Thought Pieces

Chris Foster, CEO of The Next Practice, introduces how Brand Generosity is reshaping the way businesses approach sustainability and growth by shifting their focus from what they can sell to what they can contribute. Here are the key insights: Reframi

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Back to the Future...As we approach 2025, I’ve been reflecting on the forces shaping the future of business, marketing, and communication. In revisiting a list I originally wrote in 2020, I was struck by how much of it still resonates—proof that whil

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Just returned from Singapore, where I had the privilege of attending the world's largest fintech conference—a place that feels like a second home to me. In a world that’s increasingly polarized, these global gatherings remind us of the importance of

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The buzz surrounding a cookieless future has intensified over recent years. Google has declared its intention to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by the latter half of 2024. Meanwhile, major browsers like Firefox and Safari have already taken

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Marketing never remains static; it evolves with the world. From the impact of global ad revenue trends to the merging of physical and digital experiences, here’s a look at ten macro trends shaping the global marketing landscape. Global Ad Revenue Gro

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The rapid development of GenAI has expanded the horizon of possibilities. GenAI's ability to learn, predict, and analyze is revolutionary, and its true potential lies in how we merge it with the vast pool of human understanding. As businesses scrambl

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What we have learned through our engagement with business executives, marketing leaders and advisors is that they all agree on one thing - Sustainability is the most urgent topic for this generation. The challenge however, remains for companies to f

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In the face of tragedy, businesses have the opportunity to step up and help, while continuing to sell products and services and employ workers. From the C-suite to managers to employees at all levels, great ideas can spread rapidly, but how can they

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For generations, there’s been an adage in the world of business, particularly among marketers and advertisers: Think of your brand as a person. Imbuing it with human personality traits helps build a strong, resilient brand and drive growth.As Investo

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Businesses around the world are looking for ways to help in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing to sell products and services and keep people employed. From the C-suite to managers to employees at all levels, great ideas are popping u

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"There's no freedom if you're dead." That's what friends of mine in Asia, particularly Hong Kong, have said when I've tried to explain the reluctance some Americans have to wearing masks to help stop the spread of COVID-19.My family and I spent years

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BUSINESS TIMES – Commentary: THE immensity of Big Data is undeniable. When almost everything we do leaves a digital trace, our ability to capture, store and analyse data seems almost infinite. We generate more than 2.5 billion gigabytes of data each

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The symbiotic relationship between brands and the Olympics represents a huge opportunity for Asian brands to compete on the world stage. Business Times Singapore (21 Feb 2018) - Brand partnerships with the Olympics are now not only big business, they

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I've been to the future. It's a place called South Korea, the most digitally sophisticated country in the world, and a nation that is nothing short of a phenomenon. Thirteen years ago when I was CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Japan & Korea, it was with dre

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I have lived all over the world and one of the pieces of advice I offer to people when asked, is to take a lot of pictures when you first get somewhere new because you rarely get the chance to see something again for the first time. I’ve recently re-

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In this time of tenuous loyalty and FOMO, agencies must realize that although you may get hired from the top, you most definitely get fired from the bottom. If you are not paying attention to providing excellent service across all levels at the clien

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I've just returned from ‘Summer Davos', the World Economic Forum's conference in Tianjin, China. Here are nine takeaways.Themes:The new certainty is that all is uncertainAll agreed that Brexit heightened the prevailing global sentiment of uncertainty

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Antwerp, Genoa, Istanbul, Venice – cities that defined the future in the pivotal year of 1492. Mumbai, Delhi, Dhaka, Kinshasa, Kolkata, Lagos – the world's six biggest cities in 2050. Two lists. Cities have been at the forefront of human progress. In

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We live in an age of disruption. To thrive in a world that's characterized by constant and insatiable change, leaders need to embrace disorder as the new order, make peace with it, and capitalize upon it. I agree wholeheartedly with Nassim Taleb, who

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A great lesson from the world of comedy. One of the fundamental guidelines of improv comedy—practiced by groups from Chicago's Second City to New York's Upright Citizens Brigade—is known as the “Yes, And” rule. A strategy for performers to keep the s

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For most of my career I have had a foot firmly planted in the consumer packaged goods/fast-moving consumer goods (CPG/FMCG) world. As such, I have been a great fan of brand utility. One's job as an advertiser becomes infinitely easier if a brand actu

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As I left my rented house this morning in my leased car to visit a prospective client in a shared office space after buying a Mont Blanc pen in a pop up store, it struck me how much life has changed. No longer is there inherent “good” in the ownershi

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I glimpsed the future of celebrity last year watching the League of Legends World Championship in Seoul, South Korea. Just who were these elite pro gamers with rabid global fan followings, who were landing huge endorsement deals and whose hours'-long

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Ever since I began working on iconic Procter & Gamble brands like Ariel, Cascade, Dash, Ajax, and Tide, I've been a big admirer of P&G's Alumni Network. The nonprofit organization—open to any non-current P&G employee—supports and embraces company alu

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As we gear up for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and Saatchi & Saatchi's New Directors' Showcase in June, I'm struck once again by the power of visual ideas and how much great storytelling transcends the spoken and written word

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I was fortunate to attend the first-ever International CES Asia in Shanghai (May 25-May 27, 2015), the latest incarnation of the world's largest consumer electronics and technology trade show that takes place each year in Las Vegas.There's good reaso

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What makes people consider a brand to be creative? Once, a brand was considered creative if it presented an original idea. Some of the world's most iconic advertising is based on this premise. The ad could have been for a car or a block of butter whi

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This article maps some big shifts happening in society, with focus on Millennials and the upcoming generations, and discusses how these may affect the future of brand communication.

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In 2014 more than ever, the consumer is the boss. Throw out your marketing plan, treat your consumers like family and create experiences in the moment. General business outlook Asia-Pacific is where global brands will see growth in 2014. China, India

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Instant gratification gets a bad rap. It's seen as less serious and lacking the perceived virtue of the gratification that follows hard work. Good things, the saying goes, take time. Generational attitudes play their part.It is the young who are seen

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With a long-standing reputation of being a country with strong STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), the Singapore government's recent initiatives to grow global perception of Singapore as an entrepreneurial nation has highl

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A New York Times article ‘Solving Equation of a Hit Film Script, With Data' is about a company that is using statistics to determine the success of film scripts. It adds to the debate of whether data is ruining creativity's true potential. If you kil

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To mark the reunification of Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China and Saatchi & Saatchi Asia Pacific, Chris Foster looks at how this synergy that will influence how the Network influences its clients, work and culture in new and exciting ways.

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