In this episode of The Negotiation, we feature Part 3 of our conversation with legendary APAC marketer and thought leader Dave McCaughan.

Dave has spent the last three decades in the Asia Pacific, in senior management roles with McCann, one of the world’s biggest advertising agencies. He joined McCann in 1986 in his native Sydney, where he built the Strategic Planning function, and since 1995 has been based in Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, leading regional strategy and communications campaign development for clients like Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Nestle, Cathay Pacific, Sunstar, Hitachi, Johnson & Johnson, and many others. In 2015, Dave launched BIBLIOSEXUAL, which works with brands to bring together his long-term passion for understanding the relationship between form and content.

In this episode, we conclude our extensive discussion by talking about Dave’s time at Coca-Cola, how he got ads approved in the Chinese market, and, specifically, the first-ever romantic kiss seen on Chinese television. We also talk about how brands should approach countries in Southeast Asia (which are all different from one another and see significant nuances inside each country). We finish our conversation by diving deep into AI technology – is it going to disrupt the marketing world? Discover more by tuning in.

Topics Discussed and Key Points:

• China’s first-ever kiss ad
• Understanding local nuances – as evidenced by the controversy around Lionel Messi and the Emir of Qatar during the FIFA World Cup final
• China’s shifting demographic
• The cultural debates that go on in North America versus the rest of the world  
• Nestle’s Kit-Kat treats, and how they’ve managed to be so successful in Japan
• Is the world really homogenizing?
• How should businesses expand to Southeast Asia?
• Comedy as an underlying theme in marketing
• How shopping malls are magnets for what is happening around the world
• Cultural soft power, as evidenced by Japan and Korea
• Major  shopping events in Asia and why they resonate
• The expected impact of AI on marketing