We passed all Action Standards....

That's really a great news! But what are you action standards?
How did you set your action standards? Ehem... well... as long as we pass then it's okie, isn't it? Yes, but we want to know your action standards...
Here is the tricky part which I learnt from my job.... It's not that difficult, very easy actually to pass all the action standards as long as you set very low action standards...
So next time when someone who tells you that this project has passed all the action standards...we need to ask them what their action standards are before commenting anything if it's really good or just so so (or bad ;-)

Brand sense

Have you ever read the book called "Brand Sense"? In this book, they discuss a lot about how brand communication should go beyond 2D ( audio + visual) and reach other senses of human as it'll create a way better effect...
Yesterday when I was on the car of the lawyer working for my company, I said "I like the smell of your car... it's quite different from others". And right away "Is it the smell of new car? Thank you" said he with the big smile on his face and in a very proud voice.
Now I really now the power of other senses in brand communication... and as what you said in "Brand Sense" Martin Lindstrom... it's very critical to build brand through touch, taste, smell, sight and sound... The above experience is just about smell but indeed we should think of other sense when building our brand...
(Picture: Courtesy of http://www.hallmanboostcontroller.com/images/interior-1.jpg)

Impossible is nothing

Impossible is nothing...

Everybody knows about this tagline of Addidas...

It's more or less the "me too" strategy to cope with Nike...

But this post is not to discuss about that.

It just to highlight the fact that after Henin won WTA Championships in Madrid last Sun Nov 11, she said "Impossible is nothing and I've proven it again this year"

What could be more powerful than this for Addidas?

She's wearing Addidas, she just won the pretigous season -ending event (and before that, she had got another 9 titles), she has overcome all the family issues to focus on her professional career and here she is, when she holds up the trophy...she says "Impossible in nothing"... What a powerful way to endorse a brand!!! Addidas scores 1 - 0 over Nike!

(Picture: Courtesy of AP Photo/Daniel Sastre)

Guanxi - different level of social networking

Guanxi means "connection" or "relationships" in Chinese. It's also a very important cultural point to keep in mind when doing business in China.
Business week recently had an article about this. In this article, there are 2 key examples to note:

• 1/ Ogilvy and Mather Public Relations Worldwide holds an annual party for former employers, many of whom now work for Ogilvy and Mather's clients, including: Lennovo, Johnson and Johnson ...
• 2/ Proter and Gamble (China) Graduates have their own website, where they post everything from new job prospects to potential tennis partner...

So social networking trend has taken place at different level and medium now, not only online on social networking sites such as: Facebook, Myspace, Multiply, Orkut, Friendster..., but also offline events (traditional) and website for their own niche / needs.

Guanxi is important, not just in China. We all know that but how to leverage it is more critical.

(Pictures: Courtersy of http://static.userland.com/images/adeccoAlumni/whyGuanxi.gif)

Local - Global - Glocal

The world is flat... 21st century is the era of globalization... Globalization is hot....and blah blah blah blah.... we all hear that at least hundreds times from TV to newspapers, from email to newsfeed....
But....
Just 5 mins ago, reading an article on Bangkok Post made me wonder something else... they reported the news about "Local advertising and marketing agency Creative Juice\G1 has established a global network with its New York - based partner TBWA, and plans to have at least 10 overseas offices by next year"
Wow, what a news! We always know that what used to happen was the global network gradually sets up their offices in each markets in the world but this time it reverses! The local agency will start building their networks around the world.... Somehow it's the same because wasn't TBWA or JWT or Ogilvy and Mather... all started at the local agency at the beginning before they established their comprehensive networks globally?
There is a different trend here.... glocalization (combination of globalization and localization)...and it starts from Asia or esp. from Thailand - a number 1 creative hot spot of the region...
Let's see how this trends goes...