Happy New Year to all of you and thanks for your patience regarding this little mission. If you want to make an impression on the babe you already got, or on the one you might find at tonight’s New Year party, this is the song to sing. Good luck!

P.S To watch this video, please chose “watch in high quality”, at the bottom right corner under the YouTube frame.

Farfar Mission #2 High tones

Yesterday, Aegis Media Shanghai throw their annual Xmas party. This time the location was a German brauhaus and the theme was wild, wild west. And with around 150 people from all the Aegis offices in Shanghai it become pretty wild, but also fun.  

One of the highlights, according to my colleagues are the lucky draws where you have the chance to walk home with a nice prize under your arm. Normally, I never have any luck when it comes to things like that, but that has just changed. I was one of the lucky ones and I won 2 vouchers to the restaurant, worth 500 RMB each. That means I will be back at the Paulaner Brauhaus again for some more German sauerkraut, sausages and freshly brewed beer.

Who knows, I might even turn German after that.

Beeing a winner is a wunderbar feeling.

The first Lucia weekend without the Swedish “glögg”,”lussekatt” and window Christmas decoration. I’ve been talking about this before, Lucia as at tradition is not existing here. So that´s why I went to IKEA last weekend to find Swedish Lucia celebration stuff to bring to work. Of course, I found the “glögg” next to the Swedish meatballs, but without alcohol I think it´s a waste of calories (vodka mix is one solution). I thought about bringing “Julmust” because of a comment I got the other day at work (and since Coke and RedBull is alreday decorating desks at work) that the “Julmust” we have in Sweden was great (!), but unfortenately difficult to find i Poland. Wow, I haven t thought about that. Well, instead of showing people pictures on yelllow “lussebullar” I will  make an effort in baking the stuff instead and bring on Monday. Remember I said “make an effort in”.. this is not equal with a nice result. By the way, I alerady showed pictures of Lucia procession with “stjärngossar” (sorry, don´t know this word in english). But the guys wearing white “night gown” with funny hats… ok I could assure people, no- this is supposed to be beautiful and not behaviours of a sect….

Last time I was talking about the Night of the AdEaters, the 6 hour show of advertising movies from all over the world. The show kept going until early morning. Redbull didn´t quite help me stay awake…. Commercials from all over the world, there were so many I haven´t seen before and many favourites of course (ads for cars and behaviours around driving or combination car + animals somehow are funny, I cant´help thinking that…)

Photos..
Lately I´ve been working with a big portal for the Polish market and this is an experience in many ways. First of all I discoverd I´m somehow stuck in the “community” way of thinking and sharing . This is not a priority for this target group on the portal and the huge mass of information, how to structure this in a good way is not easy. I´ve been working with one of the information architectures recently and we talked a lot about this.

Empty water bottles, they are a quiet installation in the corner of my kitchen. A part of the interior decorating. There might be a possibility I´ve  been a little lazy as well…

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Most westerners know that ping-pong is a very popular racquet sport in China, but not everyone are familiar with their love for badminton. China has got some of the world top players and they also got some impressive training facilities. One of them, got a visit by five eager players from Wwwins today.

We had booked one of the roughly 50 courts, for two hours. And we were not alone. It was packed. We played a couple of double-matches and it was good fun. I bet there will be some sore muscles tomorrow. But it was easily worth it. It´s a good way of training, especially when you gather five equally good players at one place.

Since Friday is the last day of the working week, why not start early so you really can squeeze out the most of the day? At around 7.30 a.m. the representing staff from Wwwins and the speakers had gathered to make the last preparations for today’s breakfast event in the cozy area called Xintiandi. The target group for the event were CEO:s and CMO:s living in the digital age. And to fulfill their needs, Wwiwins had brought together some big names from the industry and the Isobar network. 

Jean Lin, CEO of Wwwins greater China delivered the opening remarks before she handed over the microphone to Nigel Morris, CEO of Isobar Global. He talked about global trends and what he describes as Web 4.0. Next man up was Fredrick Marckini, Chief Global Search Officer of Isobar and founder of iProspect. I guess you already have figured out what he talked about? Exactly, the future, or rather how all marketing will be search centric, faster than you can say when. Last but not least was Diana Verde Nieto, CEO of Clownfish Marketing. She explained how to maximize the commercial potential by communicate positive sustainability attributes to a brand. 

It was a valuable and interesting event and I´m pretty sure the guests walked away with some fresh insights. I wouldn´t be surprised if a couple of them returned to their offices and rewrote the days agenda and called for an immediately meeting regarding – search.

Due to a full schedule for my singing partner, the mission will be executed in about ten days. I apologize for the inconveniences it might will cause.

Regards

Your singing man in Shanghai

I had never heard of Pecha Kucha until two weeks before I joined Wwwins. Pecha Kucha is Japanese for the sound of conversation and a presenting format, started by two architectures living in Tokyo, Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein in 2003. The idea is to keep the presentation more concise and of high interest, especially when there are many presenters. Each presenter is allowed a slideshow of 20 images that will be shown for 20 seconds each. That gives the presenter a total time of 6 min and 40 seconds before the next one is on.

At Wwwins there is a tradition that every new employee will give a Pecha Kucha as a way to introduce themselves to their colleagues. This is done during a company meeting that is hold several times a year.  But to make it even more concise and of high interest, Wwwins uses a Pecha Kucha light version. That means 10 slides and 20 seconds each. And since we were more than 20 newcomers, it was a smart idea. However, it was fun, interesting and a great way to learn more about each presenter. So next time you are about to present something. Do it the Pecha Kucha way.

Last week the annual Click! Awards Ceremony was held in Taipei, Taiwan. Wwwins usually do very well at this award ceremony and this year was not an exception.

This is cut from the e-mail that was sent out to the office: “Among all the outstanding entries from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, wwwins Consulting Greater China stood out from the crowd and took home a total number of 14 medals - 1 Grand Prix, 3 Golds, 5 Silvers, 2 Bronzes, and 10 Merits, banging top honour for NISSAN LIVINA in the 2008 Best of Best - Marketing Campaign category”.

Congratulations everyone and keep up the good work.

I know there are enough cars in Shanghai to make you go crazy. Still, it couldn´t keep me away from going to the Formula 1 Shanghai Circuit this Sunday. Since 2004 the city has been the host of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, but normally the race will take place in September. But not this year. Sometimes you are more than lucky.

Enjoying life at the Grand Stand.

Yes, he is speeding. Definitely.

Every company need to practise now and then, no matter how good they are. Especially if you want to stay ahead of all competitors and deliver smart and creative solutions for your clients. Therefore the whole company left the office building and headed for Sun Island, just outside Shanghai for two intensive days of company training. The agenda was packed. It started with some funny games followed by interesting speakers and workshops. For me it was a great opportunity to get to know many of my colleagues. But also a good way to learn a few things about the chinese market. 

Teambuilding the chinese way.

A bit of anarchy before it was time to say “cheese”.