Author: coolerinsights

Sun, Sand and Sparkling Seas

June 24, 2007 • Blog • 25 comments

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Central Krabi Bay Resort – Our Spot of Paradise

If you enjoy tropical getaways, you will love Krabi. Located along the coast of the Andaman Sea, it is one of the more rustic and less commercialised beach getaways in Thailand. Almost everything a beach bum wants – sparkling crystalline seas teeming with colourful fishes, white sandy beaches, great seafood – can be found there. The icing on the cake is that great Thai hospitality which always makes experiences extra special.

Here’s a photo essay of a our recent holiday there. Enjoy.

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The Exciting World of Social Media

June 21, 2007 • Blog • 5 comments

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Podtech.net’s Jeremiah Owyang with The Digital Movement’s founder Steve Ng

At the recent iX-TDM New Media Forum, I had the privilege of meeting and hearing from Jeremiah Owyang. The director of corporate media strategy at Podtech.net, Jeremiah is a social media consultant to big guns like HP, Cisco and Hitachi. In his session, he spoke about trends and developments in the social media space.

Jeremiah started by explaining fundamental concepts. Companies need to shift their strategies and mindsets to look at harnessing all employees – not just corporate communicators (like yours truly… ha) – to be advocates.

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One More Day To Go – iX-TDM New Media Forum

June 18, 2007 • Blog • no comments

OK folks, for those who are in the know (and even those who aren’t), there are a couple of huge geek fests hitting town this week. One of them is iX Conference 2007 which is happening over the next couple of days at Suntec.

Part of it is the iX-TDM New Media Forum happening at SMU. That is going to rock because it features luminaries like Jeremiah Owyang of Podtech.net, Lynda Brown of New Media BC, Mike Downey from Adobe and Louis Broome from Microsoft. They are going to share about social media and engage you in a panel discussion on what’s happening and what lies ahead in the exciting 2.0 world.

Here are the details:

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Philatelic Pleasures

June 17, 2007 • Blog • 13 comments

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One of Singapore’s hidden little treasure is this beautiful boutique attraction called the Singapore Philatelic Museum. Tucked away at Coleman Street just below the National Archives of Singapore and Registry of Marriages, the museum is probably one of the few indoor places where you can bring a young child and be entertained for hours.

I brought my family there recently during International Museum Day 2007, and boy we sure had a swell time.

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A Day at the Beach

June 17, 2007 • Blog • no comments

We recently brought Ethan to Sentosa’s Siloso Beach to have fun frolicking in the water while building sand castles. By now, you probably would have guessed that we prefer the great outdoors to spending time shopping in artificially controlled environments. Here’s a short clip of Ethan with Tina building a sand castle.

When was the last time you built sand castles? Or castles in the sky for that matter?

Make Room For Ikea

June 15, 2007 • Blog • 11 comments

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In a desperate bid to get my son to sleep on his own, my wife and I decided to venture to Ikea at Alexandra Road to shop for a “tent”. Well, actually we were looking for a bed canopy which my son Ethan said will help him sleep on his own at night. The current arrangement was that one parent had to spend the night with him in his bed room. This obviously isn’t ideal as you would imagine.

Ikea is one of the world’s leading furniture retailer. It is founded in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad, who is the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of US$33 billion. The chain is huge, with 254 stores around the world in 35 countries, and adopts a franchising model of business. One of its key strengths is in “democratic design” which integrates efficient manufacturing and design to capture economies of scale and consumer preferences.

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Why Responsible Marketing Works

June 13, 2007 • Blog • 5 comments


Courtesy of Grameen Foundation (http://www.grameenfoundation.org/)

At the recent PR Academy Conference, I had the treat of listening to Pak Hermawan Kartajaya, who is one of the thought leaders in the asian marketing scene. He spoke about how principle based marketing can lead to greater revenue and consumer goodwill in the longer term.

There are four factors which determine the sustainability of organisational branding:

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Off to Krabi!

June 8, 2007 • Blog • 11 comments

A beach at Ko Samui (not Krabi), which was my last beach holiday
I will be going off to Krabi for the next few days for a much deserved break. Have fun guys and don’t miss me too much. Ahhhh… I can already smell the salty scent of the sea, sizzling seafood, the sand and the endless bottles of beer…. 😉

Brand it like Banyan Tree

June 6, 2007 • Public Relations • 8 comments

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I recently attended a conference by the PR Academy on “Markets and Brands – Positioning for the 21st Century”, and was pretty inspired by some of the speakers. One of them was Ho Kwon Ping, Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and creator of one of the world’s most highly respected and heavily awarded resort brand.

In his keynote speech “Branding, Marketing and Credibility in a Connected World”, Kwon Ping dispelled the marketing myth that “branding is everything and everything is a brand”. His chief contention is that people are paying far more attention to hype than reality. Advertising after all is largely self praise and this leads consumers to treat them with suspicion.

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