Victim of the tainted Chinese Milk (Courtesy of Chonkit Leong’s Blog)
One after another bad news came thick and fast for the middle kingdom. And then some more.
First up were the contaminated pet food which caused the deaths of many precious pooches and kitties in the West.
As the chief perpetuator of Yesterday.sg – Singapore’s first heritage and museum blog – I have been invited numerous times to share what we did. How do we keep going at it despite the odds? After all, history and new media isn’t exactly easy bedfellows.
Well, here are some of the lessons which we have learnt about running an interest-based blog, which you can consider when starting your own corporate blog. In the spirit of marketers worldwide, I have distilled them into 5 Cs.
Would you pay for a half hour comedy on Youtube? Or a nice fancy photograph gleaned from Flickr? How about donating perhaps a couple of bucks to Wikipedia for using information there?
If you are like most people, the answer would be “no”.
In fact, I just heard that Google is still trying to profit from its multi-billion dollar acquisition of Youtube, which is bleeding precious cash flow at the rate of about a million a month.
What should companies do in a recession? Should they cut back on their advertising expenses or use the opportunity to build their brands like what P&G would do?
I found out the answers to the above and more at the recent CEO Power Breakfast hosted by the Institute of Advertising Singapore and Moove Media. Held at the pristine Shangri-La Hotel, the panel discussion featured three top marketers in Singapore: Mr Terry O’Connor, CEO of Courts Singapore, Mr Quek Peck Leng, CEO of Singtel Mobile and Exec Vice President (Consumer) of Singtel, and Ms Isabelle Svartstein-Bourjade, General Manager of L’Oreal. The moderator was Ms Goh Shu Fen, Principal of R3 Asia Pacific.
Courtesy of Notagainfarm
By now, almost everybody would have thought about the impact of the collapse in financial systems and how it would affect their lives. The wiping out of US$1 trillion in liquidity from American stock markets in one day – after the failure of the Bush’s Administrations proposed US$700 billion bailout package in clearing Congress – was especially sobering. Apparently, this could just be the tip of the iceberg as the financial saga sparked off by loans made in bad faith unravels itself.
What could one do in a situation like this? Does it mean that one should immediately cut all expenses and live like a Spartan?
Nestled amidst the balmy seaside town of Pasir Ris, Downtown East has positioned itself as a playground for the average Joe, providing entertainment in all its forms to unionists, members of the public, and their families. The transformation of what used to be NTUC Pasir Ris Resort into this one-stop mecca of mass entertainment was pretty extraordinary, considering how sleepy and rustic it used to be. Many people now know that you can get a lot more than just chalets at this Eastern destination.
My family and I decided to check out Downtown East yesterday, after being away from it for a few years. Here’s our visual journey.
With a huge building looming large, the external facade of Downtown East has transformed dramatically from holiday resort to shopping mall.
Courtesy of youngadultcrisishotline
Many would know that these are challenging times. The financial markets have collapsed, retirees are losing their life savings in complex derivative financial products, inflation has reared its ugly head, and the China melamine milk scare has seized many with fear. According to many economists, the prognosis is bleak for the next two years or so. Friends in the financial sector have also told me that the prospect of losing their jobs are very real.
Against such a gloom and doom scenario, what can one do? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? My answer is yes. Depending on your experience and training, there are opportunities out there if you know how to seize them.
I spotted the above spider making his home at the lift lobby just outside my home. The little guy has been there for weeks, and interestingly, no efforts have been made to clean up his silky home. I don’t really mind though as I have a thing for spiders.
In fact, there are some lessons that you can learn from them, which relates pretty well to the world of marketing.
The Mid-Autumn, Mooncake or Lantern Festival always carries special meaning for me. It is one of those occasions where you just simply have to be out at night to soak in the sights, sounds, scents and sweetness (mooncakes!) of that savoury festival where we commemorate the harvest of autumn. In Singapore, the celebrations inevitably revolve around the Singapore River, and that was where our extended family decided to venture after an awesome dinner (and fine wine to boot).
The moon was bright and round that night. Apparently, it was even rounder and bigger the next day (ba yue shi liu).
Michelle Obama at the DNC (courtesy of AP Images)
[This post was updated twice on end March 2015 and 27 July 2016]
Michelle Obama brought the house down at the Democratic National Convention this year. Her wonderful speech affirming Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was widely lauded as one of the best speeches made in the ongoing race for the President of the United States, with elections slated for 8 November 2016.
Some have even proclaimed that she was the star of the show that night – and she isn’t even a politician by any measure of the word!