ADAsia

I watched the singing talent show, ‘American Idol’, the other night (yes, I admit to being addicted to it). The theme was the music of The Beatles. But I was shocked to hear two contestants say that they did not know any Beatles songs! They had to learn one for that night, and they did pretty well too. Now if The Beatles can be so quickly forgotten, how do you suppose the advertising industry fares? Once upon a time if I said…

In the Straits Times on 1st April was a report on The Asia News Network (ANN) attracting entries for a logo contest. I wish it was an April Fool’s joke – although someone is certainly making a fool of the design and branding industry. It was reported that more than 1,000 entries had been received for this competition which closed on the end of March. The winner will picked on 30th April. Guess how much the winner gets? The person responsible for the design of this important new logo will get just…

During a presentation on its research, Iris Singapore, quoted a mother who said that as soon as she awoke in the morning she checked her mobile for messages and then answered her emails and finally got around to getting the children ready for school. A study in the USA showed students could not for all practical purposes function without their mobile device and other surveys have shown people suffer anxiety after a day without the phone. There is no doubt people spend much of the day being…

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all our Chinese subscribers. The ‘Year of the Snake’ under the 12 year cycle of the Chinese calendar is about to begin. If you live in Asia or in a country with a sizable Chinese community, you can hardly have missed the excitement which leads to celebrating the start of a new lunar year.

I came across this list of the Best Viral Videos in 2012. By this, they mean the most popular. It is worth studying because getting so many people to share an experience or interact with our brand is the dream of every CMO.

Here is the list:

With the New Year over, and Chinese New Year just a few weeks away, we can expect quite a few resignations. It is after a company bonus (if anyone is lucky enough to still get those) that many get itchy feet. The arrival of the new year tends to force one to take a good look at the current job and progress, or lack therein.

There were too many deaths in 2012. This column is not really the place to discuss politics or bigotry and the other ills of society but I heard a few moments ago on the radio that the poor India girl who was raped on a bus in New Delhi, and was sent to Singapore for medical treatment, died. A week or two back we were shocked to hear of 20 young boys and girls getting shot in their school in the USA. Violent weather conditions have killed people in the Philippines, Japan and in the USA. The world economy is also not in good shape…

Twenty little boys and girls and a number of teachers were gunned down in an American school just a few days before I sat down to write this column. While President Obama hints at tightening gun controls in his country, the defenders of “the right to bear arms”, which appears in the American Constitution, have already made it clear that they will oppose any restriction. As someone who grew up in England where even the police are not armed, I find it incomprehensible that someone can even buy…

I was speaking a week or so ago at the Asian Publishing Convention. It was held this year in Kuala Lumpur. There is talk of the 2013 event being held in Yangon which should be an added attraction. I was talking about aligning print and digital publications and I realised, as I researched this subject…

Here an ad from an agency: We want to strengthen our creative department. We are looking for someone over 40 years of age, married with teenage children, a sociable person who has friends from all walks of life, has taken part in a motor race, spent week in a monastery in the Himalayas, written a play and watched a parent die.