After a brief hiatus, I am back to my favourite subject which is blogging. In the true tradition of a marketer, ad man and publicist, I have coined my latest post as the “Rs” of blogging.
What makes a blogger effective? I believe there are a few basic “Rs” to take note of.
Relationships
Female fly: “Hey there is this kid pointing at us at the playground. Errr…. don’t you think we should be more discreet?”
Male fly: “Who cares? I don’t think they are old enough to understand!”
Female fly: “Oh man…. the kid’s daddy is taking photos of us now! Aarrgh… we will be all over the National Enquirer, The Sun and other gossip pages in a jiffy!”
In my recent series of posts, I have blogged about the increasing prevalence and popularity of outdoor advertising in Singapore. As cited in a recent survey, both taxi and bus advertising are on the increase. The growth in outdoor advertising has in fact led to the creation of its own awards – the Singapore Outdoor Advertising Award. It has also resulted in media behemoth Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) acquiring Media Box Office in 2005, allowing it to provide an integrated media solution to advertisers covering print, radio, online and outdoor channels.
As an advertising space, outdoor media opportunities have their pros and cons. I firmly believe that they do a lot of good for branding and positioning, as well as create greater consumer awareness. After all, most outdoor displays are highly visible, brand-driven, and specially designed to capture your attention. They are what I would call the widest end of the funnel – the first stop if you may to pique customer curiosity and generate interest.
The flip side about outdoor advertising is that it may be less effective in tactical and short-term campaigns. When you have a time-limited offer or promotion, TV, newspapers or flyers still work better. Often, the best integrated marketing communication campaigns employ a mix of outdoor, mass media, and on site marketing to generate the best response.
Ethan petting Coffee and Sugar, two absolutely adorable King Charles spaniels.
Two weeks ago, we visited our favourite outdoor haunt which is the Botanic Gardens. While I went jogging around the tranquil park, my wife and son met this friendly couple who allowed Ethan to walk and play with their two toy dogs “Sugar” and “Coffee”. From the word “Go”, it was obvious that kids and dogs have a natural bond with each other as you can see from the photograph above.
Cats are no exception too. Ethan has started to grow fond of a neighbourhood cat who lives downstairs near the lift landing area. He even gave her a name – “Patty” – and they seem to have a bond with each other from day one. Just today, he asked me to take a photograph of the cat too.
Crouching toddler and un-hidden cat.
I only hope that he doesn’t start clamouring for a pet of his own soon!
After visiting her regular TCM practitioner at Yishun last Saturday, my wife Tina and I decided to drive along Upper Thomson Road to have a late dinner at this cosy little porridge place located at Springleaf Estate. We ordered a couple of dishes to go with our bowls of steaming sweet potato porridge and had a pleasant meal.
Let’s toast to more blogging successes!
Dear readers,
Thank you so much for your support, links and visits. I just found out that this blog is ranked 9th according to the Buzz Bin’s list of Top 15 Independent PR Blogs. While I do sneak in some personal bits here and there, my chief intention is to share my thoughts and those of others on PR, marketing, branding and social media issues here since I first started about a year and a half ago.
Oh yes, since we are on the subject of accolades, I do invite all of you to visit my other pet project yesterday.sg. That apparently is ranked the 5th museum blog in the world (out of 100 museums blogs) according to this list from Museums and the Web 2007.
Looks like its time to pop the champagne and celebrate! Definitely couldn’t do it without all of you!
Classical music never looked this good (Courtesy of www.tangquartet.com)
As a marketer for the arts and heritage, I am often faced with a conundrum when promoting culture. How far should we go to attract the masses? Is there a way to balance popular appeal with artistic finesse?
For the purposes of this post, let me focus on classical music which is a request by my heritage kaki Oceanskies who plays a mean double-bass. How does classical music, long considered the poorer cousin (at least in album sales) of other genres like rock, pop, jazz and electronica, make the mark with the masses?
… the shutters of this vacant shop outlet at Central ©, the spanking new Japanese themed shopping centre along Hill Street?
Hmmm, anybody want to guess? Is it…
Driving along Victoria Street after a meal at the famous Jackson Kopitiam at MacPherson, I spotted this anomaly right smack in our city area just outside Bugis Junction.
Yes, your eyes ain’t kidding you. We do have a Wholesale Centre just outside the city called the Victoria Street Wholesale Centre. Apparently, they have 41 units of tenants who specialise in all manner of dry food supplies and special ingredients that you can’t get elsewhere. Now aunties and housewives from every corner of Singapore have a place that they can go to for that extra “lemak” curry!