On behalf of the team, a heartfelt thanks for your presence (and presents) and for making our office truly warm!

It feels like the party was too short – and I’m sorry if I didn’t have quite enough time to spend with all of you. The party was a whirlwind, and I was overwhelmed with the support and friendship that all of you have showed. I hope our hospitality was to your liking. We don’t normally have a band in the corner to serenade us, and on a normal day, the office is a little less noisy and a lot less crowded.

It was a good change to have the office fill up with friends and partners and clients, and some people who were all three in one. For us, it was a chance to celebrate the “new beginning” that this space represents, and to set our sights even higher for the year to come. We’re grateful that you’ve supported us so far, and we count on your friendship and support in the years to come.

I should also thank the team for pulling together during one of our busiest weeks of the year. If there was anything at all that you liked about the party, from the food to the music, to the atmosphere, I must give credit to the team for that. I think you’ll agree that Grace and her “elves” outdid themselves yet again.

I thought I would share my own thoughts on how you can enjoy a long term career in a PR agency.

1. Bring the right attitude to work.
The PR business is about people. We’re surrounded by them. And they come in different shapes and sizes. We may find ourselves dealing with clients, media, colleagues and partners who have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, or are just demanding to work with. Or you yourself might be having a bad hair day. Screaming matches don’t help and definitely do not earn you brownie points with anyone. Remember you have to get the job done while being professional. Make the effort to understand what makes them tick. Most importantly, figure out how you can make them look good so they appreciate your efforts. Try to build a credible relationship by doing good work consistently so they rely on you more as a partner then just a middleman. Time you invest today will reward you manifold tomorrow.

2. Try to keep learning.
Even if we work on the same client for years, the world around us changes constantly. So it might be another press release or interview pitch, but look at it afresh, and try to see what you can do differently. Each client situation is different, and while the end goal might be similar, there are different roads to that goal. Try a new path or a new hat, look back at learning from past efforts and understand what options exist. After you have worked on 100 clients, don’t feel jaded by repetition, but look at what you have learnt along the way and the expertise you have gained in the process. And then tackle a new skill, a new area of focus, a new industry segment. Put our hand up for projects that involve new things, read a book. There is always something to be learnt.

3. Enjoy the rush.
Deadlines loom daily. Projects start and end. Don’t stress out. It’s just work and the chances that you or your team members have been through this before. See how you can tap into their expertise to ease the pressure. Take a few minutes to plan out your day and the tasks at hand. Ask around for suggestions, or even existing templates of documents that may exist within the team. Have a structure in your mind before you start. Prioritise and then get down to it. You are perfectly capable of getting the job done and your team trusts you will give it your best shot. Just enjoy the rush.

4. Share of yourself.
It’s obvious you spend most of your waking life at work. At least eight hours a day in the office. And you have years of this ahead of you. Don’t just come in to tackle your work list and pick up your paycheck. Make the eight hours count for more than that. Ask yourself what you have done today to make your time at work more meaningful or fun. Have an opinion. Share it. Understand why folks around you may or may not agree. The more you are willing to put in, the more you will get out of it.

It was refreshing to see some representation from the marketing and advertising industry in what could have been otherwise fairly dry couple of days.

As the Asia Pacific region emerges high on the priority list for most global firms, consumer engagement remains a challenge. Through the recession, while government spending brought countries back from the brink of failure, the governments that protected consumer spending were the ones that recovered the fastest. Here in Singapore, the Government’s focus was on keeping its citizens employed so spending could continue. In this situation, effective and targeted marketing programs gain prominence in their ability to attract and retain a loyal customer base.

In response to a question from the moderator on how global firms could retain their identity yet be seen as strong local players, Darren’s shared his candid views on the matter. North America doesn’t really understand the vast Asian context. While adjacent on a world map, Japan is very different from Korea even as within the Greater China region, the People’s Republic of China is different from Hong Kong and Taiwan. It might be easier to approach the region as six sub-regions instead: Australia and New Zealand, Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, North Asia, Japan and Korea.

Marketing plans therefore need to cater to this diversity instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. From e-Dialog’s experience as a leading email marketing solution provider, Japanese consumers like eclectic, busy emails that provide lots of information, while Australians on the other hand prefer clean communications. Marketers have to be sensitive to language and local knowledge but also to simple things like colours and subject lines if they want consumers to open their emails.

According to Darren, the technology industry has evolved in ten year cycles – from mainframes, mini computers, desktop computers, the Internet and mobile devices. Mobile is now the next-big thing in audience engagement and Apple has changed the landscape completely with the iPhone and iPad. Over 350,000 applications have been developed to date for the iOS.

Even in the technology landscape, however, there are great differences in the region. While Indonesia ranks within the top three worldwide markets for Facebook and Twitter users, communications are still being blocked in China.

Communications will get smaller and easier, he said, and will dominate our lives. A US survey showed that 65 percent of time spent outside of work is on email and social media. This is reflective of the evolution in the real world as well. We have gone a full cycle – from neighbourhood stores and a personalized experience to white box retail experiences back to one-on-one engagement, albeit with the use of technology.

Overall, the opportunities are immense, and as e-Dialog continues to sign up new customers in the region on a regular basis, it is definitely a firm to watch in this space.

Since then, our love affair with all things mobile has intensified.

Our team has worked with AdMob prior to the Google acquisition, InMobi which is a hot company to watch in the mobile ad network space, Openwave in mediation and messaging, and Out There Media who are signing on a host of telecom operators in the region. In addition, we have helped out on specific projects for Alcatel-Lucent, NAVTEQ Media Solutions and others.

Our team is firmly committed to the opportunity presents. We are all relatively addicted to our BlackBerries, iPhones, iPads and more. I am one of those people you read about who checks my email before getting out of bed in the morning! With this enthusiasm, we became members of the MMA in 2009, and I joined the Asia Pacific Board of Directors late last year.

As a member of the MMA, there were times when there was a lack of clarity over its role in the industry. It’s easy enough to gloss over the specifics, and just say that it exists for the sake of industry advocacy. But saying that doesn’t really cover what it is that the MMA does, the form that advocacy will take, or even who, specifically, the MMA is advocating for.

That’s why I am so pleased with the new guidelines laid out by the MMA. These new guidelines take the form of five industry building blocks (promote, educate, measure, guide and protect), and outline exactly what it is that the MMA will do to advance those goals.

As outlined late last year, the Mobile Marketing Association will

• Promote the channel, the industry and individual member companies to brands and agencies in order to create more commercial opportunities for its members, demonstrating that membership creates a competitive advantage for companies.
• Educate brands, agencies and consumers about the full scale and scope of the mobile marketing channel, highlighting its advantages and benefits.
• Measure by creating and developing authoritative measurement, metrics and insight into the size, growth, trends and effectiveness of mobile marketing.
• Guide by continuing to create and develop guidelines, best practices and standards designed to ease the planning, purchase and implementation of mobile marketing.
• Protect the opportunity by representing the industry before regulators and legislators and by managing industry self-regulatory programs to maximize public and industry confidence in mobile marketing, lower barriers to entry and minimize non-economic costs of doing business.

These five building blocks are exciting. With them, the MMA transcends the role of industry advocate. Instead, the MMA will become an important, impartial part of the equation, sitting in between industry and consumers, and protecting the interests of both.

On the one hand, the MMA will work for the benefit of the industry as a whole, by promoting the mobile channel, educating different parts of the ecosystem, developing standard industry metrics and representing industry interests to regulators and legislators. But the MMA will also work on behalf of consumers, educating them about the mobile channel, creating guidelines and best practices that will increase consumer confidence by addressing issues like privacy and consent, and by self-regulating the industry. These building blocks can also be used by members to identify those areas in which their individual markets are lacking, and they can then turn to the MMA for help in addressing those weaknesses.

These measures will in no way impede competition, but instead will help to create a positive reputation for those companies who operate in the mobile space. Consumers can rest assured that their own interests will be protected, and can see for themselves whether the companies that they have entrusted with their vital personal information are members in good standing of the Mobile Marketing Association – and if that is the case, then consumers will know that these are companies who operate within the ethical boundaries set up by the MMA.

With this repositioning, as the new Board takes its place for the next 18 months, I look forward to working with a brilliant team of industry leaders from brands, agencies, operators and solution providers to drive the industry forward and bring the ubiquitous mobile device in from the periphery of advertising and marketing, into its core.

The book is finally here, and I can say that I am even more pleased now than I was when I was first asked to participate. The book is called called Many Ships, One Boat: Singapore Expat Tales and Tips, edited by my friend Madanmohan Rao, and I think you should go out, buy a copy and read it. Then maybe buy some copies for some friends, and hand them out. No, I’m not biased at all.

My chapter is the very first one! I am most honoured to be included, and honestly, I don’t think I did quite as good a job as the other writers in the book. I haven’t gotten all the way through it, but what I have read has been both entertaining and eye-opening. I don’t think people actually appreciate how bizarre and incredible Singapore is, and how it presents itself to those of us who come from elsewhere. This book fills in a gap – it tells expats that they’re not alone, and that other people have shared the happy befuddlement that is part of coming to terms with Singapore. It’s also a useful window for Singaporeans, letting them step into someone else’s shoes and take a look at themselves. There is much to like in this book, much laughter, much love, much warmth.

Best of all, it’s a collection of true stories. All these things actually happened, and you’ll find plenty to laugh at, laugh with, and enjoy all through the book.

For more information, click this link. Or check the Select Books website.