[written 15 Jan 2012]

As I write this, I am sitting in a bus full of RICE people – all being very quiet, pensive perhaps. If you know us at all, you’ll know that situation is very rare and unusual. It’s the last day of our company offsite to Macau, and we’re heading to the Macau International Airport on Taipa.

Macau is made up of three bits, or what used to be three bits. Macau itself is a peninsula, an almost-island connected to the mainland by a strip of land. Then there are the two islands, Taipa and Coloane. Three long suspension bridges connect Macau to Taipa, and Taipa and Coloane are now effectively one island, because the space in between them has been reclaimed. It’s now called the Cotai Strip (Co from Coloane, and Tai from Taipa) and it’s where the famous Venetian hotel and casino sits. I am full of all sorts of Macau-related trivia, because we’ve just spent three days here.

We do a company offsite once a year, for about four days. It’s a reward for a year of hard work, it gives us all a little break, and it lets us interact in different ways than we do in the office. Most of all, it is the time when we have adventures. Last year, we went to Beijing, and this year, we spent four days and three nights in Macau. Now some people say that there isn’t anything to do in Macau besides go to the casino. Not true. Aside from enjoying the food and going on a full-day tour, we managed to spend a day at the Venetian and generally had (as I said) adventures.

Shruti bungy-jumped from the Macau Tower, tallest jump in the world. Donna did a Skyjump from there, which is like a bungy-jump, only it’s a controlled descent so it took 17 seconds for Donna to get from up there to the ground. Edwina managed to almost lose her phone. John fell completely in love with the pork chop buns at the local eating house (I did, too). Debbie won a little prize. Shireen clobbered the slot machines. Grace took photos of everything. Sonya got hit with the flu almost as soon as we got there, but bravely soldiered on. We all got rained on a lot, and I found the not-so-secret upstairs bit of the Starbucks at Senado Square, which is now my favourite Starbucks ever.

See? Adventures.

Now we’re at the end of our trip, and maybe a little tired. The Macau International Airport is supremely scary, since the runway is basically a long, narrow island, so let’s hope that there aren’t any more adventures, and that we get home safely.

This is one of the perils of working in public relations or associated fields like advertising or marketing. People stop believing you. It’s particularly bad for those of us who have widely-established social media presences. When the possibility exists that your opinion has been bought and paid for, then how do I know whether to trust you or not? The same suspicion could just as easily be applied to me. There’s a reason why people are so distrustful of bloggers in Singapore – when you know that someone has received some sort of remuneration for their reporting, then the positive opinion that they have becomes tainted.

This is why newspapers and magazines are so zealous in upholding their ethical position. A food critic from a major newspaper who pays for his own meal seems much more trustworthy than one who has had his dinner comped. When I was editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly (Singapore edition), all the free review copies that I received were logged with HR, and were returned to the distributors or publishers once the game had been reviewed. No chance of graft there.

So what can the rest of us do to establish our credibility? How do you set standards that make it clear that your opinion is not being unreasonably biased?

The simple solution is to not be paid for your opinions. My job pays the bills, my clients pay for my work, and if I enjoy an event that I am attending on behalf of a client, then I’m free to say so – or not, as the case may be, because my personal opinion on my blog or Facebook or Twitter is not for sale. Doing the same would free local bloggers from a great deal of suspicion.

If there are benefits, be upfront about them. This will at least help to show that you’re honest. I get to attend the Mobile Marketing Association Forum every year free, for work, and I always say so. Sure, I’m working while I’m at MMAF, but if I tweet on the side about the interesting people that I meet or if I share a video of an interesting mobile marketing campaign that I’ve seen, that’s a side benefit for me, and something I share because I want to.

Draw a line between work and personal life. I don’t think it’s strictly possible to separate work and personal life completely: frankly, my Facebook page (for example) is a reflection of both. My work is a part of my life, and goodness knows that writing and reading and being a big geek is part of both my life and my work. Having said that, it is useful to make distinctions between them so that there is no confusion. When I’m live-tweeting an event for Rice Communications, then I do it from the Rice Communications Twitter account, not from my personal account.

Be consistent. Those of you who know me personally will know that I have a wide range of interests, but they’re all interests that follow a particular theme. It wouldn’t surprise my friends to see me getting excited about meeting someone from a social media company, say, because I’ve always been interested in social media. And my fondness for clever ads is a natural outgrowth of my lifelong interest in storytelling and the media … one that even extends to my degree in communications studies: I have a First Class Honours that I got for writing a thesis about storytelling in comic books. If I suddenly started writing about something out of the ordinary, like how great my fridge was, I think people would get suspicious, even if I admitted that I had gotten the fridge free in return for my review.

Nando’s appoints Blugrapes as Social Media Agency

Singapore, 28 November 2011 – Nando’s has appointed Blugrapes as its social media consultancy following a closed-door pitch held in October involving several agencies for Singapore.

Blugrapes will be responsible for the conceptualization and execution of Nando’s year-end campaign focusing on social engagements and the incorporation of new store openings. This includes all related social media consulting and management duties such as strategy development, content creation, brand persona development, conversation management, media buying and application development. The role spans all of Nando’s social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

“We’re pleased to be working with such an exciting and fun brand as Nando’s on an integrated social media strategy for their year-end campaign,” said Natasha Zhao, Lead Consultant, Blugrapes. “It’s increasingly important that social media integrates seamlessly with the rest of the marketing mix, in tandem with the traditional channels. We aim to bring Nando’s to new heights in consumer engagement and brand affinity through the power of new media.”

“Our partnership with Blugrapes will bring social media savvy and leading expertise to our marketing mix. We look forward to the campaign that leverages on social media together with their mobile experience. Without giving too much away, we’re confident that our year-end campaign will be both engaging and exciting for our friends and fans.” said Fanny Chai, Regional Marketing Manager, Nando’s.

Nando’s official social media channels are as follows:
https://www.facebook.com/Nandosperiperichickensingapore
http://nandossingapore.tumblr.com/
http://twitter.com/nandossingapore

The Nando’s year-end campaign will kick off on 1 December 2011.

About Blugrapes:

Blugrapes (www.blugrapes.com) is a leading digital marketing consultancy that specializes in the design, deployment and delivery of social media and mobile marketing solutions. To date, it has built Facebook communities of over 700,000 fans and delivered more than 2.4 billion users’ clicks for global brands. Blugrapes fuses marketing expertise with technological know-how to deliver innovative solutions to clients that include Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and L’Oreal, among many others. Blugrapes is committed to driving performance in marketing by emphasizing accountability in its practices.

About Nando’s:

The tantalizing story of Peri-Peri flame-grilled chicken started in Rosettenville, South Africa in 1987, when Robert Brozin was invited by his good friend Fernando Duarte to sample this unique Afro-Portuguese style chicken. Brozin was smitten at first bite. “I knew nothing about the food business, I just knew that it was the best chicken I had ever tasted,” he says. The two buddies bought the restaurant in a heartbeat, determined to change the way the world thinks about chicken, which remains the cornerstone of the Nando’s mission till today. That “love at first taste” has developed into one of the world’s most successful and talked about food brands. Nando’s is the first and only South African restaurant brand to have successfully extended its operations internationally with over 850 restaurants in 31 countries, capturing the high streets of major world capitals such as Washington D.C, London, Toronto, Cape Town, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur.

In 2010, Nando’s Chickenland Singapore Pte Ltd was established and Nando’s came to Singapore amid great fanfare. Known for its delicious menu, irresistible peri peri sauces and quirky character, the franchise has fast become a household name among Singaporeans with five outlets established islandwide – Bugis Junction, Katong Mall, Plaza Singapura, Tanglin Mall and Tampines Mall. Nando’s Chickenland Singapore Pte. Ltd. is a joint venture partnership between Monta Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, the holding company for the Mac family’s investments in Singapore and the Master Franchisors, Nando’s Resources B.V with a shareholding of 70%-30% respectively.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Rice Communications for Blugrapes

Tel: +65 6221 8324

Devin Jeyathurai

Email: devin.jeyathurai@ricecomms.com

Vibes Communications for Nando’s

Tel: +65 6737 8883
Charlene Liew

Email: Charlene@vibescomm.com.sg

Daen Ng

Email: daen@vibescomm.com.sg

George Orwell once said that “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one´s real and one´s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”

Insincerity affects those closest to us: our family, friends, colleagues; and their obfuscating words can ripple outwards to ministers who may incite a nation against others – which thereby affects the globe. To whom may we turn to learn the truth?

Of course we may hope for telepathy with which our whole thought process is open to others – an aspect well-liked in science fiction. Yet, this is not entirely fiction today. John-Dylan Haynes at the Max Planck Institute has identified brain messages before they have become actions: in fact they identify tell-tale brain activity linked to lying, violent behaviour and racial prejudice. As these scientists look ahead to what they may be able to do, they have called for an urgent debate on the ethical issues of the technology: many see a force for good; others envision a world full of intrusive probes.

So perhaps it´s time to ask leaders of all kinds – in the family, in business and in government – to tell the truth. Even if it is to tell us that they do not know, possibly because they have been fed misinformation from fearful assistants, or possibly because they are inept: the former scenario is easy to change if we create a more open society able to inform without fear, the latter can be easily changed in a democracy. If not in a democracy, we will see uprising after uprising until change as achieved – as in Tahrir Square, Egypt. The people are demonstrating for the second time as it is clear that their Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, once seen as “with and for the people”, really hoped to retain power against the democratic wishes of the populace.

If we are collectively better informed of the truth and through discussion of its ramifications, we will be better able to comprehend the proposed solutions. At times, we as individuals may be asked to yield to help the whole: we can´t expect win-win all the time.

If the European financial crisis were better explained to each nation, people would be better able to accept their fate. And, further, we should be looking outwards, and this involves interactions between the US, China and Europe. Agreement must be reached at the financial and commercial levels in order for us to advance globally: we need to support our poor, as well as use our finite resources carefully. Even if we cannot mind-read, we still need to open up our conversations and dialogue.

Frank-Jürgen Richter is founder and chairman of Horasis. Horasis hosts annual meetings to advance solutions to the most critical challenges facing corporations today.

This commentary first appeared in the South China Morning Post on November 25, 2011.