KALARA MEANS
LIGHT AND CLARITY
Partnering with agencies and in-house teams to bring clarity to complex brand and cultural challenges.
BEHIND KALARA STUDIOS
I’m Olivia Cham, a brand and cultural strategist with over a decade of experience working across APAC and Oceania. I’ve held strategy roles at global agencies including TBWA, AKA Asia, and Golin, partnering with brands such as McDonald’s, Porsche, Kraft Heinz, and Durex.
Kalara Studios is the vehicle for my independent work today, as I closely partner agencies and in-house teams across their strategic needs.
BRAND EXPERIENCE
HOW I WORK
Fractional / Embedded (In-house)
Acting as an embedded strategy partner within in-house teams – providing senior strategic leadership without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Contract Strategy Director (Agency)
Supporting agencies on a contract basis across pitches, campaigns, and periods of high delivery demand.
Project-Based Strategy Sprint
Short, focused engagements to define brand direction, narrative frameworks, or campaign strategy.
Research / Insight Support
Leading qualitative research, synthesis, and insight development to inform strategic decision-making.
WHAT I DO
My work sits at the intersection of brand, culture, and creative strategy.
I started my career in PR and earned media, which means I approach briefs and campaigns with a holistic perspective — across paid, earned, shared, and owned channels — rather than from a single-discipline lens.
Strategic Leadership
- Fractional strategy support
- Pitch strategy & leadership
- Creative briefs & strategic audits
- Strategic sparring & ongoing advisory
Brand & Narrative Development
- Brand positioning
- Tone of voice & brand personality
- Proposition development
- Creative territories
Campaign & Rollout Strategy
- Comms planning
- Go-to-market & rollout strategy
- Connections planning
- Content strategy (pillars, story arcs)
- Social media strategy (paid and organic)
Research & Insight Development
- Audience understanding & emotional drivers
- Cultural insight development
- Category & competitor mapping
PROOF
I’m often brought in when teams need clarity quickly — across high-stakes briefs, tight timelines, and complex stakeholder environments.
“It was an absolute pleasure working with Olivia. Together with her team, our brand was able to achieve greater heights in just a span of 12months! An achievement that we never dreamt of achieving as it was an uphill battle for many years. Her articulation of our strategy turned one of the most taboo category into great executions that not only drove us to greater heights in terms of creativity but also business result.”
“Olivia is unerringly accurate in being able to dig deep into human motivations and turn them into sharp and compelling strategic propositions. Her love for creative ideas that are unique and memorable, and her ability to suggest builds that make the ideas watertight against strategy was also very much appreciated by any creative who worked with her.”
“Olivia’s got a knack for thinking on her feet and tackling all kinds of briefs — from the tried-and-true to the totally unconventional. She moves quickly, staying agile and adaptable, effectively digesting large amounts of information and turning it into clear, strategic insights. Her ability to shift gears smoothly between different formats highlights her capacity for both creative thinking and strategic execution.”
“Olivia is able to flex her thinking across a wide range of briefs, from social and integrated campaigns to creative, B2B, G2B and B2C. She is also unfazed by new project teams or large, high-stakes projects. In fact, during her time with us she helped drive multiple big-budget campaigns and even secured two client conversions. I value how communicative and easy she is to work with, and how unafraid she is to share her POV when it counts.”