Asher Wen

Strategist, Marketer, Nerd

The Fallacy of the Perfect Picture

I celebrated my 26th birthday yesterday.  The day was spent with my oldest friends over food and mahjong, and it was also spent reflecting on my life this past 26 years.  Looking back, I thank God for His blessings in my life and the friends and family who have been with me every step of the way.

I am so thankful for my friends and family
Celebrations over the weekend with the gang and my family

While I was thinking back on the bigger milestones in my life, I realised that I never would have been able to guess that I would end up where I am now.  Yet, I am right where I am supposed to be.  I was just telling Teck yesterday that somehow all the skills that I picked up in school has come into use in some way or another at work.  Like what Steve Jobs said in his Commencement speech to Stanford University, you can only ever connect the dots retrospectively.  I now have a newfound understanding of what he meant.

To try to engineer your own future by trying to fit your life into some sort of mould that someone else told you is good would only bring about unnecessary angst and pain.  Unfortunately, so many of us fall into this trap because of familial and societal expectations.  I call this the fallacy of the perfect picture. [Read more…]

Identity Design: Yoga in the Citi

Yoga Backdrop White 5
Yoga in the Citi

Yoga in the Citi is a mass yoga event planned by Citibank as a part of their corporate celebrations for International Women’s Day. I was brought in to help with the branding of the event, including coming up with the event title and identity.

The Brief

The brief included coming up with an idea for the name of the event together with the logo. Some restrictions was that the logo had to play with the main colour theme of Purple, Black & White. This was actually really helpful at the beginning because it saved one round of colour exploration and I could just focus on getting the logo elements right.

Part of the brief was also that the logo and event should include an element of women finding their balance between wellness and work.

Some initial ideas for the event title included “Hit the Mats” and “Find Your Balance”. The client decided that “Yoga in the Citi” had a good ring to it, and aptly included the company into the event, and so it was chosen.

Part of the work included designing a customisable electronic direct mailer template, 2 event backdrop designs and a t-shirt design visual.

The Concept

The big idea behind the identity was that of balance. By using familiar yoga poses as a device, I wanted to show that it is possible to have it all: to balance your work, and yet still spend some time to take care of your health. The participation in the event would culminate that idea, where hundreds of Citibankers take time off their busy schedule to attend a mass yoga event.

The additional stroke added an anchor to the design as well as alluding to the yoga mats that participants will be using during the event.

For the backdrop design, a mandala symbol was used to add to the idea of balance and yoga.

The Event

Yoga in the Citi was held on 4th and 6th of March, 2014 in the two different offices of Citibank Singapore.  What you see above are some of the highlights of the event.  There is something enchanting in seeing people coming together and doing something in unison.  It is admirable that Citi took the effort to organise such a large scale event for its employees and in support of International Women’s Day.

I was glad to be able to bring a face to the event that the team had planned, and was especially proud to see my designs on The Business Times the following day:

Business Times Coverage
The event was covered in Business Times the following day

See the article here.

What did you think of the design? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Importance of Internships

Hello My Name is Intern

Last Friday marked the very last day of internship for me, EVER. (okay, I might still have internships when I do my MBA, but you get what I mean right?).  I have just completed my Marketing Analytics internship (more on that in a future post!) with Mondelēz last week, and I have been on a period of ‘unemployment’ since.  Since it’s been so very long since I had so much time on my hands, I thought it would be good write a post on the importance of internships. [Read more…]

Singtel pits Gordon Ramsay against Singaporean hawkers

Singtel pits Gordon Ramsay against Singaporean hawkers

UPDATE: Gordon Ramsay 1, Hawker Heroes 2. Ramsay hails Singaporean street food as being better than Michelin star restaurants. Watch what he says at the end of the post.

Gordon Ramsay is causing all sorts of buzz in Singaporean hawker centres this weekend. Invited by Singtel, Ramsay will face off three top hawkers who were voted in by Singaporeans in a bid to find out if the local hawker fare is really as good as Singaporeans make it out to be once and for all.

Ramsay’s fame as a Michelin-starred chef, the head chef in Hell’s Kitchen, and the host of various TV shows showing cuisines from different countries makes him an ideal fit for this challenge.

In preparation for his challenge, Gordon Ramsay has been going to different hawker centres to learn dishes from the hawkers, having appeared at famous food hangouts such as 328 Katong Laksa and Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice in Maxwell Road Food Centre. He will also be making an appearance in Newton Food Centre on Sunday, 7 July.

Is Singaporean Hawker Food Dying Out?

The challenge comes at a time when many locals are worried that the hawker culture in Singapore is dying out.

There has been various high-profile retirements of favourite hawker haunts lately such as Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice in South Buona Vista. With ageing hawkers literally growing old and dying out, and the younger generation eschewing the tough hawker life for cushy PMEB jobs, it seems to be only a matter of time before the hawker centres that litter Singapore is no more.

The Singtel challenge then, comes at an appropriate time to pull at the heartstrings of locals. If it isn’t a statement that our hawker food still reigns supreme, it is at least a brilliant eulogy that hawker food died out having once pitted itself against one of the best chefs in the world.

Singtel?

And how does all this link back to the largest telco player in Singapore?

After its acquisition of HungryGoWhere.com last May, Singtel now lays claim to the largest food & lifestyle audience in Singapore.

According to SGEntrepreneurs’s interview with Singtel’s Digital Life Group CEO, Allen Lew last year, “a cornerstone of SingTel’s growth strategy is to build digital solutions that help consumers in their daily lives – as they live, work and play. Possessing the local knowledge and content is critical as it allows us to compete effectively in these areas”.

It is evident that Singtel is increasingly its efforts to move the brand away from Telco-only, to a wider set of associations such as food and lifestyle. The Ramsay challenge helps in channeling traffic back to HungryGoWhere.com where the voting is held, and also helps to boost Singtel’s profile of being truly “local” and close to the ground as a content provider, rather than simply being a medium like Starhub.

Here’s more Ramsay:

At the end of the day, Ramsay lost to the Hawker Heroes by quite a close margin.  Not a totally unexpected result, since the odds are stacked against his favour.  Ramsay had nothing but the highest praise for Singaporean hawker food:

THE SATURDAY BRIEF // 06.07.13

The Saturday Brief

Here’s some marketing news that you might have missed this week on The Saturday Brief. It looks like there are quite a few pieces centred around skincare this week in Singapore, with some tech news coming globally!

1. Does Tigerair’s New Logo Resemble Scoot’s?
Marketing Interactive
Tigerair unveiled its new branding earlier this week. Marketing Interactive thinks it looks a little too close to Scoot’s, with good reason. With both airlines being affiliates to Singapore Airlines, I wonder what is the strategic purpose of maintaining two different budget airlines? I would have wanted to write a post about the new brand, but I just didn’t manage to find the time. Perhaps next week!

2. Laneige Goes On Social Media Push
Marketing Interactive
Laneige has appointed Blugrapes as its new social media agency after a closed pitch. With the skincare market favouring Korean and Japanese brands these days, it would be interesting to see what Laneige pushes out in the coming months!

3. Japan’s Kanebo recalls cosmetics over skin stain fears
ChannelNewsAsia
Speaking of skincare, Japanese Kanebo has recalled 54 skin whitening products over fears that a compound in its products, 4HPB, would cause “white stains” on your skin. Some of the products recalled are also being sold in Singapore but has not been related to any complaints locally.

4. Shiseido Launches Ibuki
The Moodie Report
If this is old news for The Moodie Report, having reported this last month, it’s new news for Singapore. Shiseido launched its Ibuki skincare range this past week here on our island with a flipbook campaign. Ibuki, literally meaning “New Breath” is aimed at the elusive young audience of 25-34 year old millenials.

Coincidentally, a Japanese-associated product is just what we recommended for Shiseido in our Final Year Project, what with the Asian trend of skincare favouring products that are made and formulated for Asian skin. Glad to see that they took our advice! (teehee!)

5. Almost every major consumer electronics manufacturer is now working on a smart watch
Quartz
Everyone is talking about smart watches nowadays, with Sony having released its version of the future last week. Companies are rushing to jump onto the bandwagon that got started on a rumour that Apple is producing its version of an iWatch. Since we know that Apple is never one to pioneer a new device, but follows up with innovative ways of using existing technology, it would be interesting to see how all these unfolds when Apple announces its line-up of new products this Fall.

6. Apple Fashions a New Position for CEO of Yves St Laurent as it Eyes Wearable Future
Brand Channel
This is pretty interesting news: A fashion house CEO as VP in a Tech company. This probably gives us a hint as to what Apple has in store as its next big thing. I think it will definitely be wearables as everyone is guessing, but somehow I think it might not be an iWatch that everyone is expecting. I, for one, would be disappointed if it were a mere watch…

7. How Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom Is Making Good On Facebook’s Billion-Dollar Bet
Fast Company
This interview with CEO Kevin Systrom gives us an idea of what he thinks about how Instagram should monetize itself. I am glad that he is not trying to force banners or paywalls on our throats like say, YouTube or Facebook. The idea of having ads enhance the user experience is a great one. Have a read.

8. Motorola Unveils Patriotic Ad For MOTO X Smartphone Just In Time For Independence Day
Fast Company
As we all know, it’s Independence Day over in the United States. Motorola has rolled out its first ad campaign since being acquired by Google, and it appeals to the patriotism of Americans, urging them to “buy local” with the tag line, “Designed by You. Assembled in the USA”. This highlights the background of both Google and Motorola being U.S.-made companies. Would patriotism work in the smartphone market though, with Apple and Samsung being the two perennial giants?

9. Nike Celebrates 25 Years of Just Do It
Brand Channel
It is quite something for a slogan to last for 25 years. This is especially true for apparel, where fashions come and go like the win. That’s why it’s a particular coup for Nike to have clung on to its slogan for so long. It is, of course, world famous. And it doesn’t seem like it is going anywhere.

10. When You Talk To A Lamp Post And It Talks Back: Smart Cities Get Playful
FastCo Create
Finally, I leave you an interesting article from FastCo Create about smart cities. The Hello Lamp Post project allows anyone to talk to urban objects in Bristol through SMS. This is possibly a peek into how cities of the future could be like, when such technology is applied at a wider scale. Would you want to talk to your lamp post?