Orchan Consulting | Asia Sdn Bhd

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 ...

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....

  The New Frontier of Marketing Complexity By 2026, AI won’t just support marketing -- it will shape it. From content engines and bid optimisers to virtual service agents, specialised AI tools now automate every imaginable task. But here’s the problem: without coordination, this expanding ecosystem can spiral into noise. We’re seeing it now -- brands running multiple AI pilots in parallel, each showing short-term gains but collectively creating fragmented experiences that confuse customers and stretch teams thin. Disconnected bots chasing their own KPIs often create disjointed messaging that erodes brand coherence. The next competitive edge lies in orchestration i.e.,  building a system where every AI agent plays in tune with the brand, the business, and the customer. The Core Challenge: Too Many Agents, Not Enough Alignment Today’s marketing stacks resemble crowded control rooms. Each AI agent optimising for clicks, reach, or sentiment, but rarely speaking the same lan...

Artificial intelligence has been called the future of communications. But in Asia-Pacific, the future comes with fine print. While brands are racing to embed AI into PR and marketing, the real risk isn’t the tech itself -- it’s the rules around it . Ignore Asia’s evolving privacy laws and ethical expectations, and your next PR win could quickly turn into your next PR mess. This isn’t theory. It’s happening now. And for brands operating across multiple APAC markets, the patchwork of regulations and cultural expectations can make the difference between building trust and burning it. The Patchwork Problem: Why One-Size-Fits-All Doesn’t Work Unlike Europe’s GDPR, APAC is far from harmonised. Singapore has the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) with strict consent requirements. Thailand’s PDPA only recently came into force, leaving brands scrambling. Malaysia is in the middle of overhauling its law, while China has the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), which is  arguabl...

In tech, product-market fit (PMF) has always been the holy grail. For SaaS, hitting PMF often feels like crossing the finish line. You’ve nailed retention, customers are sticky, and growth follows. AI? Not so simple. Here, PMF isn’t a milestone. It’s a treadmill that only speeds up. Models evolve weekly, expectations shift daily, and hype fades fast if products don’t deliver trust and real-world value. This matters even more in Southeast Asia’s AI market , which is second only to North America in generative AI adoption. Indonesia and Vietnam are leading the charge, with 42% of ecommerce sellers already using AI. Governments are rolling out AI strategies, and by 2027, AI could pump $120 billion into regional GDP. Big numbers. But here’s the catch: without sustained value, AI ventures burn out fast. SaaS Product-Market Fit vs. AI Product-Market Fit SaaS has always had a playbook: build an MVP, launch, iterate, and once you’ve got PMF, you’re pretty much set. Retention is the golden ...

Imagine this: your next PR campaign doesn’t just report results but  predicts them. At Orchan , we’ve spent years shaping reputations across Asia-Pacific ’s messy, beautiful, contradictory markets. The missing piece? Proof of PR’s impact that actually matters to CEOs and business leaders, and not just clippings and vanity metrics. From Vanity Metrics to Predictive PR Traditional PR still leans on after-the-fact indicators like media clippings and survey feedback. Nice to have, but they don’t tell you if a campaign will shift sales, build loyalty, or head off a brewing crisis. That’s where the new wave of tools is changing the game. Platforms like PR Newswire’s Amplify and Meltwater’s AI-driven analytics aren’t just about press release distribution or monitoring anymore; they’re nudging PR into predictive territory. Amplify talks about turning a single release into a campaign with built-in optimisation. Meltwater has been doubling down on social listening and predictive model...