Kevin Huang is the chief operating officer of the South China Morning Post and is responsible for advertising and marketing solutions, events, and corporate communications. Kevin’s career spans more than 25 years across Asia Pacific, during which he consistently spearheaded digital, mobile, and advertising businesses through high growth and profitability.

Prior to joining SCMP, he was the managing director of Carousell. Before that, he headed Birdie Mobile, Hong Kong’s first digital-only operator. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Pixels, growing the company to become one of the leading home-grown adtech firms in the region.

Kevin is a founding member and the immediate past chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Hong Kong and holds a degree in computer information systems from Pace University. Born in Malaysia, Kevin has been living and working in Hong Kong for over two decades.

Brand trust as advertising currency in volatile times

Question: Your recent brand study “How Resilient Brands Grow” revealed that affluent consumers are 6x more likely to continue spending with trusted brands and will tolerate a 7% price premium.

As news publishers struggle with brand safety concerns and platform commoditization, how can publishers translate these insights into practical advertising strategies? What specific tactics has SCMP implemented to help advertisers leverage your editorial trust, and how do you price that premium in an increasingly algorithmic advertising marketplace?

Huang: According to the 2025 brand study … released by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and Ipsos, building brand trust is essential for safeguarding pricing strategies, potentially allowing for higher prices even during periods of uncertainty. Marketers should adopt communication strategies that emphasise the product narrative and position the brand aspirationally to boost its desirability. And those communications must be relevant and resonate deeply with people, culture, and communities.

Brands that partner with trusted news media are positioning themselves for business success. This is because news is fundamentally a driver of public conversation and inherently carries a level of trust that draws audiences. Moreover, as highlighted by the APAC edition of Stagwell’s News Advertising Study 2025, trusted journalism connects brands with engaged audiences and fuels stronger business outcomes.

In today’s media landscape, consumers are more discerning. Due to limited time and attention, they actively seek out credible sources to filter out misinformation and clutter. By delivering their messages through reputable news outlets, brands gain essential acceptance and trust, helping them remain relevant and effectively foster public dialogue.

Stronger engagement and a better return on investment are achieved when brands partner with a news organisation that leads in both innovative storytelling and quality journalism. This association significantly enhances a brand’s credibility and visibility.

A prime example is HSBC’s 160th anniversary, for which the SCMP helped launch a year-long community celebration that highlighted the brand's history in shaping Hong Kong. We started the conversation with a cover wrap that celebrated more than a century of stories about the bank’s role in society.

Retail media’s rise vs. publisher media: the Asian perspective

Question: Retail/commerce media is projected to capture 60% of incremental digital ad spending by 2028, with first-party shopper data giving these platforms major advantages.

From your vantage point in Asia — where e-commerce integration is often more advanced than the West — how is SCMP positioning itself against this retail media wave? Are news publishers becoming commerce enablers themselves, or is there a different value proposition that can coexist with this trend?

Huang: Retail media sits at the bottom of the marketing funnel, capturing audiences at the moment of purchase, while news media occupies the top, focusing on brand building. Long-term growth requires a balanced, full-funnel and multichannel approach. 

While many new Asian brands initially prioritise bottom-of-the-funnel tactics for quick gains, they eventually shift their investment further up the funnel to focus on branding efforts by partnering with trusted news sources to drive demand and generate better long-term momentum.

AI’s impact on news media advertising operations

Question: With 96% of advertisers saying AI has a major impact on their work and AI-powered media buying taking a larger share of media sales, how is SCMP adapting its advertising operations, products, and sales approach? Beyond the obvious efficiency gains, what AI applications are you finding most valuable for premium ad sales, and where do you see human expertise remaining irreplaceable? How should publishers think about AI investment priorities for advertising?

Huang: AI is enhancing efficiency in advertising operations, targeting, and creative production. Overall, it is lowering advertising costs, which is likely to attract more advertisers and content into the market in the future.

In this evolving landscape, audiences will become more selective about the content they engage with. Consequently, trusted publishers and high-quality creative work will become increasingly valuable and sought after.

From Morning Studio to Morning Studio Amplified: multi-platform content strategy evolution

Question: Morning Studio Amplified launched in May to extend branded content across connected TV, digital outdoor, and YouTube. Now with several months of execution data, what specific learnings can you share about cross-platform branded content performance?

How do engagement metrics and advertiser ROI differ across these platforms versus your owned properties? And critically — how do you maintain Morning Studio’s “newsroom standards with marketer perspective” as content fragmentizes across so many touchpoints?

Huang: Our award-winning branded content team Morning Studio maintains a strong track record of innovation in branded content, which produces nearly 200 branded content episodes each year, a quarter of which are in video formats.

By combining editorial expertise, creative production capabilities, and a deep understanding of the SCMP audience, the team strategically connects advertisers with readers through enhanced content solutions. This approach ensures content is both highly engaging and deeply relevant.

The new advertising solution Morning Studio Amplified is a natural evolution for our clients. We have seen our work integrated directly into the consumer journey — from being displayed in hotel lobbies to appearing on outdoor screens across properties. This allows marketers to leverage SCMP’s trust and credibility, delivering unified creatives and messaging across the increasingly fragmented media ecosystem.

Building on our success and creative strengths, Morning Studio Amplified provides our clients with a robust solution that unifies creative and storytelling across multiple online and offline touchpoints.

Strategic alliances are central to augmenting the value proposition that SCMP delivers to clients and advertisers. In this vein, SCMP has recently partnered with Publicis Groupe Hong Kong, a leading business and communications consultancy.

This collaboration aims to provide enhanced support for brands expanding their influence through innovative marketing strategies. This is realised through combining Publicis Groupe Hong Kong’s professional services with market-first access to the full range of SCMP Advertising+ solutions, including the branded content team Morning Studio and the events arm SCMP Live.

The “I Read SCMP” campaign: lessons in publisher brand building

Question: Your “The Way I Read SCMP” campaign featuring iconic local figures as brand ambassadors is an unusual approach for a news publisher — most avoid putting personalities above the institutional brand.

What drove this strategic decision, and what early results are you seeing in brand perception and advertising appeal? For publishers debating whether to invest in brand marketing during budget pressures, what would you tell them about the ROI of publisher brand building?

Huang: The South China Morning Post is proudly made in Hong Kong and read by the world. Recognising the need to evolve and maintain relevance, we have invested in its heritage brand identity to fuel future ambitions — which also serves as a testimonial demonstrating the impact of our full-suite SCMP Advertising+ solutions.

Leveraging our expertise in content and multimedia creatives, we launched the “I Read SCMP” series, a bold initiative inviting iconic local figures who are avid readers and share SCMP’s values to become ambassadors and rejuvenate its brand among local readers. To date, we have featured 30 influential individuals and prominent personalities across the city sharing their unique ways of engaging with the SCMP. 

The 2025 campaign showcases seven influential Hong Kong figures — spanning business, entrepreneurship, art, and sports — each sharing how their connection with the SCMP influences their outlook. Their curated SCMP reading lists and quotes serve to illustrate traits like resilience, business acumen, and creativity.

This initiative has significantly enhanced the SCMP’s brand influence, effectively engaging the next generation of readers and partners and making an impact across Hong Kong and beyond. We have noticed a double-digit growth in market share and a sustained rise in our brand scores.

Navigating the trifecta: contextual targeting, platform independence, and scaled reach

Question: Recent research shows three big challenges for digital publishers are contextual targeting, monetising with/without social platforms, and scaled audience extension — each cited by 29% of publishers.

These aren’t isolated problems; they’re interconnected.

How is SCMP addressing this trifecta? Specifically, how do you balance the need for platform distribution to achieve scale while building the direct relationships and contextual capabilities that drive premium advertising? What’s your framework for making these trade-off decisions?

Huang: When it comes to scale, SCMP has recently launched Morning Studio Amplified. A natural evolution for clients. In the past year, I have checked into hotels greeted by Morning Studio work for the hotel brand, and I have walked past properties that displayed Morning Studio videos on their outdoor screens.

This new solution allows marketers to leverage SCMP’s trust and credibility, delivering unified creatives and messaging across the fragmented media ecosystem. Brands can now optimise their media investments across multiple channels, extending beyond SCMP’s owned platforms and driving greater impact and engagement.

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