Singapore – Zack Chia

Rest in Peace, Sir. Lee Kuan Yew : 1923 – 2015 (Prime Minister, Senior Minister, Minister Mentor)

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Zack Chia

It has been a devastating week for me. In fact, a dark week for us Singaporeans. The lost of our founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew has brought us great grief. He was a well respected man whom led to the success of Singapore, to where we are now. Mr Lee, sometimes addressed by many as LKY, is often credited for his outstanding leadership, fatherly values and his upmost respect for asian values. He is one who remembers his roots, stays adamant to them and ensures that Singapore remains cultured and never forget what made us who were were today. I credit a large part of my growing up to him and how he had influence over my life as well as many of my peers. I always believe that the society that he moulds would revolve around core sectors that would enable the country to prosper. Inevitably, for a country this small with little resources, those were the immediate steps he had to take. But as the country progresses towards prosperity, we soon realised the lack of culture and art in our society. There were then efforts made to slowly encourage and push for arts and design. It is then, that I transit into the creative industry and begin my journey as a creative. Today, I want to thank Mr. Lee Kuan Yew for shaping Singapore to a safe society where we become the ideal Asian hub for most MNCs. Hence, opening doors for us to work in many of these outstanding companies and agencies. Rest in peace, Sir. Lee Kuan Yew. You will always be fondly remembered.

3D painting?

Posted on May 15, 2014May 19, 2014 by Zack Chia

Creatives tend to keep a keen eye on any available media that can potentially bring brands to life. Here Singaporean artist Keng Lye created new excitement in her artworks. “Alive Without Breath”, a project showcasing breathtaking artworks of three-dimensional sea creatures looking so realistic almost popping up in the face. These artworks are inspired by Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori. Furthermore, the technique is actually a potential media to pull off possible marketing campaigns. An interesting alternative to traditional advertising.

Drone it over

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Zack Chia

Having lived in Singapore for the entire part of life, I have seen so much disparity between races here in this small tiny little island. The republic has went through phrases of racial campaigns and trying its best to bring harmony between the different races. While I have mixed feelings on how successful the efforts were, im quite certain this idea from Coke is pretty interesting. I have shared this exact same idea with several clients before but always get shunned off for being too outrageous. Im starting to believe that it does take a lot more courage for people to accept something beyond the norm. Rather, I think incremental steps would be a better way to bring on radical ideas. Still, this is a good idea to deliver the messages directly to the audience. Drone technology, ahh… finally someone gets it.

Foundin Singapore

Posted on November 28, 2013November 29, 2013 by Zack Chia

It has been a while since great creative work flourished in Singapore. Art in Singapore appears to be rather inert in it’s progress towards it’s goal of being a regional arts central. Foundin Singapore, an art installation, has a very interesting idea: To plant tiny figurines around the island of Singapore, waiting to be found. The project aims to bridge the chasm between Art and People by challenging the way people believe in the evolution of Art and how spatial environments are required to occupy Art. Through the integration of Art into common spaces, the figurines shall disrupt one’s behaviorial conception in the city and be provoked to question themselves and be more aware of their current surroundings. It allows the people to zoom in to more granular details in their daily lives. These small painted figurines are now available online for ‘adoption’ by a few simple steps.

Sourced from CulturePush:

How does it work?

Go to the Foundin website and register. It’s free!
Choose a figurine and write a message for the ‘finder’
Between 8 and 19 January 2014, the adopted figurines will be planted all over Singapore, waiting to be found
The finder scans the QR code of the figurine to log the find

The heart of Foundin is the online count of “Found” figurines which hopefully inspires a growing audience to head out and actively explore the city in detail; to notice art in a different scale and perspective.

LIKE the Foundin Facebook page for updates or follow the portraits of the figurines in other cities on Instagram @foundinsg.

Foundin Singapore is a commission for the M1 Singapore FringeFestival, themed Art & the People.

Making mealtime a happier time

Posted on September 2, 2013September 2, 2013 by Zack Chia

I have people telling me that the digital frontier is so near yet so far. With people having doubts in technology and their resistance to changes, it takes a lot more convincing to get them moving. However, the good news is, whether one likes it or not, technology is here to stay and is going to change everything you once think you grasped into something completely unimaginable. That’s the beauty of technology. And, we see that McDonald’s is taking this to their benefit by coming out with the NFC Concept Table. It is the first of it’s kind, launched in Yishun, Singapore. Awesome work from the conservative island of Singapore. It is on it’s experimental stage and would rollout through the entire Asia with families who owns NFC enabled smartphones as their main target audience. The work is aimed at providing kids with a unique yet interactive experience while dining at McDonald’s.

The technology is created by hiding NFC tags under the table which forms up to an entire experience. It allows for kids to have a ‘drive’ around on the table. The best and fun part of the game is the different challenges they face and stories that comes along. It also gives them something to look forward to as they learn to unlock the next part of the game through each of the individual tags. Very interesting and innovative work from Singapore. Thumbs up.

I will do this… for Aids.

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Zack Chia

In Singapore, the Aids awareness is not as pervasive as western countries. People couldn’t care much less about Aids. In fact, I haven’t really seen any brilliant campaigns that could engage people here to make their first move to participate in events and activities for Aids. On the other hand, here in this commercial we understand that majority of people globally does care about Aids and will do almost anything to make a statement. I guess the efforts to push for Aids awareness is just not enough in Singapore. Well, as you can see from this commercial for Scotiabank, they are making things really easy and simple. Cutting down the layers of nonsense they see out there, a simple action is all it needs to prove your statement against Aids. In the video, we see people shaving, keeping a ponytail, wearing stuffs or even bizarre ideas like flying, just in an effort to create their statement on Aids. Scotiabank really just believe that you can improve the lives of those plagued by HIV/AIDS simply through walking and effectively making a donation. This amusing commercial is a great example that through humor we can create simple and effective messaging.

PPssssttttt no more!

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Zack Chia

Recently, Ogilvy Singapore has been seen doing lots of good work by collaborating with their network agencies. This time round, another amazing creative work done by Ogilvy Singapore and Japan. Excellent way to depict the true value of Coke’s brand message. The creative formula that they adopted this time round is by changing the sound of opening a Coke bottle. As we all know that a ‘psssstttt’ sound is heard every now and then when we twist the cap of a Coke bottle open, now you hear sounds of everyday life like the sound of boxing, people shouting, people running, people skating, people laughing or even people traveling instead. It is very human oriented. Together with DJ Jun Fujiwara, this project was made possible, bringing the message of happiness wherever it goes. Nice.

The Social landscape in Asia

Posted on June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 by Zack Chia

I refer to a post by Simon Kemp from We are Social, Singapore, referring to a statistical analysis of their Social Media report for Asia (March 2013). This is a very impressive report as it clearly details how much active users are now using social media in the Asia region. Of course, there should be a tremendous increase in social media usage as technology and smartphone penetration is prevalent in Asia. Judging from the report, it does gives significant insights on how best for marketers to understand the social landscape within Asia. This would serve as a great bonus to assist in planning your busy marketing schedules.

Some thoughts of mine:

Singapore (the country where I now reside in)
Here in Singapore, social plays a big part in people’s lives. While there is still a significant number of people especially the elderly who are not social adopters, the amount of social usage is still considerably compelling. As you can pretty much see from this report that 2.7M people are active users. On this small sunny island, that is easily almost half of the entire(approx. 6M) population.

China (emerging SUPER POWER social nation)
Always a big surprise for me. China surprised many with their incredible usage of social. Obviously, a nation with such huge population would command an enormous record number of social users. China is a very interesting market with a lot of business opportunities. As always, it is very important to do your homework and understand the local culture there. A good strategy you adopted might have worked really well, but it might not be the same in China. Some fine tuning is required. Nonetheless, it is definitely one powerhouse social nation.

Indonesia (amazing social usage)
I have read reports of how social is progressing in Indonesia and they often give great positive insights of how much the Indonesians adopt social. Seems to me that there are so much potential to do creative work in Indonesia. With the amount of exposure and the huge population, there is much to be done and more to be appreciated. I am expecting more and more great creative work from there.

Here is the graph from We are Social, depicting the overall penetration and the median of growth.

Simon provided us with great insights on how he perceives social in Asia. I totally agreed with his view points that mobile is quick to emerge due to this huge appetite in social. As smartphone devices gets more and more efficient for daily usage meeting people’s social demands, more and more work could done to leverage on this growth. Simon also talked about how in Korea, KakaoTalk is progressing so well and in China, WeChat seems to be infiltrating the other regional markets just as fast as back home. All these are tangible results and statistically proven as tell tale signs of an unimaginable social appetite that is growing in Asia. I think it is time that brands should now take on more strategic measures to embrace this growth to their marketing advantage.

Sharing just got better

Posted on May 31, 2013May 31, 2013 by Zack Chia

Coca Cola’s has always been creative on all their marketing and advertising campaigns. And for this summer, it is no surprise. The Coke Social Can now comes in your usual container, except you can split it into two. Pretty cool huh? I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea. By twisting the can, you could remove the top off and thus, allow you to pass the bottom half, which is a container cup to another friend. You could then pour your coke from the top half into the bottom half and share it!

I particularly like how Coca Cola embrace the idea of harmony and sharing amongst people. You see, by making an effort to do something nice every time, it potentially keeps your brand in the memory span of people. Every one of us has a limited ‘present’ brain function that particularly remembers things that happen currently up till perhaps a day or so. To constantly be placed at this spectrum of the mind, one must do things that provoke and instill values. Its kind of like bumping up a thread on the forum or constantly appearing on the news feed of a social platform. No matter how many times you appear, if your content is crap, people wouldn’t care much. The great strategy Coca Cola adopted in my opinion is to intermittently distract us away from our busy selfish rat race lifestyle by throwing such interesting fun loving campaigns.

Great work there by folks and friends from Ogilvy Singapore! Naiiisssseeee!!!

LEGO

Posted on April 27, 2013April 27, 2013 by Zack Chia

Are you a LEGO fan? Apparently LEGO has launched the Lord of the Rings Tower of Orthanc set. Since I was a little boy, I have always wanted to get my hands on the ancient Vikings ship as well as the kingdom series. Always revel with the building fun of these interesting colorful bricks. Having visited the Art of Brick exhibition in Marina Bay Sands here in Singapore, I am so fascinated by how these little building blocks could make ideas turned to life.

Behind every designer at LEGO, there is a story in their work. As far as we could tell based on the video alone, we can see the 3 designers elaborating on their work of the Tower and it is evident they know the story of movie very well. LEGO has worked with great agencies worldwide rolling out very exciting and amazing campaigns. I remembered a LEGO augmented reality work from Miami Ad school. Check out the video below:

Below is a video of the NinjaGo battle iPhone app. I have been actively collecting the Ninjago series too! As a big fan of sensei Wu and the Golden Ninja, collecting the 4 headed dragon is mandatory. Oh it never fails to cheer me up.

The Star Wars Lego series has also been a big hit in the series. There are amazing details and great paint work for the individual LEGO characters. Some of my favorite series includes the Avengers, NinjaGo, CITY, Limited Edition Volkswagen, Space, Pirates of the Carribean and of course Star Wars

Come to think about it, wouldn’t it be great to have a chance to work for or work with the toy maker? I wonder how it is like to be a LEGO designer?