F&B · Confectionery · APAC

Helping the world's most iconic chocolate brand speak to every APAC market like a local

By Carol Tan, Founder of AI Studio Pte Ltd · Updated 16 May 2026

Hershey's is a household name globally. But across Asia-Pacific — India, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia — the brand needed local content that could compete with players like Cadbury.

307M+

Social Views Scraped

APAC Markets

225+

Cultural Data Points

Competitors Benchmarked

The Insight

Key Takeaways

We helped a global confectionery brand speak to each APAC market like a local. Homegrown competitors had dominated the social conversation.
We scraped trend data across five APAC markets. This mapped the cultural gaps the brand's global strategy was missing.
Cultural mapping surfaced local moments in each market: Diwali in India, matcha culture in Japan, night markets in Southeast Asia.
AI creative production delivered local lifestyle photography and ready-to-use social ads for each market.

Global icon. Local stranger.

In every APAC market we analysed, local competitors dominated the social conversation. Cadbury's India presence was 11.3x Hershey's. Meanwhile, the brand's global content strategy missed local moments — festivals, holidays, local food trends.

We scraped 307M+ views of social trend data across five APAC markets. This showed us what resonates locally: Diwali in India, matcha culture in Japan, night-market energy in Malaysia.

Cadbury vs Hershey's (India)11.3x gap

Markets analysed5

Cultural data points225+

Local competitors benchmarked18

Platforms scrapedTikTok, IG, YT

Our Approach

From cultural intelligence to localized creative at scale

Social Intelligence

Scraped 307M+ views across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube in 5 APAC markets. This mapped the cultural gaps.

Cultural Mapping

Found 225+ local cultural moments and trends in each market — from Diwali to matcha to hawker culture.

AI Creative Production

Produced local lifestyle photography, social ads, and product imagery — each built for one market's culture.

The Work

Localized lifestyle photography

AI-generated product photography, placed in real APAC settings — Singapore shophouses, Sydney harbour, Indian college dorms. Every image tells a local story.

Ad Creatives

Production-ready social campaigns

Local social ads made for India and APAC markets. Each one is built on a cultural insight, ready to run on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

What We Solve

What AI Studio solves for global F&B brands

Localisation

Content built for each market's culture — Diwali for India, matcha for Japan, hawker culture for SEA

Scale

Creative production across many markets, with no local agency in every country

Intelligence

Real social trend data (307M+ views scraped) drives every creative choice — not guesswork

Speed

React to trends while they're still hot — not months after the fact

Consistency

Brand-safe creative that keeps Hershey's identity while it adapts to five local cultures

Cost

No need for multi-market photoshoots, local production teams, or agency retainers