speed does not compromise trust, compliance, or enterprise value. What AI Can Do (with Caveats) AI can strengthen crisis management in several ways, but its usefulness is context-dependent: Early detection: Identifies potential flashpoints and sentiment shifts. Effectiveness depends on data coverage and linguisti...

Purpose is not a statement. It is a sequence. Ignore that sequence and purpose collapses under scrutiny. In Southeast Asia’s hyper-connected markets, brands are no longer judged by what they say but by how structurally believable their communication is. Campaign-led purpose creates visibility. Trust is another matter. This article introduces Orchan Next --  a decision system shaped by regional advisory work -- designed to help leaders move from performative signalling to purposeful communication without triggering reputational backlash. Why Purpose Breaks Down Most purpose failures are not driven by bad intent. They stem from structural misalignment, and communication absorbs the damage first. Leadership wants to say the right thing. Teams want to move fast. Markets reward visibility. Culture rewards restraint. Operations lag behind, and communication bridges the gap, which can fracture especially in organisations where operational capacity or decision-making speed is constrained....

Southeast Asia is a region full of contrasts. Cultures, religions, economies, and political viewpoints exist side by side. In this environment, global events often ripple through local markets in unpredictable ways. The recent consumer boycotts of Western fast‑food brands in Malaysia and Indonesia, driven by solidarity with Palestine, show how geopolitical sentiment can affect everyday brand choices. But the reality is rarely black and white. What began as social‑media calls in late 2023 led to real outcomes: some outlet closures, revenue pressure on brands like McDonald’s, KFC, and Starbucks, and faster growth for local alternatives. Yet geopolitics is only part of the story. Emotion, identity, economics, pricing, and post‑pandemic habits all play a role. A Human Story Within Larger Forces Take Lailatul Sarahjana Mohd Ismail*, a Malaysian mother who started frying chicken at home when her children craved fast food but familiar brands felt off-limits. That simple choice grew into Ahmad...

Performative versus purposeful has become the dominant way we talk about brand communication in Southeast Asia. It is a useful provocation, but it only tells part of the story. Many communication failures don’t come from bad intent or cynical leadership. They emerge from misaligned systems, structural constraints, or uneven change. Brands can sound fake not because they are lying, but because their organisations aren’t set up to speak clearly. This isn’t a defence of performative PR. It’s a clear-eyed look at why it happens, when it can still serve a function, and why moralising oversimplifies the challenge. If you missed our first article in this series, Performative or Purposeful? Decoding Brand Communication in Southeast Asia , you can read it here: https://orchanpr.blogspot.com/2025/09/performative-or-purposeful-decoding.html The False Binary The performative–purposeful debate travels fast on LinkedIn. It signals values and sparks conversation. But in practice, it flattens reality....