Our eighth Innovator 25 class in Asia-Pacific again highlights 25 individuals who are creating the PR and marketing industry’s future, showcasing how the traditional rules of influence and engagement are rapidly being redrawn to deliver a better future of work, campaigns, live events and much more.

The people recognised here come from various corners of the industry — creative strategy, digital execution, influencer mapping, media storytelling, senior management — but together they represent a compelling picture of what marketing and communications looks like today, and where it is heading tomorrow.

You can read all of the Innovator 25 Profiles, and explore their inspiration, advice and career learnings, using the navigation menu on this page. We have also collected insights and trends among this year's Innovators in the infographic below, including the organizations they come from, the brands and people they admire, their collective take on the PR industry's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to innovation, and their own personal habits and tips. 

The highest proportion of our class are based in India this year (20%), followed by Hong Kong and Singapore (15%), China and Australia. Indeed, this year sees considerable geographic breadth from our Innovator 25, also including Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan. 

The highest proportion (45%) of this year's class have been in their roles for less than three years. Most (55%) hail from agency, and more than half (53%) report to the CEO.

Encouragingly, 55% describe the communications/PR industry’s level of innovation as higher than other marketing disciplines, a distinct improvement on previous years. And, for the first time, integrated marketing overtakes content creation as the industry’s greatest opportunity for leading innovation, according to 45% of our class.

Most of our respondents (50%) think the CEO is most influential when it comes to driving innovation, ahead of the CMO (25%). Only 15% see the CCO as influential in this regard, and fewer still (10%) select the communications/PR agency as a driver of innovation. 

The vast majority of our respondents (85%) think that the rise of generative AI will make the communications/PR industry more innovative. When it comes to the people that our Innovators admire, most opt for inspirational business leaders and founders, including Nandan Nilekani, N. Chandrasekaran, Jensen Huang, Yvon Chouinard, Mary Kay Ash, and Steve Jobs.