Andy See discusses PRGN's 2025 Influence Insights survey results from an APAC perspective, highlighting the distinct challenges and opportunities for brands in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Andy, Bill, and Adrian talk about how cultural, regulatory, and market dynamics impact brand strategy and communication approaches in APAC and beyond. Their discussion underscores the importance of adapting strategies to local contexts and cultural nuances.

Download PRGN's whitepaper on insights from the 2025 global survey on Brand Influence.

Key Takeaways

• The PRGN survey offers vital insights into brand influence across diverse global markets, reaffirming the need for customized communication strategies.
• The Asian market is evolving, with growing emphasis on establishing trust and reputation among local brands.
• Consumer expectations are evolving, merging traditional PR objectives with immediate sales goals.
• Cultural differences shape perceptions of technological innovation and emotional connections in various markets.
• Thought leadership in the APAC region faces challenges due to cultural norms favoring discretion over public exposure.
• Collaboration with local experts is crucial for crafting effective strategies and navigating the complexities of market penetration in diverse contexts.

About the Guests

Andy See Teong Leng is Principal Partner and Managing Director of Perspective Strategies, a strategic communications and issues management firm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Andy founded the firm in 2006 after working with multinational and local consultancies including The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Edelman for more than a decade. Perspective Strategies has built a solid reputation for quality strategic counsel and is one of the leading PR and Strategic Communications consultancies in Malaysia. Andy adopts a hands-on approach to his work and the business. Besides managing the firm, he leads strategic client relationships and coach corporate spokespersons in their media and stakeholder engagements. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Media and Communication, Taylor’s University and a past president of the Public Relations and Communications Association of Malaysia (PRCA Malaysia). He speaks regularly at industry events and contributes thought leadership articles on PR, Leadership, Strategy, Sustainability and Communications.

Bill Southard is founder and CEO of Southard Communications in New York. He also serves as Marketing Committee Chair for PRGN. Bill launched Southard Communications in 1994 and has since experienced consistent and considerable growth and today represents a broad range of clients across a myriad of industries. In his day-to-day role at the agency, Bill drives the creative process, provides ongoing strategic counsel and manages all crisis communications on behalf of agency clients. With more than 35 years of communications experience, Bill has counseled some of the country's leading Fortune 500 firms. Prior to founding Southard Communications, he was president of Earle Palmer Brown Public Relations and previous to that General Manager with Dorf & Stanton Communications.

About the Host

Dr. Adrian McIntyre is a cultural anthropologist, media personality, speaker, and strategic communications consultant for PR agencies and marketing firms. He's lived in over 30 countries and spent more than a decade in the Middle East and Africa as a researcher, journalist, communications adviser, media spokesperson, and storytelling consultant. He earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright scholar and National Science Foundation fellow. Adrian helps agency leaders strengthen their positioning, sharpen their messaging, boost their visibility, and win new clients by replacing impersonal, intrusive and ineffective marketing tactics with authentic human conversations.

PRGN Presents is brought to you by Public Relations Global Network, the world’s local public relations agency. Our executive producer is Adrian McIntyre. The show is produced by the team at Speed of Story, a B2B communications firm in Phoenix, AZ.

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From the Public Relations Global Network, this is PRGN Presents. I'm Adrian McIntyre.

And I'm Abbie Fink, President of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. With public relations leaders embedded into the fabric of the communities we serve, clients hire our agencies for the local knowledge, expertise and connections in markets spanning six continents across the world.

Our guests on this biweekly podcast series are all members of the Public Relations Global Network. They will discuss such topics as workplace culture, creative compensation and succession planning, the importance of sustainability and environmental, social and governance programs, crisis communications and outside of the box thinking for growing your business.

For more information about PRGN and our members, please visit prgn.com. And now let's meet our guests for this episode.

Hi, I'm Andy See from Perspective Strategies. We're a public relations and issues management consultancy based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Proud to be here representing my colleagues from PRGN all over Asia to speak about our PRGN's recent insights.

Hi, I'm Bill Southard from Southard Communications. I'm the founder and CEO, an agency that I founded 31 years ago. We do public relations, digital marketing, social media management, crisis communications, and proud to say that I'm chair of the marketing committee for the Public Relations Global Network.

Thank you both for joining us as we're recording this. Bill, it's late at night for you. It's early morning for you. Andy, thank you for making time to be here. This truly is one of the joys but also challenges of being a global network network of agencies.

I'd love to start this off. Bill, you've given an introduction to this survey several times. In fact, I invite listeners to go back to the most recent episodes to hear some context about the survey. Why Public Relations Global Network has done this survey. But Bill, if you could just say in one or two sentences, what is the primary goal of this research? What is it intended to accomplish?

You know, I think it's intended to accomplish is real time insight in terms of brand influence and how does that impact each of our respective agencies who are part of PRGN? And probably most importantly, how do we approach work on behalf of clients, whether they're in the B2C space, the B2B space, the public affairs, the issues management, the world as we all know, has been changing. The channels in which we're communicating to those external audiences is changing. So we thought it would be interesting to take a look look at how that has impacted brand influence. Not only here, New York, where I'm at, but across the entire globe.

Andy, we'll get into the nuance and the details of some of the significance of these findings in the Asia-Pacific region. But I'd love to ask you the same question I asked Joaquín Fernández in Spain at the beginning of our last episode, which is this: when you first saw these survey results, what was your gut level reaction? Did the findings confirm what you're seeing on the ground? Were there any major surprises for you? What was your initial take?

I think my initial take is that, I think first of all is that, I mean, it reaffirms or sort of validates some of the thoughts or thinking that among PRGN member agencies have been having conversations about how our individual markets operate. What are the differences, you know, how we could approach different markets with different solutions and the inference insights provided that data to sort of reaffirm some of the gut feels that we've had, you know, based on our market experience.

But right now we have some data that comes from people in the market themselves giving us this kind of input to showcase that, you know, what we're thinking, what we've thought about in the past, you know, that there's actually data to show that it makes sense. This is what, how we're going to approach it and how cultural, regulatory and strategic differences really impacts influence globally.

Andy, just a follow up question for you. One of the things the data shows here is that, while brand influence, the key focus of the survey, is just as important in APAC as it is anywhere, your region had the lowest percentage of companies that have recently changed their strategic approach. In other words, they're continuing on in a similar vein as they have in the past. How do you account for that?

I think we need to look at it from a historical perspective as well. The Asian consumers generally consume a lot of global brands that are primarily from US and Europe. In the past, obviously in the last decade or so, there have been a lot of much stronger or emerging brands from Asia, particularly from China, Korea, Japan, for example.

Having said that, a lot of our respondents, particularly from our client pool in Southeast Asia, many of them are B2B, because they've been supporting the whole value chain, particularly from big brands from the US and the Europe. Now being B2B, obviously, you know, they focus more on getting the house in order, getting the value chain right. Branding is sort of the next step.

But obviously this is changing a lot. And I would expect that this, if we're ever to do this study in, you know, next year and the year moving forward, we will see this phenomenon progressing to a different aspect where we can see now more Asian brands are investing to grow their trust levels, their reputation, but it will take time.

So from that perspective, that's why you can see that the pace of change is much slower as compared to the US and Europe. But that's changing. And you can see in your own marketplace as well, where you can see more Asian brands are more aggressive. Of course, there are a couple of really successful and established ones already. You know, the Samsungs of the world, they're already there, very strong. Toyota, but, you know, more and more brands are coming into the picture.

Yeah, it's a really great point, and I reflected myself personally that these results could be interpreted two different ways depending on one's preexisting idea. What one person might view as slow, another person might view as steadfast, staying the course.

And it's just as we say, the numbers themselves are a data point. The interpretation is a whole other thing. Bill, I'd love to get your thoughts on this. Southard Communications does a lot of work with B2C companies, e-commerce, direct to consumer sales, things of that nature. Andy's pointing to how B2B might change the dynamics a little bit. From your point of view, what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I think it's reflective of a trend, and I've spoken about this on the previous podcasts. On the consumer side, you're seeing much more direct to consumer, online e-commerce versus traditionally you would go to retail, right?

And the issue there for agencies is that client expectations have changed dramatically. Where traditional PR earned media was all about awareness and credibility and generating substance around the brand. What clients here are looking at is, yeah, I think awareness is important. Yeah, I think trust and building my reputation is important. But the single most important thing for me is to generate eyeballs, to drive them to my site and to generate sales. So there is intense pressure from consumer brands and CPG brands here in the United States to generate sales. So what does that say? That says that we have to shift tactically and strategically how we approach their business.

Earned media, I believe, is still very important because building that awareness and that trust and hitting that consumer six, seven, eight times before they make a decision is still important. But many of the PRGN agencies have now digital capabilities. We're doing social media management, we're doing influencer marketing, we're doing digital advertising. And that is pretty reflective in the study, particularly in North America. And I think it's because of these changing client expectations.

I think they will continue to accelerate as we move forward. And I've said this on more than one occasion as being a guy who's been spent the last four years in traditional PR. The concern that I have, particularly here in the United States, is a lessening of importance on building your brand and using earned media to create that reputation. That is going to be, in my opinion, critically important to creating and establishing a sustainable brand that's going to last more than a couple of years.

That's a really good point. We've become so enamored of those short term sales metrics and just, you know, driving conversion at the point of sale that we have in some cases lost sight of what this is all about. And I think the theme of the survey is useful in pointing us back at brand influence as a key driver of consumer behavior.

Now, Andy, there is what seems to me to be a fascinating paradox in the results as they pertain to the Asia-Pacific region. On the one hand, technological innovation is valued higher, much higher than the global average, 82% in APAC versus 68% globally.

But on the other hand, a digital presence is lower, 60% in APAC versus 78% globally. And creating an emotional connection is much lower, 56% in APAC versus 77% globally.

So how can a brand be perceived as technologically innovative without a strong digital presence or an emotional connection with its audience? What are these numbers telling us?

I think we need to look at it from a cultural point of view as well. I mean, if you have attended global meetings or global conferences, you will see even representatives or executives from top Asian companies tend to be the last one to come on the stage or the person that's going to raise the hand to raise a point.

Asian companies focus on doing rather than talking a lot. So then that's where you will see that they are very proud of being the first to produce a new technology or product enhancement. But generally they don't do as much as they should be about building that emotional connection with consumers with their target audience. They often take the more conservative approach. They would probably say, let's get our stuff out there first, see how the market react before we go out there and talk more about it. So in that regard, they are more conservative.

There's still hesitation to stand or speak with vulnerability, you know, that creates a gap between how consumers connect emotionally with these Asian brands, for example.

Yeah, that's a really great point. And following on that, thought leadership has the lowest impact of any region at only 51%. Now in our last episode, our guest Joaquín, speaking about the European context, said that authenticity from leadership was key. Is the concept of a public facing opinionated executive simply not acceptable or not effective in the business cultures of the APAC region?

So obviously, I think first point I need to highlight, Adrian, is that obviously APAC is not homogeneous. You know, it's a huge market, you know, I could be going to the neighboring country and it's a total different legal system, different language, different religious and education system. So it's going to be very different.

For example, Malaysia, where I'm based, Kuala Lumpur, is so different from our neighbor Thailand, which is just next door because of the language we speak, you know, the legal systems that we inherit, one being a former British colony, obviously have some common law, etc. And British influence. But in Thailand, they've never been colonized. So it's very different. And if you go a little bit further, it's, it's really different in East Asia and so forth.

But generally, from my experience, it's even a huge challenge for me to convince a lot of my CEO clients to pen down great thought leadership pieces. Obviously that's a change now more and more are coming to the forefront to or to spearhead this area.

But it's not easy to convince because many of them, number one, is that while they think they know how important thought leadership is, they would rather stay in safe zones where you don't challenge the status quo in some of your conversations publicly. It's quite ironic because APAC has some of the world's most active social media users, but many of them are keyboard warriors. They don't really put their name out there. It's different for people with established organizations and positions of influence.

You know, it's hard to convince CEOs, particularly CEOs of organizations which are owned by state owned enterprises or government linked companies. The last thing they want to be, you know, they even think about, wow, would this outshine my board members, my investors. Because you know, these are all considerations that's, that's culturally inbuilt in a lot of Asians because we tend to be more hierarchical. For junior staff, they would try not to be, particularly in East Asia where they feel that if they spoke up too much it may upset their supervisors.

So these are all various cultural considerations that need to be put in place. But having said that, I think that's a huge change right now, particularly amongst the Gen Zs. You know, they are much more influenced by what's happening around the world. They are very savvy digital natives. They think more global in that sense because they're all connected by the net and therefore they're more outspoken. So I think these changes will come into play. But CEOs are still more or less the older generation. Many of them are still the Gen X, you know, still baby boomers for some of them. So it's going to take time for that change to take place.

Two quick thoughts here and then Bill, I'd love to get your input. First of all, as a cultural anthropologist, I couldn't agree more with what you're pointing to. And it raises a really interesting, somewhat problematic issue which is on the one hand, these representations you're making about so-called "Asian culture" are accurate in that there really is a distinct difference between many different Asian traditions and their counterparts in North America, for example.

On the other hand, as you rightly pointed out earlier Andy, this region is by no means homogenous. It is incredibly diverse and one of the axes of diversity is age. And so I'm hoping that in the future we have results that might be disaggregated by age cohort because I do believe there's a lot of really interesting stuff that's masked in the way we are, at least in this conversation, combining the results together. Bill, what are your thoughts on this? There's a lot in it, but this issue of generation and also cultural difference and all the rest.

Yeah, I mean, listen, if you, if, and you know this Adrian, and I'm sure Andy sees this as well. I mean, LinkedIn has become a platform for which everybody brags. It's the exact opposite of what Andy's saying. I mean, you know, nine out of 10 posts are how great somebody did, why they're, you know, I mean it, it is, it has become a platform and I, you know, personally I get turned off when I see somebody constantly bragging about what they're doing, whatever. It's not about sharing insights, sharing best practices, sharing information.

You know, it's become a platform here I think in the United States where you just get overloaded on people just telling everybody else how great they are. And to Andy's point, that is a direct contradiction to how the Asian culture and the Asian community approaches how they present themselves to the public.

Let's make this a little more practical because honestly framing the question this way almost begs that kind of essentialism, which is not really accurate at the end of the day, although like many stereotypes, there's truth in it.

Andy, from a practical point of view, you operate an agency in an incredibly diverse region. As you said, political systems, economic systems, histories -- colonial, non-colonial, post-colonial -- languages, religions, all of it. How do you and your firm think about some of these issues? And as you serve clients both based in the region and also global companies doing business in the region, how do you help them navigate some of these core differences in strategy, in tone and things of that nature?

Yeah, I think that, that's, that's where I think PRGN being a global network, but we all operate as local, independent agencies where we provide that local insights and truly understanding how each of our local markets work.

And this is where it's very important for us to give the right counsel to the clients that you cannot view each market in a very homogeneous manner, particularly global brands rolling out various initiatives, global campaigns. We really need to customize and, and see how different markets work.

For example, in Malaysia, while we're a small little country, from a global perspective, our market is again fragmented into different ethnic groups. We are a multiracial, multi religious country. Even languages are different, for example.

And many times some even global brands use Malaysia as a test case before they move on to other markets. Because we have a huge Indian community, we have a huge overseas Chinese community, as well as the ethnic Malay, which is majority.

So therefore it helps for them to even test it before going to the larger market for all these different cultures and different languages. So for example, in Malaysia, it's not one single language. You know, we use English, we use Malay, the national language, we use Chinese or Mandarin, we use Tamil, we use, you know, various languages. So again, it also allows us to experiment and it's therefore it's very important to understand these issues even for big larger global issues.

What's happening right now, geopolitical issues, you know, what's happening, for example, the global tariff issue, how we approach it, you know, the controversies surrounding what's happening in the Middle east, these are all very sensitive topics. And it's like a political minefield, you know, or economic minefield, having to understand.

And this is where I think we need to come in terms of providing the right understanding for clients, particularly those who are unfamiliar with the Asian market, and to see how we can segment these and target our communication to the various segments of the market.

Yeah, and it certainly reinforces what Bill was pointing to just a few minutes ago of the importance of agencies positioning themselves as strategic advisors, providing this kind of counsel, not just tactical execution of campaigns. Let's turn here in our final moments to a number of vectors of trust. This is also very interesting to me.

There's a huge difference again at this course level between the Asia Pacific region and the global aggregate. In the survey results, for example, trust in the political leaders is much higher. 28% in APAC versus 6% in the United States and 16% in Europe. So there's that. Trust in the mainstream media is also nearly double. 45% in APAC versus 29% in North America. Okay, that's not nearly double, but it's close. A big gap in any case.

And finally, an inverse: the trust in employees as brand advocates, much, much lower. 43% in APAC, well, it's averaging 66% in the global aggregate of all the other regions. So, Andy, there's a number of issues here on the table. Clearly you have experience working with the mainstream media. You have to navigate the political landscape. And there's this interesting issue as well of employee advocacy and what that means for internal communication and who's seen as a, as a brand ambassador, if you will. There's a lot here. What are your thoughts about that?

Right, so, so I'll break it down one by one. So maybe let's start with, you know, why I think in APAC, for example, when you talk about political figures, government still play a bigger role in the economy and national development.

Many brands are actually owned by state owned enterprises or government agencies and sovereign wealth fund play a very important role in investing in many large companies. So in that sense, political figures often double up even as economic influences.

You know, whether it's policy, infrastructure or even direction in terms of investment in technology and so forth. Typically it's in alignment with national agendas.

So political endorsement carries a lot more weight here than, you know, more developed markets like in Europe or in the US. So there's a lot more government involvement.

And therefore, you know, what political leaders say do play a very important role in shaping, you know, what brands and corporations do.

As for mainstream media, I think generally, while the delivery has changed tremendously, for example, in the past people pick up physical newspapers, but today most of the delivery is done through digital platforms. Most of these mainstream brands, while they've changed their delivery methods, the brand itself is still largely trusted.

Many of these are seen as state institutions. So therefore a lot of trust is still there in terms of getting accurate information. Again, it's because there's an overflow of information.

Asians are very socially connected digitally. I mean, social media is very active. But having said that, there's also a lot of fake news, a lot of information that's not validated.

So the mainstream media sort of, when they release something, you know, that's a trusted information. Of course there's also a lot of regulation.

I think Asian markets are still highly regulated in terms of making sure the information out there is validated because most mainstream medias continue to be licensed. So therefore, when they release information out there to the market, it's typically, you know, it's accurate. Right.

So these are two aspects with regards to employee branding or employee advocacy. I think it's changing slowly with more and more Gen Z and then the younger workforce coming into the picture.

But in many Asian cultures, I think influence is still hierarchical. As I mentioned earlier, many decisions and many communication still flows from the top.

So the idea of giving employees or ambassadors of the company staff, particularly junior ones, to speak on behalf of the brand feels risky. Many senior management still is reluctant to let go the full control of the narrative to younger executives.

Even if it's done, a lot of it's very scripted. So sometimes for the younger generation, when it's scripted, they feel it's not that authentic.

So these are the balance that you need to probably find. But I think it's changing.

We can see more progressive companies investing into employee advocacy, making sure that the younger employees are given a platform to voice. You know, what does companies stand for? The value, particularly in the technology sector and all that. They're very progressive.

They, they are aware that they need to catch up. But maybe in the older sectors, I mean, the more traditional sectors, there's still a lot of catch up to do.

Let's conclude with this. I have a final question and I'd love each of you to share your answer. Bill, I'll have you go last in this case, as kind of tying together all of the episodes that we've done and all of the commentary that you've provided on this survey that you helped bring to life.

So, Andy, the first, first stab at this is for you. Looking at all of this, what's one finding in the survey results that you think is most critical for communication professionals to understand and act on in the year ahead?

I think, I mean, there's no one specific statistic or data, but the overall gaps that we talked about just now in terms of Asian brands tend to focus on the hard number. I mean, the hard innovation, hard products. I think there's a huge opportunity because APAC brands, for example, have already built strong reputations.

I think that there's no question about the quality of products and services that comes from Asia because there's a lot of work being invested into producing. You know, we're basically the manufacturing or the production hub of the world right now.

So where the opportunity lies is there's an opportunity for APAC brands to now take on the more relatable, value driven, I mean, connecting with their customers and stakeholders. I think this is where that mindset needs to change.

In the past, many Asian brands tend to think, oh, we connect with our stakeholders by showing them good work. But I think they forget that good work needs to be communicated as well so that our stakeholders understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. So I think there's a lot of opportunity.

This data only shows that big room or huge opportunity for Asian brands to really take this opportunity to assert its presence, build emotional connection with its stakeholders and be proud and showcase a little bit more. I think we're in the other extreme of brands that talk big but don't really deliver. But on the other hand, we're doing a lot of good work. Why are we not telling the world? Right. So there's a lot of opportunity here. And that's what to me, this research has shown. That's this huge opportunity for Asian companies, Asian brands, to really challenge the marketplace.

That's really insightful. Thank you. Bill, you are the closing bookend on a whole series of episodes that we've done here.

Thank you.

Now reflecting sort of globally, because that's the lens ... you've looked at this data from every perspective possible. What is one takeaway, one thing you think is most critical for communication professionals to understand and act on, no matter where they are in the world?

Yeah, you know what? And I've spoken about some of the specifics, but in looking this, the universe of data and stuff, no two regions are alike. And therefore you have to -- and Andy's kind of touched upon this -- you have to approach each region based upon their cultural opportunities, their societal opportunities, how they perceive different audiences and such.

And I think that it's why PRGN exists, right? It's so that we do a lot of collaboration across countries and, you know, if members of APAC come to an agency in North America and they say, here's what we're trying to accomplish, the strategy may be completely different and the approach than what would be in APAC because of those differences. And I think when you look at this as a whole There's a lot of similarities about the importance of brand influence and how it's changing, et cetera.

And there's some differences across the regions. But to me, it points out no two regions are alike. Whether you're a brand in APAC or Europe or North America, and you want to enter a new market, rely on those local experts because they understand what it's going to take to be successful. So I think at the end of the day, I kind of tie it together and it really supports really why PRGN is in existence.

And on a final note, Adrian, I have to say this. I want to really thank you and Abbie. I mean, you guys have done a phenomenal job. You know, we've interviewed all the regional leadership and Natacha, who's the president of PRGN, and I want, for me, I want to thank you for helping to promote a lot of work went into this survey through all the agencies that are part of PRGN. We're going to do it again, so look forward to another series next year. But you and Abbie have just done a phenomenal job in terms of asking the right types of questions and giving us a platform to promote the findings.

Thank you. It's been our pleasure to do so. Thanks for listening to this episode of PRGN Presents, brought to you by the Public Relations Global Network.

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