A decade of comms in Southeast Asia
After moving to Singapore back in 2013 with the plan to be here two years, I very easily found myself only leaving after ten years in Asia.
Ten glorious years of working in a big corporate role and travelling the region, then setting up my own company and riding the wave of rapidly changing Asian business. Not to mention a global pandemic thrown in for good measure.
The pace here is double speed, teams are often lean and client expectations are high. Ambition is great and the hunger to survive in business is huge.
I’ve worked with large multinational businesses, helped medium businesses share their success stories and grown my own business to what it is today, and these three things are consistent when it comes to PR.
Quality over quantity, every time. Targeting is key with so many cultures, languages, dialects and limited numbers of publications per market. So to speak to the right audience is to target the right publication, with the most relevant audience, and to then amplify across all channels once coverage has been achieved.
An integrated approach always has the most impact for growth, especially in this region. PR alone won’t help you get a huge amount of traffic to your site or impact your bottom line. Any media coverage achieved needs to be amplified. Through own channels. With paid media. Shared directly with staff and by leadership on their social channels.
Build relationships with reporters and be creative. A simple conversation with journalists, whether in person or on the phone, can lead to opportunities - many of which are far more creative than if you were just pitching a release over email. Help the journalist develop a story their readers will love reading, and the win is your spokespeople getting featured.
If you are looking to expand into Southeast Asia and are looking for a PR partner to help navigate the complexities of communicating in Asia, get in touch.
