Part 1 of The Cultural Fluency Advantage
There’s a quiet truth that most global brand leaders already suspect but rarely say aloud: many Western campaigns don’t work in Asia. They don’t resonate. They don’t connect. And increasingly, they don’t even land.
After more than a decade in Europe and over thirteen years working in Asia, I’ve seen this play out again and again. The problem isn’t budget. Or talent. Or ambition. It’s that too many campaigns arrive in this part of the world speaking entirely the wrong language; culturally, emotionally, and contextually.
And it’s not just a hunch. According to Ipsos, fewer than one in three campaigns perform equally well when transferred across markets. Flip that around and you’re looking at seven out of ten campaigns underdelivering the moment they leave home turf. And nowhere is that failure more exposed, and more costly, than in Asia.
The outcome? Wasted media. Weary local teams. Strategies that sound brilliant in London, Paris, or New York but hit a wall in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, or Seoul.
The Resonance Gap
Because when the rubber hits the road, we mostly talk about reach. Awareness. CPMs. The occasional ROI chart with a reassuring slope. But rarely do we stop to ask: “does this message actually mean anything to the person on the other end of the screen?” And in Asia, that very question carries more weight than most markets.
Asia isn’t a regional monolith; it’s a system of systems. I’ve been based in Singapore long enough to know you’re not just navigating different countries. You travel through entirely different cultural logics. What makes people laugh in Thailand doesn’t stir much in Japan. A family insight that tugs heartstrings in Vietnam might leave a Chinese audience cold. Still, far too often, Asia is treated as one homogenous block. A set of line items in a spreadsheet. A testbed for global content with a few light localisation tweaks. That’s not strategic. It’s mechanical.
And the result is predictably hollow. Across Southeast Asia, 88% of consumers say they want advertising that reflects their own lives and cultures. Not just a translated strapline. Not just a local face dropped into a pre-baked edit. Something built with them in mind. Not just repackaged for them after the fact.
They’re not asking for perfection. They’re asking to be seen.
Same Message, Different Meaning
And when they’re not? Well, it shows. Fast.
In early 2024, Apple released a slick short film set in Bangkok. A Western team, a chaotic business trip, played for laughs. It had all the right parts on paper: local cast, high production values, an unmistakably Thai setting. But Thai audiences didn’t laugh. They cringed. What was meant to be light and charming came across as patronising. A caricature, not a celebration. The film was pulled within days. Apple issued a rare public apology. It wasn’t a failure of execution. It was a failure of tone.
Or cast your mind back to 2018 for moment, when Dolce & Gabbana ran their now-infamous “chopsticks” campaign in China. What may have felt cheeky in a European capital landed as mocking in Shanghai – triggering outrage, a boycott, and the abrupt cancellation of a major fashion show. Same message. Very different meaning.
But it’s not all cautionary tales. Some brands are getting better at this.
McDonald’s recent campaign with K-pop group NewJeans was one of the most hyped regional activations of last year. And it worked, not because it was rigidly global, but because it was quietly local. In Thailand, where young men tend to avoid public dance trends, the campaign shifted its execution. In Vietnam and Indonesia, the focus moved from burgers to bone-in fried chicken. A small but important product choice that made the offering feel right, not foreign. The campaign wasn’t loved because it was consistent. It was loved because it was culturally fluent.
It’s Not About the Local Teams
So why don’t more campaigns get this right?
Often, when something underperforms in Asia, the explanation is swift: “We have local teams. They should have spotted this.” But spotting the problem and having the power to solve it aren’t the same thing.
In reality, many Asia-based teams are handed global concepts that are already locked. There’s a deck. There’s a master asset. The room for interpretation is minimal. The brief has been set — and with it, the limits of what’s allowed.
I’ve seen the result. Work that’s grammatically correct but emotionally off. Visually on-brand but culturally inert. And perhaps most frustrating of all, teams on the ground who know exactly what’s wrong, and what would make it better, but don’t have the permission to rewrite the rules.
This isn’t a talent gap. It’s a trust gap.
The Real Opportunity
Here’s the irony: for all the complexity of Asia, this is where the greatest gains are hiding in plain sight.
Western brands still underperform across key Asian markets. Which means the floor is low. And the ceiling, high. A relatively small investment in relevance can deliver disproportionate returns. A small shift in execution can make a global campaign go from forgettable to shared. From glanced at, to felt. Because in Asia, when something works, it really works. People notice. Talk spreads. Cultural credibility compounds.
Which is why this region, still, is where a global CMO or CFO can make themselves heroes. But only if they show up with real intent. And a willingness to rethink what they thought they already knew. This isn’t about abandoning the global idea. It’s about approaching it differently. From translation to transformation. From asset protection to audience understanding.
The Good News
This is fixable.
At JOLT, we call it cultural fluency. A planning process that gives global brands the ability to speak the emotional and contextual language of a market, not just the literal one. It doesn’t require tearing up the brand book. It requires knowing where to flex, and when. The local insight that matters more than the global product truth. The format that travels better here than there. The influencer who brings credibility, not just reach. The ability to find the moments where ad receptivity is at its highest. Because fluent brands across Asia aren’t louder. They’re clearer. More precise. More respectful. And they’re the ones that audiences actually want to spend time with.
Final Thought
Campaigns don’t fail in Asia because people didn’t try. They fail because the approach, often intentionally, asked the audience here to do all the adapting. But it’s not the recipient’s job to bridge the gap. It’s ours.
The brands that will thrive in Asia over the next decade won’t be the ones shouting the loudest. They’ll be the ones that show up with curiosity, humility, and a real desire to connect. Because in a region this fast-moving and emotionally diverse, connection isn’t a bonus.
It’s the brief.
Sebastien Lepez, Founder and CEO at JOLT Digital
