Singapore's Ad Fatigue May Signal a Shift in Asian Markets
The message is simple. If your brand asks better questions, you can make better promises and run fewer bad ads.
If your company plans to spend more on ads in Asia next year, read this first. Singapore, one of the region’s most digital markets, is tuning out brand messages. The habits formed there often spread across Southeast Asia.
New data shows a sharp rise in ad avoidance and distrust. Yet ad budgets keep climbing across the region. This gap is a strategy problem, not a media buying glitch.
The data: a market that no longer believes ads
Singapore now ranks as Southeast Asia’s most ad-skeptical market. Almost half of consumers, 49%, actively ignore brand ads or their social media posts, rising to 57% for those under 30. That finding has been highlighted in recent reporting on the city-state’s growing brand advertising fatigue.
Attention is getting hard to come by. In Singapore, 48% cannot recall the last ad that stood out, rising to 55% for people under 30, a sign of weakening ad effectiveness. Half of the market, 51%, says most brand messaging feels fake or tries too hard. Another 56% dismiss the idea of “brand trust” as empty words.
The pattern is regional. Two in three Southeast Asian consumers, 66%, tune out repetitive ads shown on a single channel, and Gen Z is 57% more likely to feel annoyed when the same brand keeps appearing in one place. This is a clear warning to reduce frequency and spread messages across multiple platforms. Researchers flag a generational rift. Younger consumers are less receptive, expect proof, and punish repetition faster.
Spending rises while attention falls
Here is the paradox. The Southeast Asia ad market is still expanding fast. It is valued at US$28.34 billion in 2025 and is set to reach US$56.51 billion by 2030, a 14.80% CAGR. Digital ads in the region are growing even faster at 15.6% through 2030, pointing to a migration into new formats and channels rather than good old ads. These figures are tracked in a recent regional market outlook.
At the same time, the wider Asia Pacific ad market will grow 6.0% in 2025, according to eMarketer. Growth may cool slightly from 2024 levels, then stabilize. Industry coverage shows a slowdown to 5.9% in 2025, followed by a rebound to 6.2% in 2026, signs of a more selective market for attention and results.
Where the money goes matters. Premium open internet environments, like quality news and content sites away from walled social feeds, command 1.2x greater ad trust than social media.
Leighton Cosseboom
What works now: prove it, humanize it, vary the format
Singapore’s low-trust environment is a reminder that authenticity, plus evidence, is now the cost of entry. In plain terms, stop telling people you are trustworthy and start showing the proof. That can include transparent pricing, clear product claims, and visible customer outcomes.
People also trust people more than ads. Research suggests 92% of consumers trust recommendations from real people compared to 33% who trust mobile ads, a credibility gap that favors real voices and peer influence over paid placements.
For Southeast Asia, micro-influencers deliver outsized results. Brands working with them in the region see 11x higher ROI than traditional ads, driven by relevance and perceived honesty. That finding is consistent with a recent analysis of influencer marketing ROI in Southeast Asia.
The approach is not abstract. Skin Inc partnered with 300 "Key Opinion Moms" in Malaysia and Singapore to push downloads for its Sabi+ skin analysis app, reaching more than 1 million people with around 3 million impressions and 17,097 Instagram engagements. Fashion platforms such as Zalora also continue to use nano and micro-influencers to build trust at niche levels where relevance is higher.
Format also matters. Shoppable video and live selling are rewriting the playbook on attention. Shopee Live lifted sales by more than six times during Malaysia and Thailand’s 9.9 Super Shopping Day, a signal that interactive commerce can beat passive ads in crowded markets.
Rethink listening: from surveys to conversations
One core lesson from Singapore is that brands are not only struggling to be heard. They are also struggling to listen. New research urges a shift from surveys to real conversations that capture context and emotion.
In Singapore, 60% of consumers say they would even talk to an AI interviewer, rising to roughly 70% among younger people, opening the door to faster and richer consumer insights. The message is simple. If your brand asks better questions, you can make better promises and run fewer bad ads.
The generational split is key. Under 30s are more likely to ignore ads and more likely to punish repetition. They respond better to social proof, direct utility, and creators who feel like peers. Older audiences may still respond to classic claims and reminders, but tolerance for repetition is falling there, too.
A quick checklist:
- Cut repetition on any single channel. Spread frequency across multiple platforms to reduce fatigue.
- Move more spend into high-quality open internet environments where ad trust is stronger.
- Replace slogans with proof. Show outcomes, reviews, and clear benefits people can test.
- Use real people at scale. Build creator and micro-influencer programs with clear ROI guardrails.
- Make listening a habit. Pilot AI-led consumer conversations to improve message fit by age group.
- Test interactive formats. Use live shopping and social commerce where people are already buying.
The signal from Singapore is clear. Attention is migrating to places and people that consumers trust, and it is punishing brands that overrepeat or overclaim. Growth will still come in Asia, but it will go to those who treat trust as a metric, not a slogan.
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