Author: EloQAsia2026

I’ve always believed that digital behavior tells us more about society than any political speech or marketing trend report. When people change how they search, scroll, and share, they’re revealing what they value, what they fear, and what they trust. Reading the 2026 Global Digital report by Meltwater, I felt a strong confirmation of something I’ve observed for years in Vietnam and across Asia: people are not becoming more public; they’re becoming more selective. Social media usage keeps rising, yes. But public engagement is shrinking. Meanwhile, AI search adoption is exploding, quietly reshaping how people discover information, evaluate brands, and make decisions.…

There is a shift happening quietly across the Asia–Pacific communications landscape, one that every marketer, PR professional, and corporate leader should pay attention to. Today, brand health is no longer something you measure quarterly, write in a PowerPoint, and discuss once a year at a leadership retreat. It is a living, breathing system shaped by millions of micro-interactions across social platforms, search engines, private communities, creator networks, newsrooms, and review ecosystems. And increasingly, it is shaped by people you don’t see – the silent majority of internet users who never comment, never post, and never tag your brand, but whose searches, clicks, and…

The longer I work in communications, the more I realize this: we are no longer just managing messages; we are managing threats. Not the old-fashioned threats – an angry customer, a bad review, a negative article. I’m talking about synthetic influencers, fake domains, bot-driven outrage, and AI-generated “evidence” that looks real enough to fool even experienced journalists. In 2026, a brand crisis doesn’t always start from something you did. Sometimes, it starts from something someone invented about you. As someone working with brands across Vietnam and Asia, I see three truths becoming impossible to ignore: So how do we protect brands in a…

When I first read Worldcom’s 2026 Future of Communications report, my first reaction was: this is not a “future trend” deck anymore – this is our daily reality, just accelerated. As someone who has moved between academia and agency work in Vietnam and across Asia, I’ve watched the industry change with social media, then influencers, then data, and now AI. Each wave felt big. But the AI wave feels different. It doesn’t just add new tools; it quietly rewrites the rules of trust, visibility, and what it means to do PR well. AI is no longer a toy – it’s the new infrastructure The report makes it…

Every time I teach a crisis communication class or counsel a brand facing unexpected turbulence, I’m reminded of one truth: a crisis doesn’t damage you – your response does. And in 2026, when news cycles move faster than emotion, and misinformation spreads before facts are confirmed, this truth becomes even sharper. Reading Meltwater’s Mastering Media Relations for Crisis Comms report, I felt something very familiar but deeply urgent. The report is not simply about managing the media; it is about managing human reactions in a digital world where everyone can publish, everyone can misinterpret, and everyone can screen-record. And for teams working across Vietnam and…