Walter | Cooler Insights

Fresh Food Galore at Central Market

June 13, 2009 • • no comments

Celebrating its 140th year in business, Adelaide’s Central Market is located between Grote and Gouger Streets, which is between Victoria Square and the Adelaide Chinatown neighbourhood. Like Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market, it boasts of a wide selection of fresh daily produce like fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, cheeses, candies and lots of other goodies. While the market seemed to be slightly smaller than the Victoria Market, it does appear to have fresher and slightly more affordable produce which hail from the sprawling South Australian rural countryside.

Apparently, the market is so distinctive as a tourist destination in the city of Adelaide that there are tours which you can book to learn more about its history, stories, sights, sounds and scents! As usual, any visit to an Australian market is a feast for the senses in more ways than one.

First, a photo opportunity outside the entrance featuring Ethan and I.

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.

A Really Cool Nike Commercial

June 10, 2009 • Blog • 1 comment

Came across this really cool Nike commercial which was made in Australia. As somebody who loves to go for hour long runs of between 10 km to 12 km each, I can empathise with the agony faced by the guy in whether he can or cannot go on. While the title of the ad is Reincarnate, I thought that the way the man behaved in the advertisement bore a remarkable resemblance to a character popularised by a leading fantasy film.

Would anybody hazard a guess who I am referring to? And yes, like the earlier series of viral commercials by Burger King, parody does work sometimes.

Viral and Buzz Marketing the Burger King Way

June 9, 2009 • Content Marketing • 3 comments

Courtesy of viralblog.com

Humour works in advertising. It grabs your attention, makes you laugh, and gives you a nice endorphin rush.

It also makes you more positively inclined towards a particular brand, especially if its cleverly done without trying too hard. In fact, some commercials can be even more entertaining than comedy shows on television!

Happening Hahndorf

June 8, 2009 • • no comments

Just a short 30 minutes drive away from Adelaide in South Australia, Hahndorf is a charming and idyllic little town imbued with historic German influences. Surrounded by picturesque farms (like the Beerenberg Strawberry Farm) and post-card perfect landscapes, Hahndorf offers a perfect blend of rusticity and authenticity in a suburban paradise. Considered as a leading tourist town in the Adelaide Hills region, Hahndorf appealed to one’s sense of nostalgia and longing for a simpler and pleasure-filled life in a bucolic Bavarian setting.

The colours of autumn were fully evident in April, tinting the landscape with glorious shades of red, orange and yellow.

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:

How Disney Became the World’s Largest Entertainment Empire

June 4, 2009 • Business and Management • 1 comment

Statue of Walt Disney and his most famous creation (couresy of Michael Sult)

“Mickey Mouse management isn’t a joke. It’s the ticket to your business future.” – Bill Capodali and Lynn Jackson

Anybody who is into the world of entertainment knows how omnipresent the Disney brand has grown to be.

Build a Virtual Museum and Win Awesome Prizes

June 2, 2009 • Blog • no comments

As a museum and heritage buff who is also a geek at heart, I am pretty excited about this latest campaign by HP to build an online virtual museum of technology. They are looking for photographs and stories of old, outdated equipment that used to occupy a place in our hearts – a typewriter which has outlived its usefulness but not sentimental value, outmoded computers (anybody remember the old Apple II?) or perhaps even handheld games like the old Game and Watch which we loved.

The great thing is that you can stand a chance to win these droolsome prizes!