Orchan Consulting | Asia Sdn Bhd

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...