There is a lot of strategy in marketing.
Brand strategy. Business strategy. Content strategy. Campaign strategy.
Somewhere in the middle sits the brand strategist, helping connect business goals, audience understanding and what the brand should actually stand for.
Add enough slides to a deck and almost anything can start looking strategic.
The tougher question is whether the thinking changes what the brand should do next.
• What should people know you for?
• Why should they choose you?
• What does the market already believe?
• What is getting in the way?
Those questions usually happen before the campaign, the shoot or the content calendar.
That is why Casimir Yong, CEO and Founder of Paperballad&Co., received the MARKies 2026 Best Strategist category award and why it matters to us.
The award recognises something people rarely see.
The thinking before the work.
What Does a Brand Strategist Actually Do?
Every brand has two versions of itself.
The one inside the company.
And the one that exists in people’s minds.
Sometimes those two versions are very different.
A business may see itself as premium while customers see it as expensive.
A company may believe it is innovative while the market sees the same thing everyone else is offering.
A brand may have decades of experience and still struggle to explain why that experience matters today.
A brand strategist studies that gap.
The work usually begins with questions.
► What does the audience already believe?
► What do they care about?
► Where are they hesitating?
► What are competitors already claiming?
► What can this brand credibly own?
Then comes the decision making, the hardest part.
Strategy means deciding what deserves attention and what does not.
Because when a brand tries to stand for everything, people usually remember very little.
A Simple Example
Imagine two coffee distributors supplying similar beans to cafés.
The first says:
“Premium Arabica beans with consistent quality.”
There is nothing wrong with it.
There is also very little to remember.
The second says:
“Coffee your baristas can serve consistently, so every cup tastes right even during the morning rush.”
Now the conversation has changed.
The café owner is thinking about consistency, training, customer expectations.
Whether the tenth cup tastes like the first.
The product is still coffee beans but the reason to care is much bigger.
That is what good strategy does.
It translates what a business sells into something the audience actually values.
Brand Strategist, Creative Strategist, UX Strategist. What Is the Difference?
The titles can get confusing.
And in reality, the lines are rarely as neat as the job descriptions make them sound.
| Role | What It Mainly Looks At |
| Brand Strategist | What the brand should mean and be known for |
| Creative Strategist | How that thinking becomes ideas and communication |
| Content Strategist | What content should be created and why |
| UX Strategist | What people need to understand and experience before acting |
The strongest strategic work often moves between them.
A positioning problem can become a content problem.
A trust problem can become a UX problem.
A customer problem can become a communication problem.
The title matters less than whether the strategist really understands the problem.
► Read more about What a UX Strategist Means for Brands.
Most Brands Do Not Need More Content First
A lot of brands think they need better content.
Sometimes they do. Other times, content is simply where the deeper problem becomes visible.
The brand feels familiar, the message sounds like the category and the campaigns look polished but leave very little behind.
People see the work, they may even engage with it. Then they move on without thinking about the brand any differently.
That usually signals a strategy problem.
A good brand strategist asks:
- What should people believe after seeing this?
- What is stopping them from choosing?
- What should this brand own in their minds?
- What does the audience need to understand first?
Trust matters here too. If people do not feel confident enough to choose, even good creative has very little to work with.
Because output is easy to count.
Meaning is harder.
Twelve posts can fill a calendar.
They cannot guarantee that anyone understands the brand better afterwards.
► Read HERE to find out Why Malaysian Brands aren’t really Brands.
Why This Matters More for Established Brands
For an established brand, there is usually more at stake.
Years of recognition.
Existing customers.
Internal stakeholders.
A reputation people already have opinions about.
Customer expectations change too.
The challenge is keeping up without losing what people already value about the brand.
Sometimes the challenge is growth.
Sometimes it is relevance.
Sometimes the business has changed and the way people see it has not caught up yet.
Strategy has to understand what already exists before deciding what should change.
That is especially important for market leaders, established consumer brands and global organisations.
The goal is rarely to throw everything away and start again.
It is to understand what still has value, what needs to move forward and where the next opportunity sits.
That requires more than a new campaign idea.
It requires diagnosis.
What the Best Strategist Award Actually Means to Us
Awards are nice but only useful when they stand for something.
For Paperballad&Co., Casimir Yong receiving the award in the MARKies 2026 Best Strategist category is recognition of the part of our work that happens before most people see anything.
The questions.
The research.
The uncomfortable conversations.
The decision to challenge a brief when the brief is solving the wrong problem.
The clarity that makes the creative work easier afterwards.
That is the standard we care about.
Good strategy should eventually make the answer feel obvious.
It starts with a sentence lands to a campaign suddenly makes sense.
A content direction that becomes easier to defend and finally a brand becomes easier to understand.
The final work may look simple.
Getting there usually is not.
The Award Is Nice. The Standard Is the Point.
Recognition does not mean the thinking is finished. If anything, it raises the expectation.
Sharper questions. Better diagnosis. Clearer direction.
More discipline to walk away from ideas that look exciting but do very little for the brand.
That is what we want to bring into every strategic conversation.
Because brands rarely need another person in the room saying yes to everything.
Sometimes the most valuable thing an outside strategist can bring is a better question.
Where Paperballad Comes In
At Paperballad&Co., strategy is the work that comes before the work people see.
We study the market, the audience, the brand position and the perception that needs to shift.
We ask what people should understand after encountering your brand repeatedly, and what needs to happen for them to trust you enough to choose you.
For the established brands we work with, the goal is rarely more for the sake of more.
It is clearer thinking behind what comes next.
If this resonated, it is probably because you already sense that your brand could be doing more.
Good content with decent numbers, but weak differentiation.
Strong campaigns, but little movement in perception.
A recognised brand, but an unclear next chapter.
That gap has a name.
And we know how to close it.
Book a discovery call with Paperballad&Co.
We’ll take the time to understand your brand, your market and what it would actually take to make people choose you. No templates. No generic audits. Just honest strategic thinking from a team that’s done this before.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a brand strategist do?
A brand strategist studies the audience, market, competition and existing brand perception to help determine what a business should be known for, why people should choose it and what needs to change in how the brand is understood.
What is the difference between a brand strategist and a creative strategist?
A brand strategist focuses on what the brand should mean and how it should be positioned. A creative strategist translates that direction into ideas, campaigns and communication. In practice, the two often work closely together and Paperballad&Co. does both.
Why do established brands need brand strategy?
Established brands already have customers, reputation and existing market perceptions. Brand strategy helps determine what should be protected, what should evolve and how the brand can stay relevant without losing what people already value about it.
What does the Best Strategist award mean for Paperballad&Co.?
Casimir Yong, CEO and Founder of Paperballad&Co., received the MARKies 2026 Best Strategist category. For Paperballad&Co., the recognition reflects how the agency approaches its work: clearer diagnosis, sharper strategy and creative that knows what it is trying to change.
When should a business work with a brand strategist?
A brand strategist can be useful when positioning feels unclear, competitors increasingly sound the same, campaigns are active without changing perception, or the business has evolved faster than the way customers understand the brand.
