Marketer Spotlight: Behind the Craft with Suhayl Limbada, CMO of KFC Thailand

‘Suhayl doesn’t pay lip service to pushing creative limits, he lives it everyday.‘

– Justin Gomes, Co-Founder & CCO of Bananas
 

Q:  What’s been your path to KFC Thailand? How did you find yourself here, and what have been some key moments along the way?

Suhayl: I’d say my journey has not been a conventional one. I started out in the UK working in all sorts including door-to-door sales, call centres and even office cleaning jobs. That gave me mental toughness. I got my first corporate break back in South Africa with Cadbury as a Trainee. This was a school of life in terms of being a good marketer, especially when it comes to agency, client relationships under the mentorship of Geoff Whyte and Mike Middleton.

My journey since, like most great things in life, wasn’t linear but rather was layered, topsy-turvy, and full of surprises. After working on awesome brands like Cadbury and Stimorol, I challenged myself with a regional category role before jumping into an even steeper learning curve as Market Lead/GM for Cadbury Indian Ocean Islands. Here I learnt to learn quickly as the learning curve was a vertical line! After a few ‘tough’ years of tropical island life, the chicken was calling and I joined KFC, starting out in New Africa Markets in 2015. Painting the African continent red taught me even more about the art of entrepreneurship in Marketing, which ultimately paid off when our World Cup ‘Neymar’ campaign went viral globally. This led to a stint in South Africa as Marketing Director at KFC where I had the privilege to be part of an incredible team that turned around the South African business. Our marketing had to be smart, sharp, and scrappy to earn attention. It taught me to never wait for the perfect brief; you just make the magic with what you have.

From there, I moved across to KFC Thailand as CMO. Accepting a job in a country I had never visited talks to the unconventional nature of my career because what attracted me was again the steepness of the learning curve, different culture, different tempo, same obsession with unlocking growth through creativity and people. The real turning point for me was realising that leadership isn’t about knowing all the answers, it’s about creating the kind of environment where the best ideas can rise. Coming to Thailand was a leap, but a purposeful one. It’s where I’ve had to combine grit with grace, and lead transformation from the inside out. So the key moment? Every single day. I raise my hand. I back myself. And I show up for the people and the work. Simple as that.

Q: You’ve helped lead KFC Thailand’s transformation into a bold, creatively fearless brand, from wild surrealism like ‘Let There Be Cake’ to spicy stunt work like ‘Buldak Dunked Wings’. How do you navigate that creative range while staying true to the KFC voice?

Q: The Thailand work feels cinematic, visually confident, and considered. What role does craft play in your decision-making when backing a campaign?

Q: What’s your thinking around distinctiveness and long-term brand building, especially in a category like fast food?

Suhayl: I’d say beyond QSR (Quick Service Restaurant), generally, we are drowning in content right now. So, we can choose to simply keep up with volume of content or we can choose to build a brand that lasts. The latter takes stamina, courage and deep intentionality to block making crap work for the sake of making work. Simply speaking, it’s easy to launch just another promo (regurgitate the brief anyone?) It’s significantly harder to build a brand platform. 

For long-term brand building, it’s about layering meaning into memory. You remember KFC because of the crunch, our bucket, our smell, our humour. These aren’t accidents, they’re distinctive assets. And the more we use them boldly and consistently, the more they become shortcuts in the consumer’s mind.

My rule is pretty simple, if someone can take your logo off and it still feels like you, you’re building something worth keeping. If not, you’re just hitting and hoping. And advertising data now clearly shows, that is a very expensive way to build your brand.

Q: Work like ‘Let There Be Cake’ is so bold. How do you get internal alignment on work that pushes boundaries?

Suhayl: It all starts with culture. Building a culture of belief in pushing creative boundaries, not just in advertising, by the way, but across your entire organisation. There is no reason why HR teams cannot be creative as an example. To build that belief, you almost need the trust of stakeholders BEFORE you need it. Work behind the scenes to take people on the journey of understanding what brave work can do for your brand. It’s a labour of love to be honest and as a marketer, this has to come from your soul. Long before you walk into a boardroom with a wild idea, you have to have ploughed the soil and planted the seed. 

And when it comes to bold work, context is everything. You cannot be bold for the sake of being bold. You do it when it serves a sharp strategic purpose. That makes it defensible. And once you can show the why you’re being bold, the wow factor becomes a lot easier to sell.

This all sounds very painful, I get that. But believe me, it is worth it. Global brands growing today all have one thing in common, they have the courage to believe in the power of bold ideas and big swings. And if you can’t build the culture of boldness, sometimes just look at your stakeholders in the eye and say, “Just trust me, it’ll be weird and it will be crazy but in the best way.” And then be hell bent on delivering. I have been willing to get fired for a bold idea my entire career (it’s now a standard requirement in our briefs, get Suhayl fired!) That’s the trick, boldness without delivery is theatre. Boldness with results is leadership.

Q: You’ve worked with South African directors (Carbon Films and director Bruno Bossi) and production companies (Bananas) while sitting in Bangkok. What makes those collaborations work and what do you think South African talent brings to the table globally?

Suhayl: South African talent brings hustle and soul. That’s the best way I can put it. As a nation, we have had to fight for our place on the world stage, so South African talent shows up ready to play and ready to push, a beautiful combination. 

Working with Bruno, Carbon, and Bananas has been such a natural fit because they understand how to elevate ideas into something unforgettable, not just execute them. They’re not in it just to answer a brief. Once we have an idea we all believe in, it’s an amazing time to be part of the process because we all treat the work with genuine care and aim to nurture the idea from primary school into a grand graduation at Cannes! With Cake, we didn’t just remix a global trend. We reimagined it with heart, with humour, and with a level of cinematic ambition rarely seen in QSR advertising. And that’s a credit to everyone who touched the work not just for their skill, but for their generosity of spirit and belief in something bigger than themselves. This is what South African talent brings.

That cultural nuance, technical mastery, irreverent humour, emotional intuition and big, big spirit. At our best, we have no egos, just energy all aligned to one obsession: making something we’re proud to show the world. Plus, we always deliver with just the right amount of South African sarcasm and warmth. Which, let’s be honest, is a superpower in itself.

Q: What do you look for in a director’s treatment or approach that tells you they ‘get it’? How important is it for you to feel the director’s voice in the pitch?

Suhayl: The creatives will hate me for this but I feel the director’s voice is everything. If I can feel the director’s heartbeat in the treatment, I’m in. On the other hand, if the treatment reads like a Daily Sun article, we’ve got a problem. I want to feel the director’s curiosity, their point of view, their obsession, their craft. You can tell within the first 5 minutes if the Director genuinely has been moved by the script and if I see a straightforward regurgitation of a script, I’m out. 

The best directors don’t just pitch the idea. They pitch their relationship to it. That’s what I’m looking for, evidence that this story means something to them, that they see something the rest of us missed. And above all else, they need to elevate the work and be obsessed about it. Anyone can add a bit of production magic, but I’m looking for someone who adds soul. If the treatment feels like a love letter to the idea, we’re cooking.

Q: What does the creative process look like at KFC Thailand? Are you quite involved from brief to shoot, or do you trust your teams and step in later?

Suhayl: Creativity at KFC Thailand actually begins long before the agency sees the brief. A great friend of mine once said, “the client needs to be the first creative to touch the brief,” and that really stuck with me. It’s profound, because if the brief itself isn’t inspiring, then we’ve already lost momentum before the process begins. So I see it as my responsibility to make sure the brief is worthy of being briefed, that it’s sharp, emotionally resonant, and inspirationally delivered in a way that respects the creative minds receiving it.

I’m hands-on, but not hand-holding. I prefer to get involved early, that’s when I can set the ambition and the tone. This is probably where I add the most value to be honest. Too often, fear silently creeps into the room, on both client and agency sides. It’s my responsibility as a leader to help remove that fear and allow wild ambition to thrive. Big ideas are rare as it is, and if we are to win, we don’t need more fear in our industry, we need more trust. 

I also aim to inject fun in the process. If we’re not laughing, surprising each other, or challenging ourselves along the way, chances are the work won’t spark joy out in the world either.

And yes, I challenge the creatives and my own team, not because I don’t trust them, but because I do. I know how good they are. Sometimes, you just need someone to remind you to swing bigger and dream wilder, be it in the boardroom or on set.

Q: How has working in both South Africa and Asia shaped your creative instincts? Are there lessons or perspectives from the South African market that you carry with you?

Suhayl: South Africa gave me edge. Asia gave me nuance. Together, they taught me how to think with both fire and finesse I suppose.
In South Africa, the creative bar is actually sky-high and so you have to earn every single eyeball. It’s a market built on grit, speed, and emotional truth. I learnt to move fast, better done than perfect, especially when it comes to real-time storytelling. I learnt that if you’re not connecting culturally, you’re not connecting at all, so go all in or don’t bother, because half-arsing culture gets you nowhere. And I also learnt that humour is a superpower. Every problem is an opportunity for South Africans, and if you can find a way to laugh at it, you’ve already won. I carry this glass half full mindset with me all the time.

Then you come to Asia, where creativity has its own quiet strength. It rewards thoughtfulness, structure, and respect for deeply rooted cultural codes. Here, I’ve learned the value of restraint, of nuance, of knowing when to turn the volume up respectfully and volume down so that meaning and resonance can rise up. Simply speaking, it has made me put myself in others shoes consistently and I am a better human as a result of it.

This mix, of South African boldness and Asian precision, shapes how I lead creative work today. I chase ideas that are emotionally brave, but I back them with strategic, culturally nuanced depth. I believe the best work makes you feel something first, but it should also make sense both for people and for business growth.

Q: What’s your role as a marketing leader when it comes to craft? How do you create the kind of environment where creativity thrives?

Suhayl: When it comes to craft, my role is to build a healthy respect for it. Too often, craft is the first thing sacrificed, usually because of budget pressures or simply a lack of understanding of its true potential. But I believe great marketing lives or dies in the details. So as a leader, I try to model that respect for craft in everything I do.

Craft isn’t something you learn at university, you learn it in the trenches. And yet, many marketers still see it as the agency’s responsibility alone. I couldn’t disagree more. Craft is everyone’s job. That’s why I take the time to involve my teams in the process of crafting, showing them how tiny tweaks can turn a good idea into a great one, a good execution into a great execution. It annoys the living daylights out of my team, but a necessary and ultimately fruitful annoyance.

As for the environment, my job is to set the bar extremely high, and then clear the path. Creativity thrives where people feel safe to fail, inspired to have a go, and energised to win. I protect the ideas when they’re fragile, challenge them when they’re lazy, and celebrate them loudly when they break through. And let’s not forget the power of good old fun. A team that gets on and has loads of banter makes braver, bolder work. It’s not rocket science. If we’re not having fun somewhere along the way, the audience will feel that too. Creativity should be serious business, but we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously to be creative.

Q: What would you say to marketers who want to make more creatively brave work, but feel held back by pressures or fear of failure?

Suhayl: First and foremost, stay rooted in who you are. The world doesn’t need another version of what’s already out there, it needs your perspective, your culture, your voice. The most powerful work doesn’t come from imitation, it comes from authenticity.

Secondly, if you want creatively braver work, respect creatives and respect their process. Too often I see marketers treat agencies as suppliers. The power balance is completely one sided and I’ll say this, creatives live and breathe your brand 24 hours a day. You cannot switch off a creative mind especially when they are excited about your brand. Think about that for a moment. These are people who will obsess over YOUR brand if you give them just a little bit of freedom, a little bit of trust and a little bit of space to have fun. Creatives speak about your brand to their families. They literally know your brand better than you. If you want to champion brave work, firstly champion the humans behind it and just be kind. Be good. And I promise you, I promise you, see your brand sky rocket because it will be fuelled by passion you will not see in a corporate boardroom.

Be curious. The truth is, the best creativity is powered by one thing above all else: curiosity. It’s probably my most sought-after trait, in people, in partners, and even in the work. Curiosity leads to so many possibilities. 

Obsess over craft and as a marketer get involved. Brave work is also hard work. Awards are not won by luck, they’re earned through hours of iteration, a relentless pursuit of better, and a deep respect for the discipline of those in the craft. 

Finally, surround yourself with people who push you both in your organization and agency system. Make them your partner in the pursuit of braver work. It’s much easier to be braver together. Great partners will challenge your assumptions, elevate your ambitions, and refuse to settle for ‘good enough’. 

As for the fear, truth is the fear never goes away. You just have to learn to dance with it.