Author: coolerinsights

Voyage de la Vie – Singapore’s First Theatrical Circus

March 31, 2012 • Blog • 1 comment

Thanks to Resorts World Sentosa, I was recently given a pair of tickets to their ongoing “rock circus” performance Voyage de la Vie as part of their Date Night, as well as a complimentary bottle of sparkling wine. As my wife has seen the show previously, I decided to bring my boy Ethan along.

Helmed by former MediaCorp Executive Producer Andrea Teo, who is now the Vice-President of Entertainment at Resorts Wrold Sentosa, Voyage de la Vie features the talents of creative producer Mark Fisher (chief designer of 2008 Beijing Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies), Michael LaFleur – a previous imagineer with the Walt Disney Company, Philip Wm McKinley of “Ringling Bros and Barun and Bailey’s The Greatest Show on Earth” fame, set designer Ray Winkler (who worked on tours for U2, Generis and the Rolling Stones), and composer and former Singapore Idol runner-up Jonathan Lim.

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How Small Businesses Can Pack More Punch

March 29, 2012 • Blog • disabled comments


Small businesses need to learn to be like David when fighting against Goliath (source of image)

What can Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and independent free lancers do to build their reputations, enhance their businesses, and strengthen their reach? With limited resources and finances, how can these entities carve a space for themselves in an increasingly crowded market with competitors possessing deeper pockets, greater resources and fuller teams?

To stand a chance of winning the hearts and minds of consumers, small businesses need to take advantage of their nimbleness, flexibility and agility to outwit and outmaneuver the bigger boys. Competing along the same dimensions will only result in a sorry ending.

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Likeable Social Media: A Book Review

March 27, 2012 • Book Reviews • disabled comments

With close to 900 million users and an upcoming IPO, Facebook is ruling the web as the social network of choice. Following close behind is Twitter, the 140 character king of microblogging also known as the “SMS of the Internet”. LinkedIn, Youtube, Flickr, Foursquare, blogs, and tonnes of other social networks make up the other players of the social web.

Collectively, these social technologies and platforms rule a disproportionate part of our lives as consumers.  This is why companies need to get into the digital act and be “likeable”.

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Shoestring Marketing for Small Businesses

March 25, 2012 • Blog • disabled comments


Source of Image

What can small businesses, start-ups, free-lancers and other budding entrepreneurs do to build their reach? How can they compete against bigger companies with deeper pockets, greater resources and fuller teams?

In general, the clue is to look at what big conglomerates are doing, and then try to do the opposite – in a customer pleasing fashion of course. Clueless where to start? Well, here are five ideas to begin with.

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2 Happy Ways to Recycle and Reduce

March 23, 2012 • Blog • 3 comments


Courtesy of Coca-Cola Singapore

With Earth Hour around the corner, it is timely for both individuals and companies to consider how they can reduce their environmental impact on our beautiful planet.

Coca-Cola Singapore is certainly taking a proactive role in this area. As part of their effort to instil the habit of recycling in Singapore, they are launching the Recycle Happiness Machine (yes that’s its actual name!) which will be popping up at five different locations around the Orchard Road/Dhoby Ghaut area. The machine provides a fun way for members of the public to deposit their used plastic beverage bottles in exchange for a little gift.

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We the Undercover Marketers

March 21, 2012 • Social Influence • 1 comment

We the Undercover Marketers

The Joneses were portrayed as the ultimate stealth marketers (source of image)

Excuse me, are you an invisible stealth marketer? If you have no clue what this is, perhaps its high time for you to read about this.

My curiosity in stealth marketing was first piqued when I read Martin Lindstrom’s brilliant marketing expose Brandwashed. In the book, the neuro-marketing exponent revealed many of the psychological and neurological tricks employed by marketers to get us to buy more, often without us knowing it.

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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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Uniqlo’s Unique Advertisement

March 17, 2012 • Blog • 1 comment

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As I was flipping through the newspapers one morning, my wife pointed out that the advertisement which Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo placed (above) was different from most other clothing retailers.

First, it focused on a single product category and showcases the range of colours and styles available. Uniqlo is clearly targeting those looking for sweat shirts with hoodies. This singular focus will appeal to customers in this category.

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Brandwashed by Martin Lindstrom: A Book Review

March 13, 2012 • Book Reviews • 1 comment

Martin Lindstrom Brandwashed

Wonder why you are perpetually tethered to your smartphone, refusing to put it down even when your kids are yelling at you?

Or started eating that tub of delicious Haagen Dazs ice cream, and couldn’t stop until it’s all gone.

Perhaps you’ve got a 10 year old boy who nagged you incessantly about getting him that latest Play Station Portable (PSP) which all his friends in school have.

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