Walter | Cooler Insights

Me? A 17 Year Old YOG Cheerleader?

August 10, 2010 • Blog • 8 comments

That was my first reaction when invited by June Kong-Dhanabalan from Coca-Cola to hop on board their Happiness Mobile (Coke is the official worldwide sponsor of the games). Offering a bird’s eye view of the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame (or JYOF), I will feel what it’s like to be a teenager hollering my lungs out, waving my hands in the air, and cheering on an open-top “Hippo” bus. Of course, I was heartened to know that the blogfather mrbrown has already experienced this.

Here’s the custom-fitted Happiness Mobile

Held in conjunction with the upcoming Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG), the Singapore leg of the torch relay sees some 2,400 torchbearers (including June herself) conveying the Youth Olympic Flame through all the five community districts and ending in the heart of the city. Participants hail from the 500 odd participating schools, sponsoring organisations, as well as government agencies.

Should We Be Snipers or Grenadiers?

August 7, 2010 • Blog • 1 comment

There are two schools of thought in marketing.

The first school teaches us to focus and concentrate all our energies and resources on one (or perhaps two) key strategies. I call them the snipers.

Source

Are Your Customers Really Comfortable?

August 4, 2010 • Blog • 1 comment

My family loves to visit Relish (by Wildrocket) for their great service, comfortable ambience and fabulous food.

Don’t ever assume that your customers are the exact duplicate of you. Chances are, they aren’t.

There are so many reasons why they may be different. Human beings are such complex creatures that entire disciplines like anthropology, sociology and psychology have evolved in desperate bids to understand their behaviours.

How To Sustain Their Interest and Excitement

August 2, 2010 • Content Marketing • disabled comments

Corporate Storytelling should be as alluring as the Dance of 7 Veils (courtesy of rjg329)

One of the things which I have been wrestling with lately is this:

How can I keep my customers continually keen in my products and services beyond a short-lived campaign?

More importantly, can we sustain their interest over a longer time span and find different ways to build on it?

The Simplest Trick in Advertising and Promotions?

July 30, 2010 • Blog • 3 comments

Yesterday evening, as I was going home from work, I was handed a packet of free tissues outside City Hall MRT station along North Bridge Road. Considered one of the oldest promotional gimmick in the book, it came from QB House – famous for its 10 minute haircut costing $10 – which recently opened a branch at Basement 2 of Raffles City.

Despite the small rectangular area of the tissue, the company has cleverly done a few things right:

From Books to Facebook – NLB Ups the Digital Ante

July 29, 2010 • Blog • 2 comments

Last night, at the kind invitation of Liana Tang (@spoonrabbit on Twitter), I participated in the first #nlbmeetup (issue #1) organised by the National Library Board. Happening at the lovely Esplanade Library, the Meet Up was a good chance for me to catch up with social media buddies and to witness the evolution/revolution of Singapore libraries from Paper Books to Facebook.

Of course, our libraries aren’t strangers to social media, as my buddy Rambling Librarian (aka Ivan Chew) would testify. They have blogs for almost anything under the sun, a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page, an electronic encyclopedia (Infopedia), as well as other social media tools. Being a great fan, I can attest to their extensive efforts in using web and social technologies to improve the entire book borrowing, reading, fine paying (it happens!) and information gathering experience.

It was great to know that Siva (or @sivasothi), a long-time friend, former biology tutor, Friend of Yesterday.sg, and eco activist extraordinaire, would be speaking about his experiences as one of the pioneers in embracing social media for teaching and other purposes.

A Sparkling New Jewel in the Night Sky

July 24, 2010 • Blog • 4 comments

Last night, my family and I decided to venture on the new and improved Jewel Cable Car ride from Mount Faber to Sentosa. Living just a stone’s throw away from the Jewel Box (with the view of Mount Faber from our window), we were really looking forward to going on our latest aerial adventures, suspended on a cable.

Revamped at a cost of some $36 million, the new cable car rides boasted of 67 sparkling new cabins done in a modern metallic black and chrone design which boasted of large panoramic view windows. The flip-up seats were more comfortable, and the internal ambient lighting helped to make it less pitch black at night. Having experienced the old cable cars before, I must say that this recent upgrade is a major improvement to the overall experience.

How to Achieve Greater Office Productivity

July 21, 2010 • Business and Management • 2 comments

Source: www.workrfun.com

Do you know how you can increase your productivity?

Do you know how you can do more with less (time)?

July 19, 2010 • Blog • 4 comments

Source: Frat House Sports

By now, almost everybody plugged into social media (including my friends Ivan Chew, Kevin Lim, Siva and Lucian) would have heard of how Old Spice, a heritage toiletry brand (used by one’s granddad) managed to reinvent itself through the Old Spice Man Youtube channel. The idea was developed by marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy and involved the shooting of real-time marketing videos while leveraging on social media networks.

Here’s an example of the commercials which have been circulating on Youtube and garnering massive views:

Author: coolerinsights