Regional technology brands have significantly higher share-of-voice compared to American brands in SEA media, says a study.

Asian technology brands dominated coverage with 67% share-of-voice, in relation to American tech brands, says a study by Allison+Partners and CARMA Asia, a global media intelligence provider.

They published the results of a joint study investigating mainstream media coverage of technology brands within Southeast Asia. The report, “Big Tech: Media Perspectives and Trends”, discovered that changes in government tech regulations had far-reaching impacts on how technology brands are portrayed in media. 

Other insights from this research, which studied three months of content from the top 20 mainstream media outlets each in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand include the following:

  • Product-led coverage continues to be a key driver of positive news for tech companies, while CSR and workplace culture emerged as the new priority for corporate reputation.
  • Legal issues were a key source of negative coverage for big tech brands and continue to be a leading reputational risk. 
  • Tech coverage dominated in Singapore, with 9 out of 10 tech companies having the highest mainstream media visibility in Singapore.
  • Sony and Samsung were the most favourably reported brands in the SEA media.

“It is a pivotal time to be examining the way big tech is portrayed in Asia. Our research highlights some important opportunities and risks for all brands operating in the region. It points to emerging trends like the growing impact of workplace culture and employee wellbeing on brand reputation,” said Khali Sakkas, Head of Insights of CARMA Asia.

“The global pandemic has seen the speed and velocity of technology adoption across organizations and consumers outpace pre-pandemic levels,” said Jeremy Seow, Allison+Partners’ APAC managing director for growth and innovation. “The discourse around the good and bad of technology—their utility, their harm—has never been greater or more relevant. We embarked on this study to help brands examine potential pitfalls and also see opportunities to influence perception and awareness among local and non-technical audiences, to help them understand the true impact of positive communications.”

The full report is available for download at www.carma.com/bigtech.