Our Climate Is In Crisis. And It’s Not Just Earth’s.

Al Gore used to be known as the nearly man, as the US presidential candidate who famously won the US presidential election popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, the most for any Democrat in US history, yet lost the presidency by 5 electoral votes. A lesser man would have crumbled with such a career calamity, but here is a man who went on to become an Oscar, Grammy and a Nobel Prize winner.

But many people do not know that this is the same man who had a hand in moulding the infrastructure that shaped the early days of the internet. No, he didn’t invent the internet, he was merely misquoted in a TV interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Here is what was reported on Wikipedia :
‘Gore was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship. The Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication.As a Senator, Gore began to craft the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as "The Gore Bill") after hearing the 1988 report Toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet). The bill was passed on December 9, 1991.’ and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the "information superhighway."

Little wonder that, after the presidential defeat, Gore sat on the board of Apple and was also a senior advisor to Google during its formative days. We all know how those panned out. No, he didn’t invent the internet, but it’s fair to say he helped shaped Web 2.0

This week marks the days leading to Earth Hour on 28 March, when businesses all over the world vote to switch off all lights for an hour. Here’s an except from http://www.earthhour.org/about/

‘This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.’

In our own world, in Mindshare, we should take a leaf from Al Gore’s urging of people to change the way they lead their lives on mother Earth.

To those who have watched the movie, you heard the Truth. To those who haven’t, read the following and draw its analogy to our own industry – ‘Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.’

"The truth about the climate crisis," Gore says, "is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives."

Nothing lasts forever. No winning strategy can last forever – Mindshare, like Al Gore, pioneered the media specialist industry but 10 years on, Mindshare is now a victim of its own success because our competitive advantage has been eroded by copycat agencies who are charging lower and lower, and even lower, just to get ahead.

Our industry is much like Earth’s climate, it’s in crisis. We are at the threshold of our industry’s epic destruction. It’s an inconvenient truth to many in Mindshare, in our industry, but it’s the damn truth! Our trees/fees are being burnt, and in no time, we will have no land in our industry.

So here's the dilemma : are we content on being the 'nearly man' or should we lead the transformation of our industry?

Take a leaf from Gore’s transformation, from a nearly president to Time’s runner-up (ok, nearly again!) for 2007 Person Of The Year.

Not bad for a man who nearly became the US President. After all, he transformed the internet, which is now part of our transformation to New Marketing specialists.

In a way, aren’t we glad for that?

Contributed by :
Jimmy Lim
Mindshare Singapore

TMP Worldwide Appoints Mindshare Singapore

TMP Worldwide, the largest independent firm focusing on recruitment advertising and communications recently awarded the local and regional media business to Mindshare Singapore. The account is worth $5M. Sources said that Mindshare was up against Starcom and OMD.

Ms Lezann Chong, General Manager of TMP said, "Mindshare had certainly outshone the rest of competing media agencies in our set of evaluation criteria and I trust Mindshare will be one of our valuable partner moving forward our agency growth. I look forward to a mutually beneficial, long & productive partnership. "

‘This win continues our new business momentum for 2009, as more and more brands are convinced with the new Mindshare business structure, which is to offer clients services beyond the traditional media planning and buying model, such as digital, content planning and business planning,’ said Sony Wong, Leader of Mindshare Singapore.

Mindshare Pushes Ironman With Short Films

Maiden Aviva Work Kicks Off With Invention Platform

Mindshare Singapore launched Aviva's title sponsorship of The Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore competition with a different approach this year, with the launch of marketing collaterals on cable TV, MRT stations, gyms and online as well as through Focus Media's LED screen network.

The marketing campaign includes a series of ten short films on ordinary Singaporeans who are participating in this year's event and how they are preparing for the 22 March race. The key message of the films is that the attributes needed to compete in the grueling triathlon are the same ones needed when thinking about personal finances.

"To achieve and maintain a healthy, personal financial life, it takes more than just expert advice and market leading products. It also takes self-discipline, self-sacrifice, perseverance and a long-term view. These qualities are dramatically brought to life in the emotional films produced by Singapore's Zhao Wei Films," Paul Hughes, director of strategic development for Aviva, said.

In November last year,Aviva commissioned MindShare's Business Planning team to conduct an ‘Encounters' study in to the financial services category in Singapore. ‘Encounters' is a new research approach to understanding communication effectiveness and optimizing contact mix across both above and below the line contact points, specific to the target audience, brand and category.
The study revealed that, more than ever before, consumers were engaging with the financial services category and brands.

MindShare commissioned Brian Gothong Tan, a promising film director and award-winning multimedia visual artist from Eric Khoo's production company Zhao Wei Films, to work on the campaign.

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP SELECTS MINDSHARE AS NEW GLOBAL MEDIA AGENCY

Account Includes All Media Service Responsibilities For Seven Hotel Brands Worldwide

Intercontinental Hotels Group (“IHG”), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, announces it has awarded Mindshare as it’s global strategic planning agency, to consolidate media planning and buying activities across all its brands including InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

Media services for those brands were previously handled by more than a dozen agencies worldwide. Mindshare was awarded the consolidated account after a review in which seven agencies participated.

“As part of our wider supplier review we were looking for a global media agency that would deliver innovation, good value and great service. We believe Mindshare will deliver that and we look forward to working with them.” said Tom Seddon, Chief Marketing Officer of IHG.

IHG operates more than 4,100 hotels with more than 600,000 guest rooms in about 100 countries and territories worldwide. Mindshare teams in New York and London will lead the global account with hubs in Atlanta, Singapore, and Shanghai.

“All of us at Mindshare welcome the opportunity to work with IHG’s prestigious lineup of brands,” said Mindshare Worldwide CEO Dominic Proctor. “This is a highly competitive category and we look forward to utilizing all our skills and tools to helping our new business partner build these brands worldwide.”

Mindshare is expected to assume its new responsibilities in April after a brief transition period. Responsibilities for IHG’s creative advertising accounts are not impacted by this appointment.

'This win is sweet conclusion to our Q1 performance in Singapore, adding to our stable of new clients such as Starhub, Aviva, Nissan as well as the retention of Asia Pacific Breweries,' said Sony Wong, Leader of Mindshare Singapore.

Bruce Lee : A Change Agent?

The great Bruce Lee once said ‘Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.’

Watch his interview :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO3sBulXpVw&feature=related

I think we all know Bruce Lee. But how can he be regarded as a change agent?

He is widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the twentieth century and a cultural icon. His films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts films to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West.

Lee became an iconic figure particularly to the Chinese around the world, as he portrayed Chinese national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies, which inspired the careers of today’s top kung fu actors like Jacky Chan and Jet Li.

In the context of change, he took on Hollywood at the time when Asian actors were mostly relegated to minor roles by adapting his style to suit a Western environment. When he wasn’t happy with the current forms of martial arts that existed during his days, he pioneered his own fighting style in the form of the Jeet Kune Do. The rest they say is film-making history.

Were it not for his ability to adapt to changes in his environment, it is suffice to note that the world would not have known Bruce Lee and perhaps Jacky Chan would still be performing with the Beijing Acrobatics.

In the same breath, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a fundamental force of nature, where only species that adapt (like water which can take many forms) according to the change in their environment will thrive, while those that don’t will die.

Water doesn’t die, it changes its shape and form according to the changes in its environment. We need to allow this natural force to be unleashed into our bloodstream, in relation to how we want to connect with the new consumers.

In our own context, digital is our new environment. New Marketing is our new genetic code. The sooner we eliminate the anti-change reflex that's genetically coded into all of us, we are much more likely to evolve into New Marketing specialists.

Don’t do it for your company, do it for yourself. Mindshare will evolve whether you are going to or not. But take advantage of the change platforms Mindshare has created. No other agency is taking this as seriously as Mindshare.

We can evolve our approach to marketing the same way nature evolves species or the way Bruce Lee adapted his approach in marketing himself to Hollywood.

Whether the market is up or down, whether technology is hot or not, whether you get a promotion or not, the organic approach to change will allow you to outperform the competition to yourself, your company and your clients’ brands.

Be water, my friends.

Contributed by :
Jimmy Lim
Mindshare Singapore

Nestle Gold Woos The Ladies

Mindshare Singapore recently conceptualised and managed an activation programme for the newly launched Nestle Gold, a range of premium chocolate.




The Nestle Gold team surprised the ladies working around Raffles Place during the week of Valentine’s Day, by hiring butlers to deliver love letters at their office buildings.

The love letters contained the Nestle Gold chocolate plus a love note to encourage participation in a contest to win a flowers-and-chocolates gift set to share with their loved ones.

Over 3 days, 2,000 love letters were delivered with 3,000 Nestle Gold chocolates sampled. More than 1,300 ladies couldn't resist and participated in the contest. The campaign garnered editorial coverage in ST, Zaobao, Wanbao, 8 Days and I-Weekly.

The Nestle Gold chocolate is made with only the best recipes developed at Nestle's Chocolate Centre of Excellence by Nestle's top chocolate confiseurs It consists of 5 exciting variants: NOIR 70% de CACAO (dark chocolate), NOIR ECLAT (Dark Chocolate with cocoa bean nibs), LAIT SUPERIEUR (superior milk chocolate), LAIT aux NOISETTES (milk chocolate with hazelnuts), LAIT NOUGAT (milk chocolate with honey and almond nougat).

'This is the clearest indication yet of Mindshare's new business mindset, where activation is one of our new business services we can provide to our clients,' said Jimmy Lim, Executive Director of Mindshare Singapore.

The premium chocolate is sold at the following outlets :
Marketplace : Paragon, Tanglin Mall & Raffles City
Cold Storage : Takashimaya, Causeway Point, Great World City, Holland Village, Centrepoint, Compass Point, Bugis Junction, Jelita, Hougang, One North, Parkway Parade, West Coast, King Albert Park & United Square

Singapore Played Its Part In Global Honours

Mindshare Awarded Global Media Agency Of The Year

Mindshare Singapore is proud to announce that Mindshare has been awarded Global Media Agency of the Year by renowned industry magazine Advertising Age.

'Our Singapore office is proud to have contributed to this global recognition, as our recent big business wins like Starhub, Aviva and Las Vegas Sands, and our innovative campaigns became the talk of the Mindshare network. Not forgetting, being one of the only 6 country offices to be awarded 'Media Agency Of The Year' helped,' said Sony Wong, Leader of Mindshare Singapore.

The Singapore office was awarded '2008 Media Agency Of The Year' by Marketing Magazine.

‘One of our young planners was shortlisted as the top 5 Best Inventors across Asia Pacific in the Mindshare Asia Pacific annual Purple Heads Awards. Also, a Tiger beer outdoor campaign was voted the top 5 Best Channel Innovations at the same awards,’ Wong adds.

The award follows a momentous year for the WPP-owned network, which restructured its operation during 2008 merging 12 agency units into four: Client Leadership group; Business Planning; a creative media thinking unit called Invention; and The Exchange, which handles on and offline trading.

On the global scale, the key reasons behind the award was the global restructure of the business, as well as innovative content platforms developed across Asia Pacific, such as the Chinese version of ‘Ugly Betty’, which had been commissioned on behalf of Mindshare’s client Unilever and ‘In the Motherhood’ a joint U.S. project by Unilever and Sprint’ which used an integration with The Ellen DeGeneres Show to drive women to inthemotherhood.com where they could tell real-life stories.

‘On the Singapore front, we are currently developing a few content platforms with some of our key clients, and will see these platforms pushed to the market over the next 6 months,’ Wong comments.

Dominic Proctor, chief executive of Mindshare Worldwide, said: “2008 was a momentous year as we have been driving change across our business - from our structure and our approach right through to our own brand look and feel - once again taking the lead position in the industry.

“The Mindshare family has pushed itself to constantly deliver industry beating work for our clients across the whole network. “This is a fantastic achievement and an award we are very proud of.”