Risk taking in content creation: Copycats, trendjacks and unpredictability

At the Media Specialists Association (MSA) Festival's panel titled "The culture shift – what scares us the most?", Christina Ng, founder of local shoe brand Christy Ng, addressed head-on the recurring criticism that her brand is a “copycat.”

“There have been a lot of questions about our brand being a copycat, and I’d love to address this,” she said, explaining that the design process often begins with visual references from platforms such as Pinterest or global forecasting guides such as WGSN.

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“A lot of us use the same references, the same bible. If you look at fast fashion, many successful brands take inspiration from the runway. Zara has done this for years. The difference is, they don’t have a founder’s name or face attached. I get more hate because people see me personally as the face of the brand," Ng said. 

She added that design overlaps are unavoidable in fashion, where “a bag is a bag” and silhouettes cannot diverge too drastically. For her, the brand’s value lies in producing high-quality, affordable alternatives. “If we really had no substance, we wouldn’t be shipping to 50 countries, or opening five stores in Indonesia this year,” she said, adding that while criticism persists, the numbers prove consumers see value in her brand.

Her remarks came during a Q&A session that followed a discussion on the broader culture of risk-taking in content creation. Ng admitted to learning the hard way about sensitivities, from controversial props in campaigns to videos that were later deleted for being “bad examples.” Still, she stressed that experimenting has made her team “clever at filtering what to post,” ensuring that slapstick humour or the “Bengap brothers” skits never stray too far from brand safety.

For Albert Thien, content and advocacy manager at L’Oréal Paris Malaysia and Singapore, the key lies in balancing “trendjacking and trendspotting” while staying fast and flexible. He shared that once the brand embraced trendjacking, views and engagement exceeded the benchmark by 1.42%.

“Every year, we’re always looking for better ways to improve, even with the speed of our content creation,” Thien said. He noted that his team now turns around work within a week. “It’s a calculated risk, but I’ve learned to decide quickly whether jumping on a specific trend could breach legal boundaries or trigger potential backlash.”

Meanwhile, content creator Low Sok Yin reflected on the unpredictable side of virality, recalling how a simple rap to teach Malay unexpectedly blew up online. Her takeaway was that there is no fixed formula beyond being consistent, authentic and relatable. “Audiences will know if you’re acting,” she said.

Across the panel, the theme of authenticity surfaced repeatedly, whether in creators filtering out clients who only wanted hard-sell messaging, or in brands experimenting with employee-generated content to build trust. For Ng, this boils down to a simple filter: “We only do trends that resonate with us. If it feels funny enough, if it feels authentic, then we’ll post it.”

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