Sales, Social and Tech

If you have already planned to be at the Web In Travel Conference, don’t forget to register for exclusive Fan benefits! The first 30 fans who register at the Web In Travel Facebook Page will get to enjoy the following benefits at the Web In Travel Conference. 1. A signed copy of Losing my Innocence and Finding my Groove, a new book by Yeoh Siew Hoon 2. A chance to win one of 3 mystery hotel stays in a lucky draw post-WIT 3. A personalised photo memoto of WIT2011 4. Access to Priority Facebook Registration Queue on-site 5. An early bird discount for WIT 2012. Register here !

Ketchum PR recently came under fire for a "switch and bait" campaign where they invited food bloggers to a famous restaurant only to serve them processed food from ConAgra Foods. This is like a popular Chinese joke where one would say that you are invited to this popular restaurant and will be served by this famous chef but didn't say the food was to be cooked by the chef. Ketchum PR wanted to do a candid camera session with the bloggers where they would film their reaction to consuming processed food instead of real food, something which consumers which see it as a joke. The food bloggers, however, did not hold back their disappointment and punches. Mom Confessions blogged , Our entire meal was a SHAM!   We were unwilling participants in a bait-and-switch for Marie Callender’s new frozen three cheese lasagna and there were cameras watching our reactions.  I’ve got a sense of humor so I was okay with it and I had been enjoying myself up until that point...

They say offense is the best defense. London Weight Management, on the other hand, dug itself further into a PR nightmare with its statement defending their ad. By doing so, London Weight Management lost an opportunity to score some PR points from the negative audience. It all started when TV host Anita Kapoor blogged that the London Weight Management’s TV advertisement “portray women as pathetic, unworthy individuals. Losers on every level if they are overweight; winners at every level if they are slim”. London Weight Management Capsule from Stan Chee on Vimeo . Anita also summarized each scene of the ad. For example, she wrote that the scene showing “a woman with a crying baby, looking over the edge of a building’, created the impression that post partum depression and suicide were being trivialised. Anitia’s post was reblogged at The Online Citizen and the readers got extremely worked up by how London Weight Management portrayed obese women. It took awhile for London...

Divyesh Sejpal has a big reason to be angry with The Times of India and the agency TAPROOT INDIA – they took Divyesh photo from Flickr and turned it into an ad. Wrote Divyesh on Facebook, THEFT COMMITTED BY TIMES OF INDIA AND TAPROOT INDIA (the maker of famous Airtel Ad) from my photostream on flickr, ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcsejpal/2138831766/in/set-72157600271993205 ) forget taking consent of usage of the image, I am not even informed. This is not only on my behalf. All photographer friends suffer from this menace called THEFT. Large Scale violations of Copyrights at the hands of Publishers, Ad-agencies, Newspapers (however reputed they are) etc. I am not against the cause in the advertisement. I am totally against stealing someone's work shamelessly and publishing in National Newspaper fearlessly. I am going to take it up to the highest level in the interest of all photographers who work hard and are taken for granted like this. The result o...

How Fiat Money is making the rich richer and the poor poorer..

Below is a short documentary about Singaporean lawyer M. Ravi as he travels to Malaysia to visit the father of death row inmate, Cheong Chun Yin. Mr Cheong, the father, knelt in front of the Istana pleading for clemency in April this year. (Image from http://webelieveinsecondchances.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/chun-yins-family-present-petition-signatures-to-istana/ )

“In my days, if somebody poked me, I would poke them back in….” I wouldn’t want to give away the kicker, would I?

Watching the Rugby World Cup but have no idea how Rugby is played? Here’s the Lynx guide to Rugby…

The first ever Singapore President to share his photo portraits on Facebook before they get hung around the civil buildings. If only we had chance to vote for the right portrait…

The byline of Don Sambandaraksa, the popular IT journalist for Bangkok Post whom some PR loves to hate, appeared recently at Telecom Asia. The last time the PR world saw Don’s byline was in the last issue of Bangkok Post’s Database on January 04, 2011. Don is now a reporter at Telecom Asia and will focus more on the commentary section of the telecom publication. In his latest commentary, he described Nokia Thailand giveaway of gold bars and motorcycles as lucky draw prizes as “Lush giveaway whiffs of desperation”. Wrote Don , What do you do when you are a former market leader in a country where goodwill still runs strong and your next generation of phones will not support the local language? That is the situation facing Nokia Thailand right now given that Windows Phone Mango is reported that it will not support the Thai language out of the box. The answer that Nokia came up with was simple - turn on the marketing dollars. In what some might feel an act of desperati...

Are you attending Asia's premier event for the VC/PE community to engage with and pick the next generation's greatest innovators? If you are, be a fan of Techventure 2011 and enjoy 20% off conference fees. Plus, fans will also receive mystery goodie bags at the conference when the check-in. If you are an exhibitor at Techventure 2011, do drop Taggo an email info(at)taggo.me on how you can also reach out the fans and their friends!

Zero. Yeap Zero. Facebook previously required the Facebook Page to have more 25 fans or more before you can create a vanity URL. Image from allfacebook. Wrote All Facebook , Now you no longer need 25 friends for your profile or page to get an easier-to-remember address. Go to facebook.com/username to choose custom URLs for your pages.

Taggo will be showcasing its innovation at Techventure 2011 and will be participating in the “ Pitch to the Stars” contest. Techventure 2011 will be at Marina Bay Sands from 13 October to 14 October 2011. Techventure 2011 Website - http://techventure.com.sg/ Techventure 2011 Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Techventure/200147820027288 About Techventure 2011 TECHVENTURE 2011 is presented by National Research Foundation (NRF) and Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SVCA) and organised by Asiasons WFG, in partnership with SingTel Innov8. This is Asia's premier event for the VC/PE community to engage with and pick the next generation's greatest innovators. The summit event will draw ultra high net worth individual investors, Venture Capitalists, Private Equity Fund managers, Limited Partners (LP) and Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF). Now into its pivotal 15th year, TECHVENTURE 2011 will feature some of the wealthiest individuals, youngest bill...

Organisation’s Name: Digital Life Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/DigitalLifeSG Event: Comex2011 Registration Date: 29 August 2011 – 04 September 2011 Event Date: 01 September 2011 – 04 September 2011 Digital Life had a booth at Comex2011 and wanted to reward fans with access to exclusive Digital Life contest and freebies during the four-day consumer show. How does it work? Step 1– Fans hear about the upcoming event on Digital Life Fan Page. Step 2 – They register their mobile number to get on the guest list, which creates a wall post for their friends to see. Step 3 – On the day of the event, guests go to the venue and give their mobile number to a clerk at the Digital Life booth. The clerk enters the number into a PC application to check that the guest is registered, which causes a second status update to appear on friends’ news feeds, advertising a future event. On the first day of announcing fan benefits at Comex2011, Digital Life re...

DBS Places ended it run yesterday. As the check-in pages are public, it is easy to look at the resulting check-in among the DBS Places users. According to Facebook, DBS Places had 31493 monthly active users. In Singapore, DBS Places record 508 check-ins. Sour Sally @ Wisma Atria was the most popular check-in place for Singapore with 106 check-ins. However, check-ins do not represent sales made as you could check-in anyway near the area. DBS Bank Shenton Way was the most popular check-in bank with 54 check-ins. Here is a breakdown of DBS Places Check-in. Places Check-In % of app users Sour Sally 106 0.34% El Toro 48 0.15% Klapsons 38 0.12% ...

The 2008 financial crisis is about to celebrate its 3rd anniversary and we are nowhere clear from it. News reports are appearing that US regulators are suing banks for billions for the crisis. Wrote The Slate , The lawsuits came through. Late in the day Friday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency sued Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Barclays. The federal regulator also listed Nomura Holdings, HSBC Holdings and Credit Suisse Group as defendants, reports Bloomberg . The suit relates to losses on more than $41 billion in subprime mortgage securities that were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Many of us may not understand how this crisis began and we are looking at signs that it could happen again, especially with rising property prices in Asia. Below are two set of videos I found that helps explain the crisis of credit. There are lessons to learn here. Property prices, especially in Singapore, where it is always expected to rise and never fall, is facin...