Posts Under: Public Relations

Brewing a Good Story @ Social Media Breakfast

March 19, 2012 • Public Relations • 3 comments


Daniel Goh of The Good Beer Company

Thanks to Daryl Tay, I had the chance to attend Social Media Breakfast recently. Held at The Loft in Chinatown, it was great listening to my buddy Daniel Goh of The Good Beer Company speak about his experience in setting up a craft beer stall in a hawker centre in Chinatown. Readers may know that I first wrote about the stall when it opened back in Oct 2011.

Before he ventured into being a specialty beer seller, Daniel was a PR professional who worked in diverse companies (including mine) as well as MNCs like Samsung and Blizzard Entertainment before he ditched his corporate togs for a hawker’s apron. He also manages (and still does) a pretty solid business and entrepreneurship blog called Young Upstarts (I’m a proud contributor).

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Why Saying Sorry Matters in Business

December 28, 2011 • Public Relations • 1 comment


BP Former CEO Tony Hayward’s Apology came too little too late (courtesy of Infinite Unknown)

Recently, everybody in Singapore has been talking about the spate of SMRT train delays and breakdowns in December.  Numerous netizens have called for extreme measures to be taken, including the resignation of the CEO, granting of free rides to commuters, andother actions to be taken.   

As an aftermath of the incidents, we learnt that the CEO Saw Phaik Hwa has apologised soon after the incidents.  The SMRT Board has also apologised for them, and has commissioned a committee led by NTUC Dy Sec Gen Ong Ye Kung to look into the matter.  Separately, the Government is also investigating the incidents as part of a formal Committee Of Inquiry.

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Destination Marketing: Turning Places into Tourism Brands

May 19, 2011 • Public Relations • 1 comment


Does Crazy Rich Asian help to promote Singapore? (courtesy of Crazy Rich Asians movie)

Everybody’s talking about Crazy Rich Asians, the blockbuster Hollywood movie based on Singapore-born author Kevin Kwan’s book of the same name.

While the movie was celebrated for giving Asians a major role in a Hollywood movie, it garnered its fair share of brickbats by those who felt that it did not fairly represent Singapore in its portrayal.

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What do the Elections, Osama, & Will & Kate Have in Common?

May 6, 2011 • Public Relations • 3 comments


Singapore goes to the polls tomorrow (courtesy of Wikimedia )

This week has been an especially significant one for many of us.

Right now, the biggest news for many Singaporeans is that of the impending Singapore General Elections 2011, with polling day taking place tomorrow. By this time, everybody would have read, heard, or viewed about the fierce contests taking place between the ruling and opposition parties. Both mainstream and social media channels have carried lots of news, views, and opinions on the election. Also known as Cooling-Off Day, today is the day when all qualified voters around the island will reflect and carefully consider their decision tomorrow.

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Should I or Shouldn’t I? – Ethics in PR

August 14, 2009 • Public Relations • 1 comment


Courtesy of Keith Maguire

As a public relations professional who deal with the media on a regular basis, I am often faced with situations which require a judgement call. These may take the form of a series of deeply probing questions by journalists who are determined to weed out the grains of dirt, or to develop a more sensational story from an otherwise run-of-the-mill piece.

While I believe in telling the truth, I am also aware that certain facts presented in the wrong context may end up leaving a false impression. The worst thing that can happen is to end up losing control of an unfolding story, and to be perceived as being uncooperative and unwilling to provide information to a hungry media circus.

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World’s First Life-Sized “Noah’s Ark”

June 12, 2009 • Public Relations • 2 comments

I was recently attracted to news about the billionaire brothers Kwok brothers in Hong Kong has built a life-sized replica of Noah’s Ark, a project that has been christened as one with “biblical proportions”. While mega attraction projects are not uncommon in this part of the world, what caught my interest was how this project attempts to link entertainment with evangelism. The project also seems timely since the Ark is often seen as a beacon of hope in times of uncertainty and global turmoil, with project director Spencer Lu claiming that “the financial tsunami will be over”.

What’s interesting is that this discovery has also revived an age-old interest in the vessel which certain scholars claim may have been berthed on Mount Ararat in Turkey, an obsession which has grown so far and wide than it has led many researchers and explorers up that icy peak.

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Why I Think Obama’s Cairo Speech is Great

June 6, 2009 • Public Relations • 1 comment

I just watched the above speech made by President Barack Obama of the United States in Cairo (you can find the full text here if you prefer to read it) and was rather impressed by how Obama, one of the most eloquent and impressive political orator in this present age, managed to up the ante yet again. There has been numerous analyses of the political content of his speech so I shall not go there. What I am more interested instead is in the masterful way in which he embraced the art and craft of monumental speech making. Here are some perspectives on what we can learn from Obama’s speech which may be useful to bear in mind if we ever address a crowd or are tasked to draft a speech for somebody who will be doing so.

1) Rigorous Research. The first point in monumental speech making is to ensure that one’s facts and figures are in place. An example was this section made on the achievements of Islamic inventors and artists which contributed towards our progress:

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