Anticipating 2010

It's now 8:30ish pm here in Taipei.

I am parting from my partying ways this new year's eve. I am home, in my PJs, in my glasses, hair pulled into a homebody bun, waiting for ice cubes to freeze by midnight so I can drink a few glasses of Baileys on the rocks before I head to bed.

Didn't even turn the TV on to see what the world is up to at this moment.

I can hear fireworks going off already.

And I am in my own little space, working on my own little portfolio, reflecting back on what I've done over the past 4-5 years. Wow... I managed to pull off a lot of campaigns and projects from out of my ass. Looking at the photos and videos take me back to those countless all-nighters at the office rubbing my eyes like crazy thinking, 'Why the fuck am I doing this to myself for the equivalent of convenience store wage in Canada? Ma & Pa can soooo support me forever'.... and wanting to quit soooo bad everyday during the PR agency days.

But I'm proud of myself that I pulled through and never quit, and experienced the client side of things where time passed super quickly.

I am leaving adidas as a graduate, not as a quitter, and I don't care about what anyone else thinks, I am proud of what I've done for this brand in this Thumbelina-esque market called Taiwan.

NEW ADVENTURE AWAITS in 2010.

Scared shitless but excited as fuck! :)

So music

Gahhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Robin Thicke's new album Sex Therapy is so ridiculously good. Wayyyyy better than his first, tho I thot his 1st was awesome also. But 2nd one trumps 1st one fo sho.


-- Posted From My iPhone... Kept short!

New Years Resolution

1. Find a job I love.

2. Cuss less.

3. Be less rude to randoms.

4. Less BAM and more save.

5. Spend more time with ma & pa before I get outta here.

6. Remain just as happy as I am now, because I have been pretty happy in 2009. Smooth year.

ok that's it.

Beautiful Boxing Day

Great weekend so far. Did absolutely nothing but typed so much. What a merry Xmas hahaha. But tonight it's game on. Tamz is back :) I guess i have to go out atleast one night out of this Xmas long weekend. The morning/afternoon had consisted of hair salon getting hair washed by new rookie cute didi. Not so shabby. 'Bucks caffeine fix. Bookstore. Excellent. Pleasantly impressed by December issue of MC. I have to flip through 30-40 magazines on monthly basis for work, but never have time to actually read the articles. MCs got some substance this month!!


-- Posted From My iPhone... Kept short!

idontcarebutiactuallydoyetidont

Wow xmas is getting less n less festive every year in Taipei, except for downstairs in my lobby. They deco'd like crazy this year. Kinda a little too festive for me. But I guess the effort is there. This xmas eve I went to hotpot w/ a couple friends, then decided to head home. So tame on a long weekend.

After HK, I really feel so partied out...

So tonight, I am at home working on my portfolio which should (hopefully) be finished by this weekend.

HK was... interesting, fun, stupid, lost, awesome. Overall what I enjoyed the most was chilling with the 604 core. I've had plenty of my 604 dosage in the past 2 months with Tania & Wingcent coming to visit, then HK. It's been... interesting...

But it's always fun. It will always be fun.

Gahhhhh who knows where I will be in 2010...

First thing is first... time to job hunt, and I gotsta focus...

Back from HK

Seriously hate writing Xmas cards... Esp in Chinese.


* I must say I really appreciate TWs lack of crowds n open sidewalks. -- Posted From My iPhone... Kept short!

Location:Taipei

Oh, just another regular weekend in Tpe.

So for Oz's bday we planned a bash at The Top, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Taipei. The food there ain't so great, but hey, with a view like that, who cares about the food?

Anyway so here are some pics, some with captions some without, just see for yourself...

So I got this cake at the Bakery downstairs my office... It was supposed to look like OZ.

Wow don't I look tired on a Friday night...

Balinese style restaurant.

It's good we got a tented area because it's pretty cold now (and windy).

I love this picture so chill...

Bday boy.

So blurry... but I don't like the lighting with flash...

We had a FEAST with 2 hotpots... n alotta other stuff...

Vicky and Pubic Hair..

How can you NOT love it here...

Edward super nurturing taking the bone out of the fish...

I refused to let go of the leftover vodka...

And then afterward we went to Edwards place to party some more...

And then that was that, I stayed home on Saturday, and on Sunday I went out to play... with QD.

QD wanted to go out for afternoon tea, and who am I to say no? (no one disobeys QD)

We came to this place in Taipei 101... I saw some figure skates on the X'mas tree so I took a picture of it. Little did I know, this was actually a Tiffany & Co. decorated xmas tree, so all the tourists were taking a picture of the light green Tiffany box on the bottom of the tree instead of just the tree itself like how I did. How superficial...

Her royal princess was very hungry and was NOT satisfied with the portions...

You think she is talking important HUGE business call... little did u know, she was just telling her mom that she wont be home for dinner HAHAHAH...

Hmm what else.. well this weekend I bought 2 new toys:

1. Application on iphone called "Autostitch" as recommended by Robert. This is my first autostitch.. (so landscape panorama picture)

2. With a new mini tripod for my Ricoh GRD2, I will never take a blurry photo again!!

I took Deb to GB for dinner. She liked it.... SUPER YUMS steak sandwich...

Ahi Tuna Salad... (so practicing my photography skills)

SHHHH..... goodnite!

So here is the thing

Sensitive? Great!

Metro-sexuals? OK!

Feminine? Sure, friend!

but, I really cannot stand weak men.

Great, Won-der-4, Blank

I guess when things are quite wonderful, there ain't much to complain about = no new blog posts.

How about just some pix...

Pretty fun: Deborah's dorky magazine with restaurant recommendations.

Very fun: Date @ Ziga Zaga

Pretty fun: Random night to Ed's house.

Awesome fun: Hiking and Kite flying in Keelung.

So-so fun: JDC's farewell partay until 430am.

Dats all folklores. And guess what, December will be EXTREMELY fun :)

When Can I See Who Again?

Today, as usual, I was laying on the side of the tracks doing my sit-ups, and When Can I See You Again by Babyface starts playing. I was laying there lookin up at the night clouds n stars, feeling the breeze and this gorgeous song, yet I really don't have anyone to apply it to. The song has lost its meaning.

I really don't know who I want to see again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m4UWZt_ldE

(Well, except you - *one)

The Lack of Sex and My City.

Over the past 2 weekends I must have watched Sex and the City (The Movie) like 4 times, just because it's been on repeat on HBO.

My 2 favorite scenes:

1. Charlotte going buzzurk on Big after the cold-feet no-show.

2. When Charlotte has her baby shower, and the girls were all sitting together... "there it was, the 3 mirrors that Samantha could not avoid."

AMAZING chemistry amongst the 4 different characters, no matter how different they are. Others might tell you what you want to hear, but only true friends will provide honest insight. I am pretty confident that I have a handful of girls around me that will always be there to give me a slap in the face or a pat on the back when deserved, and I'd do the same thing for them, no matter how shitty the truth sounds.

Ever since I 'found' myself through the course of trial and many many errors, I haven't been afraid to speak my mind. I am definitely not afraid to own up to my actions.

Yes, ok, boy I was drunk. We made out. It's FINE. We don't have to pretend it never happened.

Yes, random guy, you are not my friend. I think you are a stalker. Go away. OK bye.

Yes, ex-bf, I think you are disrespectful and full of shit. OK bye.

Yes, I want to kick your ass because you made my mom cry, and I made sure I said it directly to you, and not hear it from someone else, so you know.

Yes, friend, I think you are trippin', and I think you should know from me before you hear it from some random.

Whatevers. It's COOL.

Life is so short, why live in denial?! No time for bullshit.

I will never take credit for something that I didn't do, nor will I do something I would not own up to.

I have many mirrors reflecting on me, as I am a mirror on others.

The critics that DO matter, I try to listen, absorb, and somewhat take into consideration. Bleh. I know I am a stubborn bull most of the time, but good or bad, I love hearing the honest truth. I value it actually. So, thanks mirrors for shovin' it in my face. I can take it, so bring it.

LUV those mirrors I can't avoid.

Recently... I am tired for all the wrong reasons.

It's always nice to have fellow Vancouverites visit here in Taiwan. Reminds me of home.

Lovely little city Taipei is - All the superficial nights out, the random bump-ins in the streets, the Friday/Saturday walk of shame into my own lobby at sunrise... yea, no. Not exactly my type of life.

But yea, why do I still go? Come Friday night, I get so completely bored of the Monday-Friday routing that I need to consume.. alcohol that is.

So I guess it's official. Come end of March 2010, and I am out of here. Hurray for a new beginning.

Get Low

De final recap. De final project. I am retired.

Holy.

Muthafuck. Why do I attract and get stalked by the most psycho guys. Holy shit. Forreals. Perhaps I was never meant to live in tw. These guys are unbelievable. Fuck. Off. I fucking don't like u so fuck. Off. -- Posted From My iPhone... Kept short!

And somehow, we did it.

Shameless self promotion? Perhaps! But this being most likely my final campaign here, a lot of thoughts I want to share.

A lot of people ask me what I do.

Some taxi drivers think PR = PG (Promotion Girls), others think PR = Escort.

Hmmm not exactly...

I really believe that this brand's marketing department is highly driven by PR. Our team works the longest hours, we have the least budget in marketing, but we create the highest ROI.

Every single aspect of the venue decoration is carefully calculated, so that no matter where the media is shooting from, the adidas logo/adidas 3-stripes is always in the shot. Even the bench Billups sat on to change his shoes had crazy branding. There is absolutely no way the media can void adidas brand presence if they want to get a clear shot of Mr. Big Shot. :) Sneaky? Sly? Yes. We dont't care if the NCC fines the TV stations for embedded advertisement in news programs, as long as we are seen.

This event was held on a freaking Wednesday morning at 10am. Work day. School day. The absolute worst timing for a public event. Went through hell and back worried about an empty gymnasium with no fans, then worried about it being too packed, then back to being worried about no shows. Prior to event, we put in a lot of work getting the news out there without using any traditional media (we only had 10 days to announce this event, since Billups' schedule was unconfirmed, no time to go the traditional route). Made use of non-traditional media like basketball forums, BBS, PTT to get the crowd here, to make sure Billups doesn't feel like shit. Ahhhh... the magic of the internet.

When my agency reported that 16 TV stations came, I was like, 'wtf... I didn't even know Taiwan had more than 10 media that would report on an event like this'.

We leveraged the NBA craze from the Taipei Game to launch the TS Cut Creator (hence why we made the gigantic shoe), to claim our territory in the basketball category, to tell our target audience that adidas is an authentic basketball brand. We had the ultimate weapon - the NBA - as the platform to propel the brand and we thoroughly took advantage of it, with almost zero negative feedback from consumers and media.

I really don't think the pictures do this event justice. So here are 2 of the 19 TV exposures:

In the 2nd one, you see the only major flaw in this event. The giant shoe was supposed to descend from the ceiling, together with the Mission Impossible-esque guys. During final rehearsal, 1 of the 4 motors burnt out. My vendor went out looking for a replacement cord. I was panicking... the media was already starting to arrive and camera crews were setting up. Even if the replacement cord came and got replaced, we couldn't be 100% sure that it would descend OK. There was absolutely no time for a run-through. We had to settle for the worst case scenario = have it rolled out and unveiled manually, which looked like shiat.

But, its better to have it awkwardly rolled out than to risk having it stuck in the air. Better safe than sorry. No one knows though, that it wasn't supposed to be like this. But we know, and we don't like.

Could have done a way more elaborate event... but given the tiny budget, it's not 100% perfect, but we got what we wanted to achieve - linkage to the NBA, launch shoes, launch new slogan. Bankai.

PR is a lot more than doing events though. Just one single event won't make a brand's sales boost significantly. It's the constant media communication. It's being reactive & knowing what your target audience wants, and packaging the brand/products into a form that they will accept, and hopefully agree with, which MAY turn into a purchase on the other end.

After all, our campaign products did not sell out after the event. It sold out before the event happened, thanks to the wonderful early phases of the campaign where we power-blasted our brand & products.

Report finished.

The end.