Planning your marketing strategies for the upcoming year can be exciting as it presents an opportunity to try new things, expand upon the successes of your previous campaigns, and explore the use of relatively unfamiliar tools.
Planning season also means taking a step back for a retrospect of your brand’s performance in previous years. Metrics such as reach, impressions, and share of voice can give you an idea of how your brand fared in terms of visibility within a certain period. But beyond these numbers, how can you be certain that your brand has left a lasting impression?
What changed?
Before, marketing teams followed a fairly simple strategy with a clear journey. First, make the audience discover the brand through a website or a page on social media. Next, gain their interest through content, then convert this interest into a purchase. Finally, earn their trust to ensure repeat business.
While the funnel remains an accurate representation of the customer journey, the path from point A to B has become much more complex. Audiences, overwhelmed with the abundance of content online, are now more discerning not only with how they process the information, but also with where they spend their time online and the time spent making purchasing decisions. A third of consumers worldwide, in fact, spend more time considering brands, stores, and retailers before making a decision.
What does the data show?
Audiences seek better control of their social media experience
The social media landscape has changed drastically over the past few years. Pulsar described it as “The Great Fragmentation”: audiences are moving to identity and community-based socials, meaning brands should aim for cultural targeting instead of demographic targeting.
Audiences no longer choose platforms for utility, but for identity and self-expression. Several apps, in fact, serve this purpose, becoming avenues for lively discussions on shared interests among people who are tired of algorithmic feeds.
These platforms, while not quite reaching the heights of Facebook, X, and Instagram, thrive nevertheless because they provide clear values and community-governed spaces. This identity-driven social media use stems from the users’ desire to take better control of their own experiences in these online spaces.
AI engines are redefining brand discovery
The increasing adoption of conversational AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude has changed the audiences’ journey of brand discovery. AI-generated summaries, in particular, draw from sources beyond a brand's own website, including publishers, forums, reviews and other third-party sources. This expands brand discoverability from traditional SEO into the broader digital footprint surrounding a brand.
AI is already changing what happens after a search. Pew Research Center found that users clicked traditional search results in just 8% of visits when an AI-generated summary appeared, compared to 15% of visits without one. Users are also more likely to end their browsing session after encountering an AI-generated summary, which happened to 26% of search pages.
Brand discovery can happen in dark social
Based on the Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report, 93.8% of respondents reported having used at least one social network within the past month. 93.6% of them use chat apps and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and WeChat.
While these platforms are primarily used to communicate with friends and family, they have also become a space for recommendations and buying decisions. In other words, brand discovery can also happen in dark social.
Dark social refers to any form of digital communication, such as private messaging, that cannot be tracked by conventional web analytics tools. It’s elusive in nature and difficult to track, but powerful enough to influence buying decisions. In the 2024 Dark Social Media Survey, marketers attribute 49% of their brand or product traffic to dark social, adding that an average of 47% of conversations about brands and products happen on these messaging platforms.
Trust is harder to earn among an insular audience
The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer tells us that, in the wake of an environment rife with tensions, uncertainty, and misinformation, the public has retreated into an insular mindset.
66% of the respondents are hesitant or unwilling to trust someone different from them, including people with different core values, facts and sources, approaches to societal problems, or backgrounds. Of those people, 30% are unwilling to use brands used by people who differ from them. Trust is an important factor in the consumer journey, as 88% say trusting the brand is a critical purchase criterion, on par with quality (89%) and value (88%).
What does the change in consumer behavior mean for marketers?
As these different studies suggest, audiences have changed the way they interact with brands. Your strategy, therefore, should reflect the way the landscape has changed. Several brands, recognizing the increasingly fragmented social media landscape, have already started gravitating towards different channels with varied approaches in the content they publish, to varying results.
At the same time, emerging platforms are now capturing the attention of Filipinos seeking relief from their algorithmic feeds. Over half of Filipinos are also gravitating towards podcasts for relief from the hyperconnected digital overwhelm. Let's not forget that there is also an increasing demand to unplug and experience things in real life.
While you might be inclined to explore these different channels for 2027, keep in mind that the fragmented social media landscape also comes with a skeptical audience. The strategy for 2027 shouldn’t be about adding more channels, but actually being more mindful of the channels to pursue based on where your audience explores, evaluates, searches, validates, and builds trust.
What should you take into 2027?
At the end of the day, the fundamental goal of marketing has not changed: connecting a business’s solution with a human consumer’s need. What has changed permanently is the landscape across which those connections happen.
This is where our experts at TeamAsia can come in. In the midst of significant shifts in consumer behavior and the widespread adoption of social media and AI, our awesome team of storytellers has been able to create meaningful connections for brands through events, digital, and PR. Whether you’re looking for a long-term partner or a strategic consultant, you can count on us and our integrated marketing brand expertise to bring your brand to new heights for 2027.
Amid evolving AI search engines, emerging digital touchpoints, and changing content distribution channels, the fundamental constant remains human connection, enabled by our strength in storytelling. By understanding your market intimately and knowing precisely how to resonate with them, tangible strategic results will naturally follow.
As you look ahead to 2027, what key goals have you set for your brand, and what support will best help you reach them? We’d love to know more about it: visit us at teamasia.com or send us a quick message!
