Annette Lee leads Google’s creator-led series for marketers across Southeast Asia

New Delhi: Google has launched a YouTube creator-led content series for marketers and entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia, featuring Annette Lee as her popular character Aunty M, a fast-talking, straight-shooting host who unpacks advertising jargon while building her sambal belacan business.

The campaign has been developed in collaboration with The Carrot Collective, which led content creation, and VIRTUE Asia, which supported creator strategy and selection.

According to the report, the episodic series, titled Marketing Unfiltered, has been developed to present Google and YouTube Ads Solutions in an accessible and culturally resonant format. It is designed to counter the perception of business-to-business marketing content as technical and disengaging by using humour, storytelling and regionally relevant creators.

“The world doesn’t need more boring b2b content about how to launch a new ad campaign. Our products are constantly evolving, so it was time our storytelling did too. This series lets us speak to marketers and entrepreneurs on their terms, in ways that feel accessible, local, and culturally relevant,” said Samit Malkani, group marketing creative manager at Google Southeast Asia and South Asia frontier.

Annette Lee, known for her characters and short video series like #ChatsWithChantelle and #AsianParentTings, plays the lead role of Aunty M, who travels across the region meeting marketing professionals to better understand how to use Google’s ad tools effectively.

The content rollout mimics the structure of US talk shows, combining full-length episodes with mid-form segments and short-form highlights to enhance engagement and audience reach.

David Webster, CEO and co-founder of The Carrot Collective, said, “Our aim with Aunty M was to reframe how b2b marketing shows up – less as a product explainer, and more as a narrative universe designed to resonate with the real frustrations and ambitions of entrepreneurs across the region. By anchoring the series in character, humour and cultural insight, we’ve created a platform that doesn’t just inform, it builds affinity, earns attention, and drives deeper engagement at scale.”

Zoe Chen, strategy director at VIRTUE Asia, added, “Many YouTube creators are already creating content about Google Ads Solutions so this was an opportunity to claim that narrative by collaborating with them to produce engaging content. Our strategy was rooted in authenticity, humour and regional relevance. The brilliant Annette Lee, who brings Aunty M to life, was a natural choice. She’s already beloved across Southeast Asia for her relatable comedic characters that capture the essence and cultural diversity of Southeast Asia, and an entrepreneur herself, Annette was the perfect bridge between complex ad solutions and entertainment. Creating the character of Aunty M with her meant that this isn’t just creator-led content, it’s creator-shaped strategy.”

The series is being released across Google’s regional YouTube channels in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, and is supported by a paid media campaign on social platforms. The first episode is currently live, with further episodes scheduled to release through the year.

Watch the campaign film :