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Night Festival @ University of Melbourne

April 7, 2009 • Blog • 3 comments

One of the things which truly impressed me about the University of Melbourne was how active its various student organisations are. I do receive daily emails and notices in my student email about various causes to support, talks to attend, concerts to participate in, and groups to join in. Some of the student ECA groups even have job descriptions inked on their websites, complete with the mandatory hours and duties that you need to fulfill.

Whenever I walk around the campus – either en route to the library for studying or the cafeteria for lunch – I notice that there is a constant hive of activity generated by various student clubs, societies and associations. Apparently, there never is a dull moment here. Having gone out of the education system for quite a while, it was interesting to see how various causes were so actively and passionately lobbied by these idealistic youths.

Last Friday, a couple of us decided to walk to campus to check out the night market organised by various student groups. Apparently, this was an annual activity pitched at raising funds for the various societies and clubs.

Graffiti and Street Art – Vandalism or Marketing?

March 15, 2009 • Blog • 4 comments

Street art along a wall in North Richmond

Being an avid runner, I often jog around the Parkville and Carlton areas near my university campus and chance upon street art along various walls, pavements and fences. Some of the air-brushed displays are aesthetically beautifully and probably the result of considerable and painstaking effort to create enduring works of art. Surprisingly, I don’t see that many acts of graffiti which are overtly anti-establishment or vandalistic in nature (or perhaps I haven’t been to those neighbourhoods yet).

While musing on this phenomenon, I chanced upon this interesting article by Mark Holsworth who reported on how several merchants in the Brunswick suburb of Melbourne (just a stone’s throw away from where I am putting up at Carlton) have engaged street artists to decorate their shopfronts. Holsworth highlighted two examples of this could be done tastefully. The first is a convenience store located at the Lygon/Brunswick area:

To Market Or Not To Market?

March 11, 2009 • Blog • no comments

One of the greatest challenges facing communicators and marketers in the arts is the balance between satisfying artistic input and commercial (or public) interest.

How does one reach out to new customers and audiences without diluting one’s craft? Should we be setting the agenda and pushing the envelope in terms of experimenting with new art forms? Or should we cater to the most mass of markets and stick to what everybody likes to see, hear or experience?

According to some academics, the arts should be kept pure and undiluted from the transgressions of the commercial world. Artists, curators, musicians and dancers should exist in their own little bubble of creative experimentation, oblivious to the grind of dollars and cents while dreaming up that next original work of genius.

The role of marketers would then be that of publicists helping to generate the greatest amount of buzz, media coverage and advertising effectiveness. Visitors and audiences should thus be attracted towards their artistic inspirations in an organic fashion.

This is what has been termed as being “product focused”. Build it and they will come. Or arts for arts sake.

The Whats and Hows of Global Brands

November 18, 2008 • Blog • no comments

Courtesy of woodleywonderworks

I was invited to a sharing session yesterday afternoon by David Shaw, Director at Effective Brands and a former marketing stalwart at both Lenovo and HP. Founded by Marc De Swaan Arons, the company embarked on a worldwide global brand study seven-years ago which now includes close to 100 global brands with a database of about 40,000 marketers. In the study, the branding consultancy focused on global marketing challenges and possible solutions to overcome them.

Here are some of the key highlights which I picked up.

Podcamp 2.0 and The Story of Yesterday.sg

November 3, 2008 • Blog • 5 comments

Giving my two cents worth on Yesterday.sg

At the kind invitation of Yi Xuan from SMU, I had the privilege of attending Podcamp 2.0 – an unconference of sorts organised by SMU, where doyens of the digital space proferred their views and insights on social media. Together with me were several bloggers and podcasters like Claudia, Melvin Yuan, Priscilla Tan, Daniel Tsou and Farinelli (of Tech 65), DK, Coleman, Preetam, Michael Netzley, Amelia Wong and others.

Sharing the story of how the National Heritage Board (NHB) – probably Singapore’s most ancient organisation – could leverage on social media, I hoped that I inspired some of the corporate representatives to venture forth. As an interest-based blog, Yesterday.sg took the slow and steady growth approach and the blog is still going strong after being around for two-and-a-half years (or 31 months to be exact). Social media outreach is a team effort driven by my great colleagues from team CCIP (especially Kim, Wei Chong, Kenny and Roy), as well as our dear Friends of Yesterday who have stuck with us through thick and thin.

Debates, Discussions and Dilemmas at DMFest 2008

November 2, 2008 • Blog • no comments

Panel discussion on Web 2.0 and Building Online Communities moderated by Mark Laudi

At the invitation of Text 100 and the Singapore IT Federation, I had the privilege of attending the recent Singapore Digital Media Festival 2008 Television 2.0: Internet Services & New Media Mashup.

Together with me were other bloggers and podcasters like Shunjie, Pat Law, Claudia, Bernard, Darryl, Daniel, Coleman, Clapping Trees, Preetam, Howie (from The Digital Movement), Andrew Peters, Shalabh, the Tech65 crew, and a few others.

The Parable of the Spider

September 21, 2008 • Blog • 6 comments

I spotted the above spider making his home at the lift lobby just outside my home. The little guy has been there for weeks, and interestingly, no efforts have been made to clean up his silky home. I don’t really mind though as I have a thing for spiders.

In fact, there are some lessons that you can learn from them, which relates pretty well to the world of marketing.

Social Media Breakfast 3 @ Asian Civilisations Museum

August 16, 2008 • Blog • 20 comments

ACM is the proud venue host of Social Media Breakfast III

Social media is what it is because people simply love to socialise. And boy did I get a major dose of that yesterday morning at Social Media Breakfast 3 (SMB3), courtesy of Daryl Tay, Claudia, and Derrick.

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