From brief to belief – how Southeast Asian brands win through creator storytelling

This post is sponsored by Cult Creative.

In a region where attention spans are shrinking, storytelling remains the only constant. Here’s how Southeast Asian brands are harnessing creators – not just to tell stories, but to build belief.

The shift: From transactional to transformational

Across Southeast Asia, marketers are shifting from one-time influencer collaborations to building brands through creators. This change reflects what audiences now want: stories, not just shout-outs.

According to Hootsuite’s 2025 "Digital trends report", 79% of social media users in the region are more likely to engage with creator content that “feels like a story rather than an ad”.

This shift is happening because the customer journey is no longer a straightforward funnel. When was the last time you bought a product immediately after seeing an ad on Instagram? Today, purchase decisions aren’t linear – they are a web of discovery, emotion, and multiple touch-points.

People often see a brand several times through a friend’s post, a creator’s story or a shared review before deciding to trust it. The consumer journey has become unpredictable and deeply emotional, shaped by many micro-moments rather than a single conversion path.

“Creator storytelling is no longer about product placement,” says Shermaine Wong, CEO and co-founder of Cult Creative. “It’s about emotional placement where a brand fits into a person’s real story.”

The data behind the impact of storytelling

WARC’s Influencer Marketing Benchmark 2025 revealed that creator-led campaigns deliver 3.5x higher engagement rates than traditional paid media across Southeast Asia.

“What we’ve consistently seen is that audiences respond when creators take control of the narrative and make the brand part of their journey, not the other way around. That’s what keeps engagement high long after the campaign ends,” Dulya Wijeratne, key accounts lead.

Belief in action

At the World Expo Osaka 2025, Cult Creative had the privilege of showcasing Malaysia on a global platform – not through traditional tourism promotions, but by highlighting creator storytelling that celebrated Malaysia’s innovation, creativity, and human spirit.

Instead of pavilion tours and food segments, the campaign united Malaysian and Japanese creators from various fields such as finance, fashion, lifestyle, education, and tech to share stories rooted in connection.

Each video focused on the pavilion’s three pillars: human and human, human and technology, and human and nature, highlighting Malaysia’s cultural artistry, sustainability efforts, and technological progress.

The campaign was rolled out in two phases: the first was to raise awareness of Malaysia’s presence at the Expo, and the second to deepen the narrative around sustainability and innovation. It featured voice-overs, POV tours, and reflective storytelling to keep content personal, yet universally relatable.

The results spoke for themselves: 20 videos, 2.3 million organic views, over 65,000 interactions, and a reach of 1.7 million.

By humanising Malaysia’s message through creators, the campaign transformed cultural representation into a genuine connection, proving that stories have the power to inspire and be powerful exports.

“We didn’t just showcase Malaysia, we showed the world how creator storytelling can bridge culture, commerce, and creativity,” Wong says.

The limit of AI in storytelling

AI tools such as Sora 2 and Meta’s Vibes are reshaping the creative process, but consumer trust hasn’t kept pace. While many marketers lean into AI for efficiency, the broader picture is more complex. According to Dentsu Creative’s 2025 Global CMO report, 87% of CMOs believe modern marketing strategies will demand more human creativity and empathy, and 78% insist generative AI will never replace human imagination, reported The Economic Times.

At the same time, surveys show that 54% of marketers worry that AI will lead to a loss of creativity and human touch, while 42% point to over-reliance on AI as a key concern, according to Ascend2.

“AI might know what people click on, but creators know why they care,” Wijeratne says. “The best stories come from lived experiences, and that ‘why’ is what drives brand love and long-term retention. Data can’t decode that.”

AI’s effectiveness depends heavily on the prompts it receives, but the true magic lies in human creativity, intuition, and the understanding of context. Many brands tend to over-rely on automation in content creation, simply following trends or expectations.

Particularly in social media advertising, AI should complement human ideation, conceptualisation, and emotional engagement not replace them. For instance, during our campaign for the Malaysia Pavilion at the World Expo Osaka 2025, we couldn’t depend solely on AI. The research and proposal phases required a deep grasp of the creators’ profiles, content niches, and how they aligned with our three pillars: Human and human, human and technology, human and nature. Such nuances cannot be captured by algorithms alone.

What’s next for marketers

The future of creator marketing isn’t about choosing between human and machine, it’s about balance. AI can amplify, but only creators can humanise.

“We’re entering a golden era where data and heart coexist,” Wong says.

Adds Wijeratne: “And it’s Southeast Asian creators who are leading that charge, blending cultural nuances with emotional truth.”

Moving forward, the only things brands can truly control are who they collaborate with and how deeply they cultivate those relationships. Consistency is key: working with a diverse range of creators and fostering long-term partnerships ensures your story is shared repeatedly across various touch-points and over time.

It's important to remember that attribution doesn’t necessarily mean causation. Just because a sale is credited to Facebook doesn’t mean Facebook caused it. Industry studies, and cases such as Airbnb’s pause on performance marketing, suggest that such campaigns often capture existing demand rather than create new demand.

Conversely, creator marketing operates at the demand creation level. It fosters emotional connections, brand loyalty, and community love over time – an impact that no algorithm can replicate.

Ultimately, the future belongs to brands that understand this balance: leveraging AI for data while relying on creators to provide meaning.

To explore how Cult Creative helps brands across Southeast Asia unlock the power of human-led storytelling, visit www.cultcreative.asia.

This article was written by Shermaine Wong, CEO and co-founder of Cult Creative, and Dulya Wijeratne, key accounts lead, Cult Creative.