From Campaign to Culture: How Garnier Is Showing Up in Gaming

That distinction matters more in gaming than almost anywhere else. Gaming communities are not passive audiences waiting to be reached. They are active, discerning, and quick to identify a brand that is buying attention versus one that is genuinely contributing to the culture they love.

Mabel Lim has spent years navigating exactly that tension. Until recently, she led Garnier's digital strategy for the SAPMENA region, covering 35 markets from New Zealand to Morocco, driving the brand's cultural and community-building approach across some of the most diverse and digitally active audiences in the world. She now holds a senior global marketing role within the L'Oréal group. As part of the Mana Culture Pulse series, we put six questions to Mabel on what it actually takes for a brand to move beyond the campaign mindset and build something that lasts.

Can you start by telling us a bit about your role at L'Oreal and how your focus on advocacy across SAPMENA has shaped the way you think about brand and culture?

"Before moving on to my current role in July 2026, I was leading Garnier's digital strategy for the South Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa (SAPMENA) region, which covers markets from New Zealand all the way to Morocco. My focus sat right at the intersection of digital culture, community building, and brand storytelling across 35 diverse markets.

SAPMENA is home to 3 billion people with deeply diverse beauty ideals, traditions, and growing aspirations. Managing advocacy in a region this vast and dynamic meant shifting our mindset from traditional broadcasting to true cultural belonging.

Instead of relying on top-down messaging, we focused on embedding Garnier into culturally relevant spaces – whether tapping into K-pop influence or entering gaming ecosystems like our #GarnierGAMEFACE campaign. We partnered with authentic, local creators who were genuinely embedded in their communities, allowing trusted voices to champion how our science-backed, accessible beauty routines fit naturally into their everyday lives."

L'Oreal and Garnier have been making moves into gaming culture across Southeast Asia, including partnerships in the MLBB space. What does the thinking behind a decision like that actually look like from the inside, and how does a brand like L'Oreal decide a cultural space is right for them before committing to it?

"When we evaluate cultural spaces like gaming (whether it's EA SPORTS FC or Mobile Legends: Bang Bang), the decision goes far deeper than just chasing eyeballs or treating a platform as another advertising billboard. Gamers have a very high bar for authenticity. If you enter their world simply because 'that's where young consumers spend time there', they will see right through it. Instead, our thinking is driven by genuine cultural resonance and reciprocity. First, we look at behavioral alignment, recognizing that grooming and hygiene aren't separate from gaming, but rather a natural pre-game ritual that builds focus and confidence. Second, we focus on adding real value to the community rather than just taking from it. Finally, we respect the subculture by collaborating with creators who are genuinely embedded in the space, ensuring our brand acts as an enabler of their passion instead of an interruption."

CMOs are increasingly investing in cultural spaces and moments that are evidently highly considered. From your experience leading advocacy across a region as diverse as SAPMENA, how do you identify the right opportunity, decide to move on it, and then measure whether it actually worked for the business?

"Leading advocacy across 35 diverse SAPMENA markets with contrasting cultural nuances taught us that finding the right cultural opportunity requires identifying where consumer passion meets brand truth. A one-size-fits-all playbook doesn't work. First, we identify cultural inflection points where daily habits are shifting, like mobile gaming exploding across Indonesia. Second, we run an authenticity test: can Garnier naturally serve a real need, like pre-game grooming, or are we just slapping a logo on a screen? Third, we track real business impact. Creator partnerships must drive business results, so we tie that broad mental availability directly to e-commerce and retail partners and track how effectively creator-led touchpoints are actually driving traffic and conversion. By connecting cultural resonance directly to commercial reality, we ensure our investments actually move the needle for the business while staying true to the communities we serve every day."

There is a version of cultural marketing that is purely a campaign, a moment with a start and end date, and there is a version that builds something durable with an audience over time. From where you sit at L'Oreal, what does that longer term commitment actually require internally before it can happen externally?

"Moving from a campaign-driven moment to a durable, long-term cultural commitment requires massive internally before you ever see it executed externally. At L'Oréal, true longevity rests on three internal pillars. First, you cannot mandate a single playbook from a regional hub. You have to trust local market teams who truly understand their unique subcultures. Second, you have to break down internal silos to have absolute alignment between all internal teams. The magic happens when the advocacy team builds community trust in a gaming arena, and the e-commerce and retail pipelines are ready to capture that intent instantly. Finally, shifting away from purely short-term campaign metrics. Building real cultural equity takes patience, and we need to buy into long-term community trust and brand resonance rather than expecting immediate, transactional ROAS from a one-off post."

Advocacy sits at a very particular intersection of brand trust and audience participation. What has leading advocacy taught you about what genuinely makes a community want to champion a brand versus simply engage with it once?

"Leading advocacy has taught me that the gap between a consumer simply engaging with a brand through a fleeting double-tap versus actually championing it comes down to shifting from corporate broadcasting to shared identity. People don't advocate for product specifications but champion brands that genuinely understand and elevate their lifestyle. This requires serving rather than just selling, like positioning skincare as a pre-game ritual for focus and confidence during a long gaming session. It also means moving away from manufactured marketing and letting creators and communities co-own the narrative and interpret the brand through their own lens and humor. Finally, advocacy must be backed by undeniable product proof. When our science-backed formulations deliver real results in a consumer's everyday life, they stop just using the product and proudly become its loudest, most authentic voice."

For a CMO across APAC or MENA who is trying to move their organisation beyond the campaign mindset, what is the most important shift in thinking that needs to happen first?

"The most important shift is moving from a broadcasting mindset to a stewardship mindset. Too many organizations treat culture like a rented media channel that you buy into for a few weeks, run ads against and then abandon. To build a truly durable brand, CMOs need to loosen control to gain actual relevance, giving creators and communities the space to interpret your brand authentically. You need to measure true value added to a lifestyle rather than just raw impressions or volume. And finally, you must treat culture as an ongoing, living ecosystem rather than an isolated event with a hard stop date."

Conclusion

The stewardship mindset versus the broadcasting mindset. That distinction is worth writing on the wall of every brand marketing team operating across APAC and MENA right now.

Garnier's work in gaming across the SAPMENA region is not a case study in a brand getting lucky. It is a case study in what happens when a global brand does the internal work first, earns the right to be in the space, and then shows up in a way that adds something rather than takes.

That is the standard. And it is achievable.

If you are a brand looking to integrate into gaming and culture in a way that builds genuine relevance and long-term community trust, Mana Partners helps you make lore, not noise.