Is your strategy ready for the "Year of the Horse"? Blackbox CEO David Black identifies eight signals reshaping Singapore's communications landscape—from Chinese brand dominance and AI disruption to healthcare anxieties and PR-IR convergence. The mandate: transform from message carrier to strategic interpreter in 2026.

Real-time data isn’t just faster research - it’s a fundamental shift in how brands make decisions. In today’s hyper-accelerated markets, yesterday’s insight is already a liability, consumer preferences shift overnight and competitive landscapes transform in real-time. Yet too many brands still rely on quarterly research studies that take weeks to analyze and months to implement – by which time the market has completely moved on.

Discover how real-time intelligence transforms reactive organizations into predictive powerhouses – and why in today's Southeast Asia, clarity beats volume and decisiveness beats delay.

In this Op-Ed, David Black critiques the "quantum fallacy"—the overreliance on behavioural nudges to solve systemic crises. While effective for micro-decisions, nudges cannot replace structural reform. This piece calls for a synthesis of behavioural science, AI, and systems thinking to address the underlying drivers of Southeast Asia’s complex economic and social challenges.

The final SensingSG wave of 2025 reveals a significant "Trump Slump" in Singaporean sentiment, driven by economic friction and tariff concerns. Conversely, domestic stability remains high, with Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy of meritocracy and foresight continuing to anchor public confidence ten years after his passing.

Asia’s e-commerce market is racing toward US$2 trillion, but the old playbook is dead. Is your brand ready for the revolution? Drawing on exclusive insights from 46 regional leaders, our latest report, “The Next Leap for E-Commerce in Southeast Asia,” uncovers the three tectonic shifts defining the future: the explosion of video commerce, AI-driven personalisation, and the borderless shelf. Discover the strategies you need to thrive in the experience economy.

On 4 Sep 2025, Blackbox hosted the Brand Leaders Brunch: The Insight Disconnect, where 50 senior decision-makers came together to ask: In the attention economy, how do we keep research meaningful? Leading the discussion were Mansi Trivedi, who heads strategy and insights across APJ at Transmission; Jessalynn Chen, Managing Director of Labbrand Singapore with expertise in brand innovation and cultural fit; and David Black, founder and CEO of Blackbox Research. Together, they unpacked why attention isn’t really shrinking, why “trust” is too vague to act on, and why senior executives will never fill your survey — surfacing 7 key shifts every leader should know to turn feedback into genuine dialogue.

Surveys and interviews have long been staples of market research, but as audiences evolve, so must our methods. This article examines the strengths and limitations of both approaches and explores how emerging AI alternatives like Blackbox Dialogue enhance data quality, respondent experience, and research efficiency, by combining the best elements of surveys and interviews.

Nomination Day 2025 has set the tone for a competitive and closely watched election. Drawing from Blackbox’s latest data, this analysis explores what the candidate line-ups reveal about voter sentiment, leadership favourability, and top concerns — from cost-of-living pressures to rising interest in opposition rallies and political engagement.