What We Do

We build brand growth in Asia

Totem is a brand-growth agency for global retail brands in East Asia, underpinned by cultural marketing — connecting what a brand stands for with what its audiences actually care about, so growth compounds. We blend the analytics of a consulting firm with the implementation craft of an agency to make it happen. Read our approach →

How we work
01 · Diagnose

SOCV read

A read of where your brand stands in the cultures that drive your category — the starting point for everything else.

02 · Position

Brand strategy

The idea, the audience and the ownable territory — a position built on the read, not on instinct.

03 · Activate

Marketing & activation

Content, campaigns, community and digital that put the position to work across markets.

04 · Track

SOCV tracking

Ongoing measurement to see the position compound — or to correct course early.

The craft — five areas

Brand Strategy & Positioning

The brain of the operation. Research, brand identity and product-by-audience mapping, tied together by our Brand Growth Framework. Where a brand has stalled, we find where it lost its culture and rebuild the position.

  • Brand identity
  • Positioning & re-positioning
  • Audience × product mapping
  • Brand Growth Framework
See the work →

Culture-Focused Marketing

The craft of owning the conversation where culture actually happens — social, content and campaigns, plus KOL, influencer and community programs, from real-time social to always-on channel management.

  • Social & content
  • Campaigns
  • Influencer & KOL
  • Community activation
See the work →

Digital Innovation

Digital transformation for global brands entering or scaling in Asia — the CRM and WeChat ecosystems, H5 and Mini-Programs, chatbot and AI, and the platforms that carry the brand day to day.

  • Digital transformation
  • CRM & WeChat
  • H5 / Mini-Programs
  • Chatbot / AI
See the work →

Audience Insights & SOCV

The measurement layer. We turn social and commerce data into audience insight, competitor share-of-voice and interactive dashboards — and read cultural ownership through SOCV, our Share of Cultural Voice metric.

  • Audience insights
  • Competitor SOV
  • Data visualisation
  • SOCV
See the work →

Market Entry & Growth in Asia

Getting in, and growing. Market and category research, localization, go-to-market strategy and the activation to launch and scale across Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul.

  • Market research
  • Localization
  • Go-to-market
  • Launch & scale
See the work →

This is how it looks in practice. Selected work across all five areas — from Birkenstock and Skechers to Intel, Tencent and Estée Lauder.

See the work →

Start with a read of where you stand.

Get your brand's SOCV read