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.

Officially activated.

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

Happy happy happy :)

Honestly I don't think anything can get me down these days. Great weekend of doing absolutely nothing. Was updating my resume over the weekend, I am excited. I can't wait for all the adventures that await. I don't know where I am going or which job I will land. Who cares?! All I know is everything will be fresh. Will miss my boss & coworkers though. I love this team. Back in the agency days, time went by so slow. At adidas, it just flew by. Be it the chemistry or the timing or my mental/emotional state. Again, who knows. But it's time to graduate :) Time to get back on the track and start jogging again. Time for myself, to myself.

The colleagues....

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

Finally!!

We started planning for this campaign back in June/July - I forgot. With only 700 ppl capacity, it's not a HUGE event, but media coverage pre- and post-event was awesome.

This was my baby, from concept creation, media strategy planning, event creatives down to the nitty gritty annoying details like catering to Billups requirements, invitations, gathering fans from different channels, it was a tough tough ride.

I think this is my last project before I 'graduate' from here. Therefore after the event, I stole some time to take some pictures for memory. There are never any pictures of myself in events, because the photographers always capture the outcome instead of the process.

Anyway, here are some of my memories...

Feeling miserable & alone during those 3am overtimes.

Walking those heavy steps, and looking like SHIT for the past 2 weeks & still having to do TV interviews.

Final checks/technical rehearsals the day before.

Worrying about my big shoe not being able to descend from the ceiling as planned.

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And post-event - all smiles after I was able to let go of my game face. :) Will post pix of actual event later..

He is my partner in crime. Again, looking like shit in all these pictures...

Once again. Things never change.

It comes that time of the year again when people start to try to get in touch because they want to attend some event. I remember last time, it was the House Party when I made a bitchin' post afterward.

People whom I don't really keep in touch with start calling me and facebook messaging me or msning me. We are not friends, we are acquaintances. If I had NBA tickets, why would I give them to you? Please, you are all so far down on the list it's insane.

Stupid stupid boys and girls.