When The Industry Takes The Stage

At APPIES Malaysia 2026, creativity is not just celebrated. It is questioned, defended and brought to life in front of the room.

There are awards shows that reward the final work. Then there is APPIES Malaysia, where the thinking behind the work is placed under the spotlight.

On July 9 and 10, APPIES Malaysia 2026 returns as one of the industry’s most distinctive platforms, bringing together marketers, agencies, brand leaders and creative minds for two days of live presentations, sharp thinking and hard-earned recognition. More than a showcase of campaigns, APPIES has become a stage where Malaysia’s marketing industry tests not only its best ideas, but also its ability to explain why those ideas mattered.

Its format has always been its defining strength. Campaigns are presented live before a panel of judges and an audience, demanding clarity, confidence and conviction. It is one thing to submit a winning case. It is another to stand on stage and make a room believe in it.

That live tension is what gives APPIES its character. It removes the comfort of distance and asks presenters to own every part of the work, from the first insight to the final result.

For Stanley Clement, Chief Executive Officer of MBCS Malaysia and keynote speaker at APPIES Malaysia 2026, the timing of this year’s event could not be more relevant. The industry, he believes, is standing at a critical point.

“We’re in the middle of an identity crisis dressed up as an AI revolution. Everyone’s investing in tools, but very few are investing in taste,” says Steven. “The agencies that win the next five years won’t be the ones with the best tech stack, they’ll be the ones who still know how to read culture.”

It is a line that lands with uncomfortable precision. Artificial intelligence has become the industry’s favourite conversation, reshaping workflows, accelerating production and changing how teams approach content. But Steven’s point cuts through the noise. Technology may sharpen the process, but it cannot replace cultural instinct. It cannot teach taste. It cannot feel the room.

That is where the human craft of marketing still matters.

APPIES, in many ways, is built around that craft. The stage rewards those who understand not only what was done, but why it worked. It favours campaigns that can connect insight, strategy, creativity and effectiveness into a story that is clear, persuasive and deeply human.

Clement knows that stage well. Having won Presenter of the Decade at the 10th Anniversary of the APPIES in Malaysia, he understands that a strong presentation is not about performance for its own sake. It is about belief.

“Present the argument, not the deck,” he says. “People don’t remember your slide count, they remember whether you made them believe something. And don’t be afraid of a pause, silence on stage does more work than people think.”

That advice captures the essence of APPIES. The best presentations do not simply report what happened. They build a case. They take the audience through the tension, the problem, the leap of thinking and the result. In that moment, the presenter becomes more than a spokesperson. They become the bridge between the work and its meaning.

For those who have experienced APPIES from the stage, the format leaves a lasting impression.

“What makes the APPIES especially meaningful is its format where we had to pitch our BizSmart Challenge story live to a panel of judges, just like our entrepreneurs do in the BizSmart Challenge itself. Just one take. No retakes,” says Shayne Koh, Head of Group Digital, Marketing & Branding at Alliance Bank.

That “one take” pressure is exactly why the platform continues to matter. It mirrors the reality of business, where marketers are often given one meeting, one pitch, one chance to win confidence and move an idea forward.

For Adelene Wong, Group Director Marketing Communications at ParkCity Group, serving on the APPIES 2025 jury offered a close look at the calibre of work being produced across the industry.

“Grateful to have been part of the jury for the APPIES Awards 2025. It was such an inspiring experience going through all the incredible submissions and seeing the creativity and hard work behind them. The awards ceremony itself was a wonderful celebration of a decade of excellence, and it was a delight to witness the winners being recognised for their amazing efforts,” she says.

Behind every case study and every moment on stage is a long trail of decisions, disagreements, revisions and late nights. Awards may capture the final applause, but the real work happens long before the spotlight.

As Amirul Fitri Hisham, Assistant Marketing Manager at Etika Group of Companies, puts it: “Marketing is never a one-person show. Every single award reflects months of ideas, challenges, and teamwork — from late-night brainstorms to executions, to partners who shared the vision with us. This is just the beginning. Here’s to more learning, more courage, and maybe a few more feathers next year.”

That sentiment sits at the heart of APPIES. It is not only a platform for individual brilliance, but for collective effort. It recognises that great marketing is rarely the result of one person’s spark. It is built through the friction of teams, the trust between clients and agencies, and the discipline to keep improving an idea until it becomes strong enough to stand in public.

Marlina Mansor, Head of Creative Solutions Content Specialist Commercial Production and Digital Branded Content at Astro, describes that journey with striking honesty.

“The grind was real, late nights, countless deck revisions, script rewrites, endless rehearsals. 10 years of blood, sweat, and pure teamwork. Yesterday’s highlight reel brought back so many familiar faces. Some have left, but their spirit is still part of why we stand here today. Here’s to more wins, braver ideas, and campaigns that make people say: Only Astro could do that.”

Her words reveal another layer of what APPIES celebrates: continuity. Campaigns may come and go, but the culture behind them is built over years. The people who shape the work may move on, but their influence remains embedded in the teams, standards and instincts they leave behind.

That continuity is especially important at a time when the industry is trying to attract and retain young talent.

Steven believes young communications graduates still find the idea of the industry exciting, but the reality can be harder to sell.

“They grew up watching creators build audiences on their own terms, so walking into a hierarchy and a deck template feels like a step backward,” he says. “Our job is to prove the craft is still worth the trade-off.”

It is one of the most pressing questions facing agencies today. How does an industry built on creativity keep itself attractive to a generation that has seen creativity thrive outside traditional structures? How does it compete with the freedom of creator culture, where young people can build influence, communities and income without waiting for permission?

For Steven, the answer begins with restoring meaning to the work.

“Fewer and fewer people actually want to come into this industry now, and that should worry all of us,” he says. “I’d want us to give value and meaning back to what we do, to make it clear this isn’t just deck-making and deadlines, it’s actually one of the few jobs where you get to shape how people think and feel at scale. We’ve let that meaning get buried. We need to dig it back out.”

That idea of meaning runs through the wider APPIES conversation. The platform does more than showcase winning campaigns. It reminds the industry why the work matters in the first place. Marketing, when done well, does not simply sell. It shifts perceptions, builds memory, creates emotion and influences behaviour.

But meaning alone is not enough. In a market where budgets are scrutinised and business pressure is constant, creativity must also prove its value.

Steven is clear on this when discussing whether pure-play creative shops can survive without the financial benefits of media commissions.

“It’s possible, but it takes real discipline,” he says. “You have to make creative so valuable that clients are happy to pay for it directly, the way they’d pay a consultancy. That’s a mindset shift for a lot of clients, and for a lot of agencies too.”

It is a reminder that creative value cannot be assumed. It must be demonstrated, defended and linked to outcomes. The same applies to fame, a word the industry often uses with ambition, but not always with precision.

“To the client, the end result is what matters,” Steven says. “If the work delivers the business result, and that result is what drives the fame, any client will see the value in it. So before I ever let the creative idea take center stage, I make sure I believe the groundwork underneath it is solid. Fame follows results, not the other way around.”

That belief aligns closely with the APPIES spirit. The strongest work is not merely loud. It is effective. It understands that attention only becomes valuable when it creates impact.

For Abdul Sani Abdul Murad, Group Chief Marketing Officer at RHB Banking Group, improving the industry requires a shared commitment from both advertisers and agencies.

“As we try to raise the industry’s ceiling, we have to raise the floor too. That takes unity. It takes advertisers and agencies pulling in the same direction, occasionally arguing along the way, but always committed to making the whole thing better than it was before,” he says.

That sense of shared responsibility is crucial. The industry cannot evolve if clients demand bravery but punish risk, or if agencies chase originality without understanding business realities. Progress depends on both sides being willing to challenge each other while still moving in the same direction.

Diversity, too, remains part of the industry’s broader self-examination. For Steven, the conversation should be less about labels and more about building teams of people who are capable, motivated and committed to making a difference.

“For me, diversity has always just been there, I’ve never really needed to put a label on it,” he says. “If you’re good at what you do and you’re genuinely excited to make a difference, that’s what matters to me. I think we’ve spent a lot of energy on the labelling and not enough on just doing the work with the right people, and honestly, the labelling hasn’t taken us very far.”

It is a view that may provoke debate, but APPIES has always been a place where industry perspectives meet the realities of the work. The conversations around talent, culture, diversity, effectiveness and creativity are not separate from the campaigns being presented. They shape the conditions under which those campaigns are made.

For Melvyn Lim, Unit Head, Sports Marketing at CelcomDigi, the APPIES stage remains a place worth returning to.

“Some might retire with a 1/1 win rate at APPIES, but I know I can do even better. I’ll be back in 2026 if I’ve got a campaign worthy of the stage. Time to make that happen — with my awesome colleagues,” he says.

That hunger to return, improve and present work worthy of the stage is what keeps APPIES alive as more than an awards programme. It is a benchmark. A challenge. A mirror held up to the industry.

As for Steven’s keynote address on July 9, he is revealing just enough to intrigue the room.

“I’ll be talking about how much can come out of all of us being a little more STUPID, in the best sense of the word,” he says. “That’s really all I’ll say for now, you’ll have to come hear the rest.”

It is a fitting tease for a platform that has always rewarded those willing to stand up, take a risk and make people listen.

When asked what he will be at 60, Steven answers with characteristic simplicity: “OLD. But hopefully still curious, and still in a room somewhere fighting for an idea I believe in.”

Perhaps that is the real spirit of APPIES Malaysia 2026. Not just winning. Not just presenting. Not just celebrating the past year’s best work. But staying curious enough to keep fighting for ideas, brave enough to defend them live, and honest enough to ask whether the industry is still building something worth believing in.

At a time when marketing is being reshaped by technology, talent shifts and business pressure, APPIES offers the industry something rare: a room where ideas must prove themselves. And in that room, the work is not only seen. It is felt, tested and remembered.