Orchan Consulting | Asia Sdn Bhd

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...

For years, the influencer playbook in Southeast Asia was simple: hire the biggest name you could afford, sit back, and watch the likes roll in. But the rules have changed. Today, audiences are savvier, regulators are catching up, and the real influence is shifting from the red-carpet “mega” stars to the smaller, hungrier, more authentic voices shaping communities online. If you’re still chasing follower counts as your north star, you’re not just behind the curve; you’re burning budget. The Shift: From Mega to Micro (and Nano) In markets like Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, consumers are starting to tune out big-ticket endorsements. Why? Because they smell scripted, staged, and bought. Enter micro- and nano-influencers: creators with 1,000 to 50,000 followers, often laser-focused on niche communities e.g., parenting groups, gaming circles, sustainable living advocates, you name it. They may not have the lure or gloss of a celebrity, but their engagement rates are often higher...

Brand manuals are meant to guide, not strangle. Here’s why rigid rules make brands robotic, and how flexibility preserves authenticity without losing identity. Every brand has a manual. Fonts, colours, tone of voice, logo spacing down to the millimeter. And yes, guidelines are important. They keep your brand consistent. But here’s the problem: when the manual becomes the Bible, your brand stops breathing. We’ve seen it too many times. Teams cling to rigid rules until every piece of communication sounds sterile, robotic, and ironically, interchangeable with everyone else. Consistency vs. Conformity Consistency means your brand feels familiar, recognisable, trustworthy. Conformity means your brand feels predictable, rigid, lifeless. The difference? Room to be human. If your people are terrified of “breaking the brand manual,” you’re not running a brand. You’re running a museum exhibit. Why Rigid Rules Backfire They kill authenticity. Real conversations don’t follow scrip...

We talk a lot about “brand awareness” in Malaysia. Campaigns, events, social spends... everyone wants eyeballs. But let’s be honest: awareness is the easy part. What most brands can’t seem to crack is trust . And without trust, all that awareness is just noise. We’ve all seen it. A campaign goes viral, hashtags trend for a week... and then… silence. Or worse, the brand takes a hit when people start asking: “Okay, but do I actually believe them?” The Malaysian Trust Deficit Here’s the kicker: Malaysians are naturally sceptical. Years of over-promising (and under-delivering) have made audiences sharper, quicker to call out BS. Add to that the megaphone of social media, where one bad review on TikTok or a rant in a WhatsApp group can undo months of brand building. And let’s not pretend we haven’t seen brands get dragged in the comments -- sometimes deservedly, sometimes not. That’s the reality of reputation management in Malaysia today. We’ve sat with brands that had all the awarene...