I am glad to see many students turned up for this event to attend the meet & greet session with Calvin Soh, one of our Singapore’s top Creative Director.

Calvin and I have worked together on several accounts from Nike, Citibank, Nokia and Heineken during our time with Fallon Asia and Publicis. He has been kind enough offer a meet and greet session in style (at the Roof Top) where he get to share his Advertising experience with the students or newbies of this industry. Things that most schools do not teach you.

It was an inspirational evening that lasted for 3 hours on the topic of Advertising and its impact with social media. Calvin calls it the 21st century business model, that has the capacity to put whoever you are and wherever you are on level playing field in this competitive environment.

The Q&A session has probably brought further enlightenment to most of our students in terms of how they should position their mindset to compete effectively in the working industry.

Here’s a quick review on some key take out from the roof top reunion session:

- Never forget the fundamental concept behind advertising (to promote a person/idea/concept/etc), and how it works, regardless of the tools and medium used.

- No one give a shit about your advertisements unless it is RELEVANT to the people you want to advertise to.

- Be adaptable (human being survived so long because we are the ability to adapt). Embrace technology and new trend or be left behind.

- Always have a point of view. Never be afraid to be an outlier. But be very afraid if you are outcast  because of lack of a point of view. You will become invisible and no one will remember you, or know you to begin with.

Lastly, I want to give a pad on the backs of those who came for this reunion session.  Cheryl Lim, Deanson Lee, Jordan Heng, Glen Liu, Michelle Tay, Chris Tan Wei Quan (from MIS), Dexter Ang, Steven Oky, Eunice Nicole Lim, Fessie Chee, Jillian Lim, Ernest Cheng, Amy Tan (not my students, but my best working colleague at Publicis whose currently with BBDO) Your attendance have proved how passionate and serious you are about your Advertising and Marketing career.

Something to remember about Ad211 Nov 2011 – Jan 2012 Students.

- Not one but two students (Cheng Sum Yee & Charmaine Chia) score full marks for MCQ. First time ever in over four years for this subject.

- Student (Glen Liu) proactively shares case studies weeks after weeks on Advertising best practices and key challenges.

- Students (Jia Er, Sui Hua, Jing Ying, Nahirah, Rachel, Rebecca Licacristi)  demonstrated passion to learn and grow by turning up for enrichments sessions (how to plan for your career, how to prepare for your resume, how to prepare for interview sessions) voluntarily. This is the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t. The Right Attitude!!! Continue and i shall see you at the top.

- Prepare to go the extra mile to network and learn from industry expert when the opportunity arises like Glen and Michelle Tay Sze Bin.

- Many unpolished gems who can’t wait to shine like those names mentioned above in the working society like Joey Yin, Tiara Chen, Wei Lun, Nic, Shawn, Jo, Wen Xuan.

All the best to your exams and hope you have benefited from the last lesson. Remember the learning strategies on how to prepare for your exam.

Here’s one last piece of advice that should benefit you not only for your exam, but for those who wish to be in the advertising field. Practice how to reverse engineer to analyse advertisement.

From now till your exam, for academic purposes, practice by finding random print ads and analyse the following (do this for one to twice a day, and analyse the following within 10 mins per ad):

- Objectives (base on Facet Model) for the advert

- Who could be their target audience for the product or service. And describe their profile in terms of demographic and psychographic)

- What could be their Positioning Strategy for the brand

- what could be their Execution framework for the advert

Here’s what i would like you to do as soon as you walk into the exam hall. Pen down these, and use it as your guide to analyse your adverts. Pick those relevant ones and support your answers using visual and copy cues from the adverts.

Facet Model: Perception; Emotion; Cognition; Persuasion; Association; Behaviour

(usually, any advert could cover all of the 6 factors. Sometimes, behaviour might not be relevant when call to action is not one of the core focus for the ad)

Positioning: Product class; Product attribute; Product benefit; Usage occasions; Users; Against competitors; Away from competition (it could be more than one for academic, but not recommended in the real world)

Execution framework: Straight forward; Demonstration; Comparison; Problem solution / avoidance; Humour; Slice of life; Spokeperson; Teasers; Shockvertising (could be more than one framework used)

Best wishes to:

Tan Wei Lun, Glen Liu, Nic Tan, Michelle Tay, Tiara Chen Hui Yun, Jason Tan Strongerhead, Gellien Octavia, Sharon Moniaga, Vineeta, Wong Yee Wen, Cheng Sum Yee, Rachel Kalaivani, Shawn Ong, Nahirah, Ashley Chuung, Cheryl Huang, Vanessa Yap, Noel Heng, Yin Yi Zheng Joey, Jo Chieng Shu Xin, Hoo Sui Hua, Chong Jia Er, Ng Wen Xuan

Well it is still about the benefits you will reap from the education. But, for most students, the perspectives of what benefits means to students have evolved with time.

Students are becoming smarter nowadays. They understand the need to get themselves the required certifications to help prepare them for their career. But i guess, they have neglected the HOW. How will education get them prepared for their career development?

Over the years, many have focus on the need to get a diploma, a degree, or a master, but they have forgotten the purpose behind these education. All they look for is literally to get a diploma, a degree or a master. But neglected the essence of why are they getting themselves educated, to better themselves. After they have graduated or completed all the courses, many of them can remember or worst, have learn nothing from their education.

Of course without good paper qualification, you will find it a real challenge to land yourself with a good job. not impossible, but it will be a bit of a challenge. However, the certification, for most of the time, will not guarantee you a good job either. 

Nevetheless, even if you have it all planned out, and getting the certificates will guarantee you a place in your career progression (ie: maybe a company has guaranteed you a place with them as soon as you have completed your degree, or master), i still think you should make the best out of your school and bagged yourself with a wealth of knowledge that will better yourself.

The reason why your employers are looking for someone with higher education is because it is suppose to mean the one who has received better education have more knowledge and skills that will be able to value add to the organisation. Make sense?

But in fact, many students are now just after the paper qualifications, without any real developed skills that they could have possibly horn from their schooling days.

And of course, they blame the lecturers for being a lousy one, who can’t possibly make their lessons interesting enough to capture their attention. They blame the lecturer for teaching them something that is not applicable in their work force.

I think it takes two hands to clap. For someone to be able to teach well, the receiving party must be teachable in the first place. You can have the best mentor in the world, and if you behave in an unteachable manner, you will still not able to learn anything from the best mentor.

Here, the lecturers could be doing their best to impart knowedge and share experience that can benefit you. Show you how you could use those knowledge and apply it in the real life. There you are, finding those “talks” as a waste of your time.

Imagine yourself being the lecturer, if this is the kind of response you are getting, which route would you take, to give the students what they want, and make life easier for yourself? Or do your best to better themselves in ways you could possibly can?

Even if the lecturer is a really lousy one, as a student, if your career turns out to be a disaster. Do you blame the lecturer or blame yourself?

As a students, be honest to with yourself. what might be going through your mind when you are attending a lecture?

Is it:

(A) “Can the lecturer just cover what will be coming out for exams and end the class early !!!” (notice it is not a request)

or

(B) How can i use the learnings of this topic to better myself, apply it for my career / business now or in the near future?

I hope you remember why did you go to school in the first place. It is what you can REALLY LEARN from school that differentiate you from the rest. It is NOT the certificates that will bring you to the next level in life.

And take responsibility of your own life. If you really do not wish to learn, no one can teach you. But if you really want to learn, no one can stop you too. The choice is yours to make.

It’s the first time we crossed path through one of the enrichment sessions at Curtin last Fri. The session was about why you should Think Opposite to achieve break through in life.

Honestly, the session last Friday was kind of a surprise for me. It was Friday the 13th. But the kind of experience i got was uncanny of a typical Friday the 13th. I had received quite quality attention span and a mini standing ovation from the students.

I have also gotten my first testimonial for 2012, and the first official testimonial for the enrichment sessions. Thank you Chris for the nice testimonial. Look forward to seeing you for the last 3 enrichment sessions before the semester ends.

Testimonial from Chris about Strongerhead’s enrichment session (similar to the grandfather story which i used to share exclusively for MIS DSM students):

“Be honest, like other subjects economics, marketing, communication in business. Yes, I am interested in these. But, these all are tought according to the text books. But, urs is not the same. u r sharing ur interesting experiences in the lessons which we really can’t learn from the major subjects. The most important one is u can catch the attention from students and make your lessions approachable and fun. I think maybe u understand our black box as u r an advertiser. So, u can communicate with us so easily ”

For more testimonials, refer to http://strongerhead.com/testimonial/

On 10 Jan 2012 (Tue), the students were given the opportunity to meet some of the brightest minds of Y&R Asia, Camellia Tan (also known as Cammy), Senior Regional Account Director, and Hari Ramanathan, Regional Planning Director, and also the world’s only planner with a One Show Pencil.

I must say, it has been an intensive 3 hours Q&A session on career advice. Secrets to surviving the advertising industry, the do’s and don’ts, and several tips were revealed by our guest speakers. I bet the session has definitely enlightened some of our students on how to embark their journey in their advertising career.

I should also say it has been a really reflective session as well. Most of them were dumb folded by the questions being thrown back at the students during the Q&A session. Here’s one of the highlights during the Q&A session. At least for me.

Student: Do companies offer opportunities for relocation to another country?

Guest Speaker: should any company relocate you?

Student: Because it has always been a dream to see the world.

Guest Speak: You should join Chan Brothers Travel.

I’m sure most of you yearn to land yourself with a job in one of your dream companies. But how many of you are prepare to go the extra mile just to live your dream? Or at least, prepare enough to do well for your interview?

There’s no sweetness without sacrifice. There’s no victory without a fight. Many WANT to become a top earner in your industry. Many dream of becoming the young and successful of your trade. But when asked what have you done to achieve your goals. I bet you not, no more than 10% of you have done anything to get you closer to your goals.

Many failed to walk the talk. Or perhaps, have used the wrong strategies to achieve your goals. The secret to success is no secret. For instance, you will experience higher rate of success if you manage to make an impression during your interview session. Some of you might say “Hey, tell me something I don’t know.”

Now, what have you done to make an impression during your interview?

Did you do some research about the company? Do you know about the history and background, key milestone behind the organization? What do you know about the industry? Have you spoken to their customers to get an insight into why people value their products or services?

If you said you love advertising, do you know anything about the history of advertising? What are the brilliant ads and how ads have evolve since the 70s till 20s? Have you even look at the ads on the newspaper everyday? Do you even buy the newspaper?

Another secret to success is another no brainer. You will be more successful if you are good at what you do. For instance, you must be good at say selling before you can become a top sales man in your organization. Make sense?

Now, what have you done to polish up your salesmanship to prove your value to your organization? Have you done enough research and read enough books on the various sales techniques? Have you done any studies or observations to find out what makes people buy? Have you experiment on your sales techniques to see if it work? Have you actually sold anything in your life?

Many complain they felt lost about their career goals. And have no freaking idea on what to do to plan their career. But when ask, what have they done to resolve this? Can you guess their response?

I’ve conducted career development talks for FREE, but how many of them actually turn up? I’ve suggested numbers books on career development strategies, but how many of them actually read any of the titles? I’ve shared several real life techniques and tips on how to add value to your employers. But how many actually paid attention in class, and even make the effort to put them into practice?

Now, do you know why only 1 in 10 will be more successful in their life?

Here are some of the key take outs from the sessions:

- There is no short cut in this industry. In fact, for any industry that you will be embarking on. Hard work is inevitable for success to happen.

- Passion about your job is your key to success. Without it, you can never survive any ordeal. It is your secret weapon that will help you pull through the shit you will be facing in your career.

- Always leave your ego at the door. It helps you to connect and work better with the people around you. Because you need the support of your colleagues to bring you to the next level.

- Which means, relationship building is a MUST have skill in any career development journey.

- The best place to learn is the school of life, the earlier you start to learn, the closer you will get to your goals. Start early if you can. (Visit here to find out more)

- Your biggest asset is not your Degree or Master, but your ability to have a point of view.

- As a fresh grad, do not make turn your CV into a worthless piece of paper to prove that you are of legal age to work. Think about what you can do for them and not what you have done previously.

- Do not over complicate matters and over engineered your plots to your life journey. As Steve Jobs said, you can only join the dots backwards, and not forward.

This is one of the common enquiries from students and friends and peers. I had decided to put up a session at Curtin in hope to shed some insights on this issue.

Feel like giving up I bet you are often faced with such moments. The reason why you will feel this way is because you must have started on something. It could be a hobby that you just picked up recently, a sports which you are learning, a skill which you are looking to horn, a book which you wish to complete reading it, exam which you need to study, a job which you need to endure working, etc. As you progress on, the journey doesn’t seem so enjoyable any more. This is a possible tell tale sign for one of two possibilities:

(1)                You are doing something that is not for you. Which is why you are no longer enjoying yourself.

(2)                You are facing obstacles that is stopping you from becoming successful.

Is it important to differentiate which one you could be in, first it is the first possibility, the faster the quit, the better off you will be. Time is precious, and you do not wish to spend away your precious time doing things that you do not like or enjoy doing. Especially when it is not going to bring you closer to your life goals.

If it is the 2^nd possibility, then you should toughen yourself up and stick through the entire cycle of hardship. Once you are through, it’ll get you closer to achieving what you wish to achieve.

In 2012, I wish for everyone to have the balls to quit the wrong things, and have the determination to not quit the right things.

The last lesson was one of the most participative sessions I had ever experienced with this class throughout the last 12 lessons too. Many make a lot of “Strongerhead dollars” from answering the quiz sessions. It is through the students’ active participation that I managed to have a better sense of their determination and drive. And I must say the energy level has been infectious. Despite my sore throat condition, I had decided to go on without a mic, as it is preferred by the students, and went on for full 3 hours. Since you guys have given your all, I shall give it my best shot too.

Remember to not give up till you get your degree. Education is just a small part of your journey to success. It is not everything. Don’t forget to make a lot of new friends, build good relationship with people, and have fun along the way. Without the fun, the journey will become meaningless. So ENJOY the ride.

All the best to your exams and future endeavors. And a happy 2012 ahead.

Cheers to

First row: Phan Linh San; Tran Thanh Long; Le Hoang Nguyen; Liu Jun Zhe; Duong Tuong Linh; Hong Truong Thanh; Sun Xuan; Zhang Hong Teng; Li Jing; Zheng Xiao Meng; Melissa Mohan

Second Row: Yuan Zi Xin; Liu Zihan; Sun Teng; Wei YiMing; Teoh Zhee Hang; Zhang Run; Fu An; Yeong Wei Wuen; Nathan

When you wish to persuade your girlfriend or boyfriend to buy you a present, to win over an argument, if you know your partner inside out, do you think you will have a higher chance of winning your partner over? Obviously.

If you know your customers inside out, you would be able to speak to them in their language that makes better sense to them. Which is why before you speak to them, you must first listen to their voices.

One of the better ways to listen to their voices is to do that in person. This Dec 2011 Advertising class, I had decided to conduct the research lesson at Changi Terminal, where students will get to meet the potential customers of an airline, and seek to understand what they are looking for when they fly.

Students had to do 1-on-1 interviews with the tourists and travelers at the airport. It has been quite an experience and I’m sure the students learn lot about marketing research and how to write better advertisement after the session.

Winners do not quit. Quitters do not win. Now, don’t take this too literally. You need to quit to win. Just need to know what to quit and when to quit.

I have students who once told me that they on a cross roads situation. They hated their job, and wish to quit. However, their bosses promised to promote them in the near future with the hope of better salary. A year had passed and there is no news of promotion. They decided to quit and move on to a new industry where they can pursue for a job where their passion lies rather than with their current one that they dislike. However, when their bosses learned about them wanting to leave the company, the promise for promotion and more salary been put planted into their heads again. And they stayed on for another year. Two years have passed since the last promise for promotion, and still, there is no news for promotion or pay increment. Why let someone hold you ransom for staying with a job that you dislike, with the hope to get promoted and be paid more for something that you hated. Does it make sense to you?

Why get paid to be unhappy

I have students who felt that they had studied the wrong courses. They felt that they should not be in  finance, or engineering, or marketing for example. Which is one of the reasons why they are finding it a challenge to pass their exams for subjects that they dislike. However, they do have the option to opt for new subjects and change faculty to the one that they desire. The opportunity cost would be to forgo some of the subjects that they have studied, and have to study longer to complete their degree or diploma.

If you are in finance, and you wish to go into marketing, it is really going to put what you have studied to waste if you opt to change faculty? To me, I see it as stay on and continue to fail, or move on to something that you can do well in. Imagine if pass your finance degree. But you wish to venture into marketing, you will have to start all over again anyway. Which is going to cost you more in terms of money and time. Unless you are going to end up being in a finance role, doing what you dislike for your career. 8 years later, if you have decided to quit and start afresh on something where your passion lies, you would have wasted 8 years instead of just your schooling days. But I believe you will probably stayed on with the job that you dislike for the rest of your life if you have such mindset. You will never quit. Which means, you will never be successful. Or you will never be able to taste success with a smile.

After spending 5 years in accounting, I had switch from Accounting to Advertising. You might see that I had wasted 5 years of my life. I saw it as saving myself from suffering for the rest of my life doing what I dislike doing. To me, it is ‘cutting my losses’ as opposed to wasted effort. Am I a happier person now? YES, I am. I can’t imagine what life would be like if I had stayed on as an accountant. Would I have achieved all that I have today? Without passion, I doubt that I can go this far to be honest.

So when should you quit. When it is time to ‘cut loss’.

Simply put it this way, if you only need 5 ingredients to bake a cake. However, you have gotten yourself 8 ingredients, which mean you now have 3 extra ingredients that you do not need to bake the cake. What do you do? Use up all the 8 ingredients so that you do not waste any of the ingredients that you have bought. Or stick to your baking formula, use only the rightful ingredients, and ditch away the other 3 ingredients, as you are not going to compromise the quality and taste of your cake.

If it does not help you achieve success, quit. If it does, stay on. Stay for the money, you might make slightly more now but suffer for the rest of your life doing what you dislike.  Stay for your passion and you have a chance to be rich and successful doing what you enjoy for the rest of your life.

Still, the choice is yours to make. Stay or quit, which one will give you higher chances of success should be your question.  

There’s quite a number of students turning up for the session. Large majority of them were foreign students. I am very impressed with Curtin for organizing such sessions to help their students prepare themselves for their studies, and more importantly, for their career. I would love to attend all these sessions back if such sessions existed during my time.

But sad to say, most of them turn up because it was compulsory. Thus, you can imagine the kind of attention that I am going to get from this session.

Nevertheless, I had a few attentive ones, which kept me going, making me believe that my efforts is not going to waste. Makes me to be very forward looking for the next session, which is going to happen tomorrow morning.

Now, to cut the long story short, the morale of the story is about believe. If you wish to be an As student, a successful top level executive, a top entrepreneur, anything at all, you need to first believe.

One of the secret behind all success is their Belief. If you believe you can, so you can.

Simple, yet deep and not everyone will get to appreciate this concept until you adopted it yourself.

I was once notorious for being one of the top students, if you were to start counting my ranking from the bottom up. My teachers told my mum that I am hopeless. My tuition teacher wished that they could take my exams on my behalf in order to help me get a passing grade. My friends never thought of me as a struggler of studies. Relatives even asked me to give up my studies to ‘cut losses’ on my education investment. Even my mum doubted if I can make it through to secondary school. Needless to say, with such negativity surrounding me, coupled with my weak belief about myself, I failed my secondary one.

But the difference lies in that, instead of making me weaker, or reinforce the fact that I was stupid, it got me to want to stand up against the odds. To prove everyone that I too can be an As student.  And the rest is history. Refer to http://strongerhead.com/from-zero-to-hero/ for more infor.

Likewise, with strong belief, I was the shortest contestant to win the high jump competition back in my primary school days. http://strongerhead.com/jump-my-way-to-victory-turning-impossible-possible/

Nothing is impossible. All you need to do first is to believe.