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Over 20 screenings in 16 different countries are taking place. In Metro Manila, this will happen on Friday, Dec. 4, 2009 at the Asian Institute of Management, Makati (in front of Greenbelt 1), starting 7PM
BJ Cunningham, founder of the Death Cigarettes, took center stage this morning.
BJ is engaging and entertaining. His talk impressed the audience (and the Subic Bay Review). Brands (companies), he stressed, must concentrate on being who they really are and that that each brand must deliver their promise.
In hindsight, what can you expect from a man who tries to sell a product that kills and makes sure that everyone understands it. Sheez...
Here's a video clip of his superb talk on Brand Differentiation in the New Market Paradigm
If you ever have the money for a branding talk, he is worth every dollar (or Euro).
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BJ Cunningham's profile
BJ Cunningham - Founder of Death Cigarettes. Keynote Business and Branding Speaker.
Whilst still a teenager BJ Cunningham launched his first enterprise, The Karma Connection, importing classic cars and Harley Davidsons from LA to London. This stopped abruptly when the market collapsed!
Taking his considerable debt, BJ Cunningham established DEATH™ Cigarettes, as ‘the honest smoke’. The Enlightened Tobacco Company began to gain such a foothold that it eventually found itself up against the combined might of the industry.
BJ Cunningham uses the DEATH cigarette brand to illustrate the power of provocation and how to flip a conservative market. In typically entertaining fashion, he also demonstrates that authentic and powerful branding demands the truth. The future is about market depth and involvement, not just awareness.
His verve and growing reputation for challenging norms led BJ to set up an integrated brand marketing agency, winning clients as diverse as Volkswagen, B&O, Fairline Boats and Nokia.
(21st Philippine advertising Congress, Subic Bay)
Obviously, our interest lies in the 'digital' discussions of the Advertising Congress. Subic Bay, after all, relies heavily on the web to make its presence felt. Its marketing moolah is in short supply, like everyone else. But unlike everybody else, its super limited resources ain't used effectively. But that is for another blog.
<---We missed JOHN NAISBITT's talk on climate change. Sad, but unavoidable. I am sure that you will find enough materials about climate change in the web to make you stop looking for more. The predictions are grim and we hope humanity (that includes us, remember) to find a solution.
'Taking social networking to the next level. Who will take the lead?' was the topic about the net.
Great! Filipinos lapped up the features of every social networking site offered. At the height of Typhoon Ondoy, one silly Facebooker told her friends to keep the updates clear of the usual traffic. Why? Because according to her, Facebook was being used to cocordinate information about the calamity. Sheez, I wanted my friends to know that I just cooked too many roast beef. They all spoiled, damn!
The first speaker was CLAUDIO PINKUS, Executive Chairman of Multiply.com. He naturally harped on the advantages of using multiply.com. Here is what interested me about his talk. I thought that most of us want digitized photos, Right? We he has a different take. His company plans to take these memories to the next level --- in high resolution PRINTS! Talk about talking taking the SNS to the next level.
If you are a multiply user, you missed a lot. If you use Facebook, Friendster and other social netwroking sites, you spent your time well doing sometime else.
Ian Stewart, Head, Friendster Asia has a better take on his assignment.Read this: ---> 40% of all net users are in Asia (660 million), only 16.5% of Asia is online!
Social networking, sites, he said, are maturing. Clearly, fragmentation and segmentation are slowly creeping its way into these site. (Heaven's forbid that Facebook becomes a site for teenagers, easing me out of my favorite but still unproductive niche. Yikes!)
No worries, though, Stewart predicts that Facebook is clearly for adults. Teens are more likely to flock to Freindster, while X my son, will click away at Moshi monsters.
Reuben Maislos of Pudding Media, on the other hand, described how marketers AND telcos (Smart, Globe and Sun) might beam the advertisers messages...
The images above is from Mr. Maislos presentation.
It is not as if the model used above is THE WAY, or THE ONLY WAY.
We better brace ourselves from this invasion because it is coming. As sure as night will give way to daytime, they are coming to your cellphone.
I've been to the 17th Philippine Advertising Congress in Cebu and the 20th here in Subic Bay. What the heck can the marketers think of that would surprise the perennial delegate?
Remember this?
Off to the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center I went this afternoon. To register, of course. I was surprised to see that it has almost the same layout as the 20th. Smart got most of the booths outside while Coke parked its cheeky red truck a few meters away.
Willis, a local bar, was prepping up their booth. Most of the waitresses were already showing off some skin. And I don't blame them, it was hot and dry.
Bursting with delegates, the registration area was a joy to watch. Ladies with streaming but fake orange hair. Curvaceous women in high heels. And, uh, let's get back to the Advertising Congress.
When I got to the press center, the mainstream media boys and girls were slouched in what appears to be the same couch I sat on two years ago. I could be wrong you know, but it was not something worth asking about.
Are you getting the drift of the surprise? Good then, let's move on.
20th PAC ads (Subic Bay)
Strutting around the venue area with my brothers, I see familiar faces showing off their pearly whites like they were real pearls.
'So, if they were here two years ago, why so much joy? You would think that they'd want to pass up the 21st PAC because they've been to Subic Bay, and not much has really changed,' I thought, as I shoot rapid courteous grins their way.
We kind of floated around a bit, and decided to look for a photo exhibit, when we chanced upon a Canon booth. My brothers, both photo enthusiasts, naturally got sucked into a technical chat with the Canon reps about, well, the latest photographic contraptions.
'We've got a photo exhibit, but the photos will be flashed here (pointing to a 42-inch LCD TV). But we also have a photo contest on any subject matter about the 21st PAC,' the jolly Canon rep blurted, pointing to their backdrop announcing the contest.
The contest theme was "Ano sa tingin mo?"
My jaw dropped. I forgot all about the 21st PAc theme --- PERSPECTIVE.
I don't know if 'the old being new again' effect is something that these marketers tried to create but it did make me look at the familiar faces i saw again, the same venue, subic bay, the crazy couch, quite differently.
Every morning when we wake up, we see the same thing and say it is the same thing all over again. Well, it ain't.
