Sales, Social and Tech

The PR department of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia may have thought of a great event to bring FinTech closer to the Malaysia media, but a single line in its email promo has found to be described as patronising it audience it looks to invite.  Malaysia media has taken to social media to point out asking why is this PR department looking to train media on how to write a great FinTech story as part of the goals of attending this bridging workshop. Is the PR indicating that while the Malaysia media has been writing FinTech stories, it still have not achieved the level of greatness that of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia standards?  "A media workshop on how to write fintech stories: From a banks point of view I wonder what's their idea of a great story??" wrote one journalist in the media group.  Another journalist sarcastically pointed out if "the hired trainer to teach us how to cross our t's and dot our i's, or someone to hone our BS ...

If you thought Parisians are rude, wait you read about the administrator of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia Facebook Page. A customer visited the Les Deux Garcons Malaysia shop but was disappointed in the services. So naturally, she turned to the shops' Facebook Page. This customer even made a suggestion to the shop to label their macarons for their service staff felt they did not have to answer queries from in shop customers. How did the Facebook administrator respond? Well.. this Facebook administrator to go to Paris and face the wrath of real Parisian as this customer has too much to complaint. The next step that came naturally for the administrator was to delete the pst. When this customer put in another post, the Facebook administrator replied "We have no time for bitches". You can catch the drama unfolding between the administrator and Fans here .  The management of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia has since apologi...

If you are travelling down the LDP highway in KL, you might come across this F&N billboard with a big QR code. I wonder why would the marcoms team would put a QR code on the billboard. Let's assume that a QR code can be scanned from one's mobile phone at such a distance. Is this QR code targeted at the drivers so that they will slow down, take out their mobile phone and try to scan the QR code on this extremely busy highway? I wonder how many traffic violations there are in the statement alone. Is the QR code targeted at the back sit passengers? By the time I saw this ad for the first time travelling on this highway, I took out my mobile and the car zipped past the billboard.  I was able to take the photo on the second journey down this highway because I anticiapted it. Or is the QR just there to show that the agency or company is just in with the times to put up a QR code to show off? If this was the goal, then it  made the agency or company look bad because this sho...

With the Chinese New Year around the corner and the Malaysia election approaching, Teresa Kok,  Malaysian Member of Parliament from the Democratic Action Party, has launched two Chinese New Year (CNY) videos to wish Malaysians a Happy CNY and approach the new year with a new attitude of "Dare to try, Dare to Change". Dare to Try - From Teresa Kok's Facebook Page . Dare to Change - From Teresa Kok's  Facebook Page . The two videos are filled with political innuendos to highlight to Malaysians why it is time to try and change for new "things" this coming Chinese New Year. Will these videos make an impact on the upcoming Malaysian elections?

How costly is it to repair a Epson printer? According to news report coming out from Malaysia, the Health Ministry paid RM53,325 to repair the Epson printer. This repair bill was highlighted in the recently released Malaysia's Accountant General Audit report. The original cost of the printer? RM738. Image from  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=121920174626809&id=330805745649

There was an uproar when Prince William and his wife visited Queentown Singapore where photos showed that the citizens enjoying themselves at the park were all staged, in local slang "wayang". To see the photos, click on to mrbrown's blog here . The local MPs admitted that it was indeed " staged " and was meant to be an exhibition . Not to be outdone, a photo from Malaysia's news agency, Bernama, was also found to have "added' people to a photo to show that a visit by the country's Prime Minister was filled to the brim with supporters. Readers thought they were suffering from double vision. Bernama has since admitted that the photo was doctored and is currently investigating the incident.  A photoblogger who was quick to identify the double entries noted it before Bernama admitted to the incident. However, this was only done after several denial.  Wrote Man Behind Lens ,  Further to the denial of image manipulation and do...

On the rare occasion of reading The Straits Times on a Saturday, I came across this rather amusing news of how an ATM was stolen from the Malaysia Subang train station in 3 minutes.  It has been shared on Facebook and retweeted on Twitter couple of times, so I decided to put it up in the blog here for immortality or as long as Google keeps blogspot alive.  One friend commented, "And it was done in 3 minutes! How on earth could they do that? A simple ATM transaction would take longer than that."  My reply was that the bank should hire the thieves to speed up the transaction time. 

The Editor-in-Chief of CardsNow! & PassAgeNow! magazines. Fredy Yiap, has found himself "blacklisted" by Bank Negara, Malaysia's Central Bank, because of cards which HSBC, MBF/Ambank and Eon (now Hong Leong Bank) call centers failed to "cancelled". HSBC even upgraded Fredy's card status even when he called to cancel that particular card. Wrote Fredy on his Facebook Profile, "Never have I so pissed with cardians!! I am now in the blacklist of Bank Negara because of these banks:- 1) HSBC (Amount owed : RM 0.05) They issued me a Visa Platinum in 2008/2009, I didn't like it and cancelled it. Few months later, they upgraded my "cancelled" Visa Platinum to Signature card, and during that process, left a rounding up 5 cents in the account. The customer service said it might take weeks to months to reverse that big deal RM 0.05 OUT! 2) MBf/Ambank (Amount owed : RM 50.00) When the 1st World card was out in Malaysia, MBf's President J...

In the first three seconds of the trailer above, the boy asked what are movie tickets as piracy killed cinemas and that killed the movie tickets. But piracy may not have killed movie tickets, QR Codes did. This is the QR Code ticket from GSC  android app. Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) in Malaysia has released their android app which allows you to purchase movie tickets on your smart phone.  Besides the obvious that you can skip the queue when you purchase it on the phone, you do not need to even bother with the movie tickets. All you need is to get this QR code scanned upon entry, you are in.  The lack of holding a physical ticket, however, can be a little uneasy, especially when you have seen movies for many years with a ticket in your hand. While mobile is cool, GSC should look at adding some social elements where you can share the movie you just watched or even buy tickets for your friends. 

Tough if you are a Chinese Malaysian as film maker Namewee finds out.

In the talks I have attended about engaging blogs, many of the examples highlighted were of US examples, eg Dell Hell , JetBlue . It is quite difficult to relate these examples from an Asian perspective. Asian examples of engaging bloggers can be hard to find, but one example popped out at popular Malaysia blogger, Rockybru. Few days back, Rockybru blogged about a rumour spreading in the grapevine that AirAsia was pulling out its sponsorship of the Formula One races. Honda recently announced they were pulling out of the Formula One races and Toyota looking to reduce the cost of sponsoring its F1 team. Most Asian companies would dismissed this as a rumour and choose not to respond with its corporate communication policies of not responding to one. However, Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia, chose to respond to the post and even to anonymous posted comments made from the post. He did so by responding to the post and the various anonymous commentators. Wrote Tony Fernandes in h...

From tomorrow onwards, I will be working from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. EASTWEST PR has decided to look in the feasibility of opening a office here and they have send me up north to recce the area. The timing of this adventure couldn't be better. My wife is in her last stage of the trimester and she is expected to give birth in late August. The doctor forecasting it to be on 280808. Nice number though. In Cantonese, the number sounds like "to prosper, prosper and prosper". My wife has decided to deliver in Kuala Lumpur so that her mother and family members are able to take care of her. I have to thank the bosses at EASTWEST PR for this opportunity to work in KL so I can be closer to my wife in case of anything, touchwood. Back to the EASTWEST operations in KL. The plan here is to spend the next three months to understand the PR business landcape in KL. It also includes starting a team here. I will be looking for PR (all levels from Associate to Executive Associate to Senio...