Orchan Consulting | Asia Sdn Bhd

Every week, a new “miracle” lands in someone’s WhatsApp group: A Chinese virtual human sells a million dollars’ worth of lipstick in minutes. A Korean digital idol earns more than half the celebrities on your billboards. A virtual girl group racks up 300 million views on Douyin before lunch. And of course, someone forwards it to the boss: “Why don’t we do one of these also?” We get it. The numbers are dazzling. The production looks flawless. But here’s the thing: East Asia has developed very specific playbooks for virtual influencers. Southeast Asia is experimenting with its own mix of humans, AI, and stylised characters, and that’s what actually works here. Why East Asia Can Sprint While Southeast Asia Is Finding Its Own Pace 1. Budgets shape the game A top-tier hyper-real virtual human costs between  RM3.5m–RM20m to build, RM200k–RM600k monthly to maintain. In China or Korea, scale and platform support make it work. In SEA, that level of investment is mostly for supe...

"Thought leadership” has become one of those overused buzzwords that’s lost all meaning. Every other LinkedIn post promises some grand new vision, some “future of X” prediction, some executive announcing that they too have Deep Thoughts about the state of the world. The result is a mountain of ego-driven fluff no one asked for, and no one remembers. Thought leadership without usefulness is just self-promotion. The thing is people don’t really care about your thoughts . They care about their problems. And the leaders who actually stand out aren’t the ones shouting, “Look at my insight!” but the ones consistently saying, “Here’s something useful you can apply right now.” Think about it: A CEO who publishes a checklist to help SMEs cut energy costs earns far more trust than one who writes 1,500 words about “the coming green economy.” A communications director who shares three phrases to avoid in a crisis briefing will be remembered long after the “Top 10 PR Trends” articl...