Ever killed a great idea because it seemed 'unproducible'? That question most likely gets a universal yes. It is the compelling premise for MOONJI and Studio X CEO, Linda Lim’s, speaking session at ADFEST, a walk through how MOONJI’s Virtual Art Department built three distinct worlds in three days, and how real-time 3D control on set meant the director could adjust lighting, environments, and atmosphere instantly - no waiting for weather, no compromising the vision.

Linda also has a story to tell about resilience and reinvention - both personal and professional. She tells those stories here. After a successful corporate career spanning multiple industries and continents, Linda and her partner, Thom, left San Francisco to build businesses in Southeast Asia's emerging markets. They've navigated political upheavals, a global pandemic, and industry-shifting technological change, rebuilding each time with more strength and clearer purpose.

ADFEST: Gutsy move to launch two production companies. What took you from leading Visa’s premium product division to Moonji and Studio X Beyond.

Linda Lim: Friends used to tell me that if I was going to work 80 hours a week anyway, I might as well work for myself. Finally, after meeting my partner, Thom, who was a serial entrepreneur, I made the leap. For our first company, we designed eco-friendly bathroom products (with 12 patents!) and eventually got it into large US retailer, Target, which was a dream at the time. But we quickly realised we were better at design than manufacturing and logistics, so we asked ourselves, why stay in San Francisco?

We moved to Myanmar in 2014 where I headed up a gaming app startup. Thailand was always the dream destination for us. We'd talked about it since our first date...but you could say we took a little detour. While we were in Myanmar, we founded what became the largest independent full-service advertising agency, and spun off our creative production company into MOONJI Production.

Then the 2021 coup happened, and overnight, everything we'd built disappeared. It forced us to let go and start all over. We finally made it to Thailand, and that's when our third reinvention began. Coming from San Francisco with creative and tech in our DNA, we started exploring virtual production (VP), AR, VR - the whole creative technology space. We launched Studio X Beyond, our Bangkok-based VP studio, in 2024. Now with MOONJI in 2025, we're fundamentally rethinking how content gets made. Whether it's AI, real-time 3D, virtual production, motion capture, or digital scanning, we're giving our partners capabilities they never thought were possible. 

ADFEST: What opportunities did you see or predict? 

Linda Lim: In the history of filmmaking, there have always been technological advances and disruptions, and we felt we were on the verge of another major shift. Even before the AI era, we could see tools emerging that could help with speed and budget challenges without sacrificing creative vision. When we launched in 2024, creative tech was still a new category. Then AI entered the picture, and honestly, some people swung too far the other way, assuming we didn't need human creatives anymore. That scared us at that time.

But I'm relieved to see the pendulum settling. The industry is realising the real power isn't AI replacing humans or humans ignoring AI. It's the hybrid approach - using technology to amplify creativity, not replace it. That's always been our belief, and now more people are catching up to it.

ADFEST: What did you take with you from one role to the other?

Linda Lim: I used to regret not pursuing arts and creativity formally. I treated my dance and drama as side hobbies. But looking back now, I realise those "boring" corporate roles actually prepared me to be a CEO who could manage across the entire company, not just branding and marketing. I had to understand finance, operations, how to build the foundation of a new company from scratch. And honestly, that corporate experience (along with my stubbornness ????) is what allowed us to survive political upheaval and market challenges. You can't build resilient companies on creativity alone. You need the operational backbone too. 

ADFEST: It’s not just technology forcing changes in advertising production. What are the major challenges that you are confronting and/or have conquered?

Linda Lim: How much time do you have? ???? What you learn running a business in an emerging market, or frontier market like Myanmar, they don't teach in any American MBA program. You have to be so much more resourceful and resilient. Everything from lack of access to traditional financing, infrastructure that's actively working against you (and trust me, no water is worse than no electricity), murky legal frameworks, unstable political environments…the list goes on.

But here's what makes it all worth it - the incredible team we've built. These aren't just employees. They are family—people with a level of loyalty, compassion, and commitment that we never experienced back in the US. That's the real differentiator. That's what kept us going through the coup, through every challenge. 

ADFEST: Where (and how) do you see virtual production winning over traditional?

I wouldn't say virtual production is winning over traditional. Honestly, we don't see it as one tool beating another. It's just... more options now. With AI, motion capture, digital scanning and virtual production, creatives are no longer constrained by production logistics. You can actually make the brief come to life instead of compromising it to fit what's historically been logistically possible. Sometimes that's 3D plus AI (but in days not months). Sometimes it's real talent plus AI. We just finished a project where we created a digital avatar, brought it to life with mocap, and shot it alongside live talent in our VP studio - all in one day. This level of creative flexibility didn't exist before. And that's the real shift we’re seeing.

ADFEST: You are coming to ADFEST to speak about virtual production. What is it about ADFEST that guided this choice? 

Linda Lim: ADFEST has always celebrated creativity first. Virtual production isn't about replacing that; it's about what becomes possible when creatives aren't limited by logistics anymore. ADFEST's audience are the ones actually shaping how this technology gets used. And Asia is writing its own playbook, not following Hollywood's. That's the vision we wanted to share.