It has been a wonderful reunion session with some of my ex-advertising students from Curtin last Tue, 7 Feb 2012.
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.
