My masters taught me frameworks of marketing. My career and hands-on practice taught me to constantly question them. Strategies are changing faster than algorithms, attention is getting shorter with each scroll, and the marketing textbooks of yesterday feel increasingly out of touch. My most profound influence has come from the works of a few key thinkers: Byron Sharp, who taught the world how brands truly grow; Naomi Klein, who warned of the perils of the hollow brand much ahead of time; and Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, who revealed the irrational and intuitive yet how beautifully we all make decisions.
This journey—from iconic digital-first campaigns at Unilever to the data-driven worlds of programmatic and Google to the fast cultural epicenter of TikTok—has shaped my belief that modern marketing is no longer a science of persuasion, but one of multi-disciplinary science. Amid this chaos, the marketers who have stood out are those who balance vision with agility and technology with a deep understanding of human truths. Their mantra: Dream Big, Drive Creativity, Deliver Fast.
1. Dream Big: From Brand Logo to Brand Availability
The first job of a marketer is to Dream Big, but this dream must have substance. Decades ago, Naomi Klein’s No Logo was a powerful critique of an era where brands sold logos instead of products. The modern marketer’s dream is the antidote: to build brands that have a genuine purpose. Professor Byron Sharp’s work provides the strategic blueprint. Brands grow not through hyper-targeting a small, loyal base, but by achieving mass mental and physical availability. The goal is to be the brand that effortlessly comes to mind in a buying situation.
Early in my career at Unilever India, I saw this in action. We weren’t just selling shampoo with Sunsilk Gang of Girls and All Things Hair or ketchup with Kissanpur; we were building immersive brand worlds that created lasting memory structures. We used mobile entertainment with Kan Khajura Tesan to reach media-dark regions, making the brand available in the minds and ears of millions.
This dream of building a brand platform that becomes part of the consumer’s life is more relevant than ever in Indonesia. We see it in Nestlé DANCOW’s “Cinta Bunda Sempurna” campaign, which bravely tackled the social issue of “mom shaming” to build a deep, purpose-driven connection. We see it in Gojek’s “#AnakBangsaBisa,” which fostered national pride, and in BCA’s high-quality “Rumah Biru” series, which used long-form emotional storytelling to differentiate a bank. This is the dream: to think beyond quarterly targets and build an essential brand.
2. Drive Creativity: Engineering the Nudge
Creativity remains the marketer’s sharpest weapon, but its application has fundamentally changed. If Daniel Kahneman taught us that we operate primarily on “System 1″—our fast, intuitive, emotional brain—then creativity must be designed for that system. It’s not about perfection; it is not about Long Vs Short form, it is about connection.
This is where Richard Thaler’s concept of the Nudge becomes the modern creative brief. Our job is to design “choice architecture”—small, intuitive prompts that guide behavior without being coercive. My journey through the eras of big data and programmatic was a lesson in building the engines for these nudges. We moved from crafting single messages to designing systems that could deliver dynamic, data-driven creativity at scale. We built personalized recommendation engines, which didn’t just advertise lipstick; it provided a tool that nudged users towards experimentation and purchase.
This philosophy finds its ultimate expression on a platform like TikTok. The most powerful campaigns are invitations to participate. We see it with Somethinc’s “Angry Skin Cell” , which creatively educates on skincare science, or Blu by BCA’s “Kastamer Ngablu” , which uses native humor to make digital banking approachable. This is the new nudge: not a polished ad, but an authentic, creator-led video from Bakmi Mewah or a creative hook like McDonald’s “Untranslated Ad” that connects on an intuitive level. It’s viewing technology like Generative AI not just as a tool for optimization, but as a creative partner to unlock these new powers.
3. Deliver Fast: At the Speed of Culture and Commerce
Dreaming big and designing nudges are meaningless without the ability to Deliver Fast. Agility of bringing people, process and technology together is no longer a buzzword; it’s a core operational necessity.
In Indonesia, my observing campaigns like Clear Ayo Indonesia Bisa, Rexona Movement for Movement and 1001 Ramadan Inspirations taught me the importance of deep cultural relevance. Now at TikTok, that lesson is amplified. The platform has become a powerful engine for CPG brands in Indonesia, not just for marketing, but for commerce. The evolution is clear. We went from the easy planning of TV breaking down into cognitive planning on YouTube, to a world where trends are born and die in a day. The brilliance of Oreo’s Super Bowl tweet wasn’t just the idea, but the readiness to act in real-time.
Today at TikTok for example, that speed is the standard. The platform has fundamentally disrupted the path to purchase, creating new categories and business models overnight . This is the ultimate delivery: closing the loop from cultural moment to commercial transaction. We see it in the rise of “shoppertainment,” where e-commerce giants like Shopee and Tokopedia use K-Pop superstars like BTS and BLACKPINK to turn campaigns into massive cultural and commercial events. We see it in the “See Now, Buy Now” model that disrupted traditional retail markets like Tanah Abang, and in the marathon live-shopping streams from brands like Kelaya, turning content directly into commerce. It’s about building nimble, AI-augmented, and data-informed processes that allow brands to react to culture, not just chase it.
I observed first hand across Southeast Asia how fundamentally new digital platforms disrupted the path to purchase, creating new categories, brands, and business models faster than ever before. This is fast delivery: closing the loop from cultural moment to commercial transaction seamlessly. It’s about building nimble, data-informed processes that allow brands to react to culture, not just chase it.
The Modern Marketer’s Mantra
The future belongs to those who see their role as multi-disciplinary. We must be:
- Economists, obsessed with building mass availability as prescribed by Byron Sharp.
- Psychologists, designing for human intuition like Kahneman and Thaler.
- Anthropologists, decoding trends with empathy like the legendary Indian ad man Piyush Pandey.
- Artists, bringing it all to life with integrity.
- And now, AI Architects, partnering with technology to unlock new formats of creativity beyond mere ads and deliver with unprecedented speed, innovation, and scale.
In the end, our mantra is a humble, daily commitment. It’s a call to Dream Bigger, to Drive more Creativity that genuinely connects, and to Deliver Faster with so much technology to help us power the promise of being human and relevant.
(Views are personal)
