People in the Advertising industry say that errors like the one above are appalling and they would never step into the premise like this as the eatery has pretty much shattered their authentic image. I used to say that too. But I found myself going back there for a cuppa teh and staring at the poster throughout my entire duration. The drinks are decent but I think the lack of crowd was the draw for me.

We’ll see how long the poster stays there. And if business soars and they do expand, and still advertising with those posters, then we should all fire our copywriters!

Good – Superb idea. Simple yet the filming, editing and special effects make the ad profoundly awesome. What was Nike trying to say? Every touch of the ball counts, and all the players create this image of themselves being broke and unknown to the world because of one mistake on the pitch; so they have the power to write their future, and that is equivalent to not screwing up.

Bad – Know all three players in the ad? There’s Mr. Oh-I’ve-Fallen-Again Ronaldo, Mr I-Fake-Dives Drogba and Mr I-Forgot-How-To-Score Rooney. Now let’s talk about this year’s 2010 Fifa World Cup. Portugal, Côte d’Ivoire and England have all been knocked out of the World Cup. Might I suggest using Messi, L.Fabiano and Robin van Persie the next time.

Lesson No. 2?
Advertising is publicity, even if its a bad thing that happened.

But I hope the person who borrowed them returned it, because the entire apartment is now subconsciously on a lookout for two cast iron figurines, woof woof and oink oink ones to be exact.

Increase of customer referrals
Which is easier to remember? example.com or 96421387? I’m sure we’ve come to a conclusion that website addresses are much easier to remember that mobile numbers. And don’t we all know, that referrals are one of the most important sources of new business.

Immediate Response
Including your well designed website on all of your business cards, brochures, flyers etc allows people to take action right away. Visiting your website is cheaper and easier than driving to your store or office. And potential customers can take their time understanding your products and services.

Website sales
A website acts as an impressive first contact, convincing the potential customer that they need what you are offering and inviting them to contact you, via phone or email on your website. Spending thousands on advertising, for an advertisement that is featured in one magazine, for one month simply doesn’t compare to investing in a long term website.

Promoting future business, without leaving your desk
When a potential customer comes into your shop and leaves without making a purchase and without speaking to anyone, they are basically a dead prospect. When someone views your well designed website and doesn’t make a purchase straight away, they can easily revisit anytime to make the purchase in the future. On top of that, you can use your website to collect the email addresses of visitors and send them promotional emails or updates on your product or service.

We then took the Easy Riders(locals on motorbikes) back to Saigon, but stopped for a night at Cat Tien Jungle for a night safari on wild animals etc. Food and Coffee throughout the country was equally good. I had a very bad sunburn as the heat in Vietnam does not spare anyone. People are caring, simple minded and generous. We met other backpackers from Europe and it was good fun listening to each others experience. I love history, and everywhere we went there was a story about the French and American war. Visiting the museum opened my eyes to the Vietnamese point of view of the war, was a fresh history lesson as we have all the while been taught through America’s point of view in school.

In a twisted way, bad advertising forces us to remember it, we remember only because it causes our blood pressure to go up, and yada yada yada; just like relationships, you can forgive, but you’ll never forget.

Driving along the roads of this mini country I keep seeing Fragrance’s Bak-Kwa Taxi Wrap Ads with this Sharon Au(Local Celebrity) holding a slice of Bak-Kwa, with the tag line: “It’s Titillating…”

Now let’s face it, Bak-Kwa doesn’t titillate non of us. C’mon, it’s just Bak-Kwa for crying out loud. It’s pork, oink oink, yummy yummy. That’s it. But they were smart enough to introduce the Sexiness of eating it, thus the “Sexy Asian girl dressed in red” and the Tits…. I mean Titillating copy.

Bottom line: You remember it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a campaign that didn’t consist of over acting, and wasn’t hard-selling, lame, and ditzy. AIA’s “The Power of We” TVC kept me from switching channels as I was trying to kill some time while Glee was on a commercial break. In the TVC, AIA managed to talk about how they started, how far they have come, and how they couldn’t have done it without “us”, in a sincere way.

The visual collage of photographs, fingerprints and signatures of AIA customers; and their transformation back into one individual, the AIA as a whole, was to me, a classic, simple and effective approach that sealed the deal. Relieving to know that people still have class. Kudos to AIA.

K1X’s apparel is a mix of street and urban, it has it’s own personality, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Take a look at a few spreads. Enjoy!

The Interview

Johnny walks into the room excited about a potential international corporate firm as a new client. He wears his favourite 20 year old lucky T-shirt(with a hole in it), his latest pair of bermudas he bought 4 years ago and flip flops. To him his 20 years of work experience is more important that his presentation. True, but not so true. The boss of the corporate firm doesn’t even give him a chance to sit and calls for security.