Lexus Pops Its Top

Lexus wants you to “Open It Up” according to their Facebook ad for the launch of the 2010 Lexus IS Convertible. I’m guessing they couldn’t go with “Pop Your Top”, so they found a nice PG-version of the phrase to get people excited about another hardtop folding roof from a luxury manufacturer.

The CRM email piece is a little more understated as it just asks be "Open All Night". Oh wait, that sounds a bit odd too. Regardless of when you open it all up, the new Lexus IS Convertible has arrived.

The email campaign started yesterday and ads for the car appeared on Facebook today. Links from the ads, take you to the Lexus Future Vehicles section. Here there is a limited palette of colors to choose from, four to be exact. A couple videos show some nice beauty shots of the top retracting complete with spa-like music soundtrack. Lastly, a surprise, or at least it was for me, the new convertible is offering a F-Sport package that upgrades the car with many performance features including cross-drilled brakes, performance intake, sway bars and many other enthusiast goodies.

I have to admit, I was taken aback by the F-Sport options. It is obviously Lexus’ answer to the new BMW Performance line that the Bavarians are promoting lately. The package does add an element to the Lexus convertible I was surprised to see Lexus pursue.

The IS is a rather sedate, boring car. I drove a IS350 all-wheel drive for a couple days last year after bringing in my wife’s RX300 for some service at the dealership. The loaner IS I had was nice, but it was typical Lexus. Great materials, decent handling, and a peppy engine, but nothing I’d call out as performance. Sure there is the IS-F M3 fighter, but that seems like a much different beast than the standard issue IS.

The IS convertible just doesn’t strike me as an enthusiast car for Lexus as I’m sure we’ll see tons of real estate agents, scratch that they’re broke, uhm… female doctors driving around in this car. The enthusiast culture of BMW owners is hard enough on us convertible owners (I drive a 2007 BMW 335i convertible), I can’t imagine how unconvincing a F-Sport IS convertible is to the performance crowd. So, it is an interesting product decision and it will be interesting to see if and how Lexus markets the IS beyond the top popping crowd.

I find it odd that they are now heavily promoting this car and still lack a Build & Price feature to configure the vehicle on their website. Plus, driving customers to their Future/Concept website section gives the impression the car is some way off in the future and there is no communication about when to expect the Lexus IS convertible at dealerships.

After some searching, the Lexus IS convertible will enter showrooms in late May and start at $38,490. So, keep your top on until then...

Chrysler Submerges Into Bankruptcy

It was B-Day for Chrysler today. Unfortunately, no one was celebrating as this wasn't your usual B-Day. It was a day of unknowns, as the largest pre-packaged attempt at bankruptcy is about to progress for the next 30-60 days when a new Chrysler-Fiat entity will emerge from the flames.

Bloomberg News is reporting today that the "'New Chrysler' [will become] a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat, would assume some of the old Chrysler’s liabilities, and pay $2 billion into the company’s bankrupt estate, according to court documents."

For the automotive advertising world, Chrysler's Agency of Record - BBDO - is currently the second highest unsecured creditor which is owed $58.1 Billion. What happens to BBDO during this process isn't going to be pretty since so many are inline before them to get paid. It's fairly certain Chrysler won't be doing any advertising during the bankruptcy 30-60 day process.

Unfortunately for Chrysler the day also included some Twittering from the @Chrysler account that referred Twitter users to a new website http://www.ChryslerRestructuring.com, that was obviously a rushed job.

The Epiq Systems restructuring website holds a few press statements. Apparently, Epiq Systems provides "innovative technology solutions for litigation, bankruptcy, and financial transactions." Looking at Epiq's own website, they look like an alternative energy provider complete with windmills and blue skies. I'm not sure what's so "innovative" about Epiq Systems? The site they created for Chrysler is very HTML 2.0, circa 1996. Let's hope Chrysler at least hires an effective legal council.

In closing, it is a sad day for Detroit and I do wish the best for the employees, families, suppliers, dealers, and businesses indirectly impacted by Chrysler's bankruptcy filing today. It will definitely be an interesting thing to watch as Chrysler is the first to attempt this new form of rapid "pre-packaged" bankruptcy. Let's just hope a healthy new company can emerge that can build innovative, desirable products.

Buzz buzz

3am! Just got back to my dorm, and am scheduled to wake up at 7am, and I haven't packed my bag to go back KL yet. And I am a little tipsy. Not drunk, mind you. Tipsy.

And as always when packing is involved, blogging is in order. It's like a ritual of some sort. A ritual of procrastination, but a ritual nonetheless, even when you only have less than 4 hours to sleep, heck, I'll sleep on the bus then. Ain't nothing stopping me from packing procrastination, no sir!

Also bopping along Viva la Vida by Coldplay. It's the most upbeat song ever.

Ladies' night was a blast, and Ladies' Night Free Admission is a mighty wonderful marketing ploy. Wonderful for girls anyway. A great night out, four girls, crazy dancing, two bars, 5-6 drinks for each of us, a live band to scream and sashay to, and it cost me what, 10 bucks? That was for the taxi fee btw. If I didn't live as far as Jurong it would've cost next to nothing.

So Gayo, Namrata, me and Suruchi went out tonight - we wanted to go to this place called Double O, and it took us a lot of asking for directions until we finally got there, and then we got rejected =_= because Gayo had inappropriate shoes (she was wearing slippers). Then we went to this other place where they were checking IDs, and Namrata didn't bring hers, so I gave her my NTU debit card, and after the guard checked it he asked Namrata what her name was. She said "Tun-E". WTF, haha... but anyway he was nice and let us go in regardless.

Good company, all of us resonated energy, sometimes when you go clubbing with some crowd that are not sporting they tend to just suck the energy out of everyone, but all of us amplified our energy instead, when one started to bop the others will just be infected, so we had such a great night out dancing! Especially the second place where we went to which looked like it was for the older crowd, but then around 1am the live band came on, and it was so cool! Even had dancers and stuff, and the singers were really good at heating up the atmosphere, once all four of us were just flailing our arms (like enthusiastic but amateurish dancers do) in our cubicle, and the singer looked directly at us and sang a part with full eye contact, I was so pumped up =D

And then they played Jai Ho and we were ecstatic and just Bollywood dancing away. Damn high.

We've made promises to go out again when I'm back in Singapore. And Namrata's going to show me her Indian wear wardrobe so I will know what choices I have when shopping for my first
salwar kameez or kurta. I'm still a little confused by the names.

All in all, a terrific night out - and I've managed to waste 30 minutes blogging. I really need to get a shower because I am super sticky all over. Electrocuted octopus dance (quote from Chindi) -induced perspiration yo.

The morning after.

I wanted to blog yesterday, but I could only think of one sentence -

Pagi ini saya menduduki peperiksaan yang terakhir dalam hayat saya, dengan sambilewa.

And if I were to pad it up a bit, it would look a bit like this:

Pagi ini saya menduduki peperiksaan yang terakhir dalam hayat saya, dengan sambilewa. Sambilewa! Sambilewa! Sambilewa! Yo yo yo! Sambilewa!

But still that's only two lines so I thought I wouldn't waste the space anyhow. This blog has better things to talk about than pseudo rapping in Malay.

Raining outside! Accompanied by Blackmore's Nights, in my unlit office, with a piping hot mug of Chinese tea - ah, perfect ambiance. Chatting with LL also. I have lots to do today, I need to make a list, but I'm just chilling a bit till... I don't know. Till I stop chilling I guess. Sambilewa! Sambilewa! Sambilewa!

I'm going out tonight with some Master's students, ladies' night, and tomorrow I'm going back to KL. I finally read something of Salman Rushdie yesterday (right after exam I went to the HSS library and borrowed an armful of fiction), Haroun and The Sea of Stories, and it was pretty good, I finished it by this morning.

I almost typed "today morning", which irritates the hell out of Kukui. Actually I had never thought that "today morning" was wrong until he pointed it out. I guess it's the language influence from Mandarin (今天早上）, but then if you see it in Malay it is "pagi ini", which translates to "morning this". Morning this, bitch! (Was just testing if it sounded like an insult. It does.)

The next book up is Alan Bennett's The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady In The Van, a thin book of two stories, I started reading it a little already when on the loo, and it looks very promising indeed. The first story is about how this couple returns from the opera and find their flat stripped bare, like totally bare, of ALL of their possessions. The fur coats, the pie in the oven along with the oven, the toilet paper... everything. Then I ended my loo session, but I'm sure I will finish the book on the way back to KL.

Oh yeah, Chindi, Snow White and the Seven Samurai by Tom Holt was rather disappointing. I didn't like it much because I thought the storyline was rather chaotic and the theme wasn't very original, like it was trying to emulate The Matrix but with fairy tales. And not elegantly done too. Some details were clever and sometimes laugh-out-loud, but the overall plot was just too haphazardly thrown together. I finished the book but that was only because I had nothing else to do on the loo.

So anyway, a list of what I need to do today, so that it would inspire me to get off my lazy ass and start.

1. Renew library books
2. Get money from ATM
3. Reply some emails
4. Attend to one admin thing
5. Print map to bus terminal back to KL
6. Send a paper to my supervisors
7. Laundry
8. Pack my bag before going out tonight so I can party late and wake up at an ungodly hour of 7am tomorrow (only to be awfully early - but that's a better alternative to being late, given my extremely off the mark ability to estimate timing) to the bus station

So the month of May will be spent going to and fro KL and Singapore, I'm moving in my new place officially at 11th May (the last legal day I am permitted to stay in Graduate Hall), then go back KL again. Then at some point when I am tired of KL (T_T or when guilt motivates me to come back, more likely), stick around in Singapore till mid July when a crazy stretch of activities will be unleashed:

• 13-17 July - Some Forum in Singapore (don't want people to end up here by googling)
• 17-25 July - Indiaaaaaaaa
• 27-31 July - Some Course in Singapore
• August - Don't know if Boston conference will be on or not, if yes... nyehehehehe... crazy plans to be conceived later, but fingers crossed for the moment!! (waves away jinxes!!)
  

Coming up, to revise paper for submitting to Some Forum, and do extensive extensive extensive reading to buff up my theoretical foundation for my thesis, for I have no more coursework to fall back onto or blame, research work goes full speed ahead! Can't say I'm sorry about that though.

Also I have this craving for Penang food. I'm not talking about the Penang food in Canteen 2, which I have not stooped down to yet. A trip to Penang may be in order. O jiannnnnn.

I think I should probably end this post here. 2 hours later and I've still not done anything useful. Such is the life of a PhD student who has had the last test of her life.

Ford Offers Conquest Cash To Chrysler Defectors

Ford has been offering a $1,000 conquest incentive to Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge owners looking to buy a Ford, Lincoln or Mercury SUV, truck or crossover, but not car. These offers are found in several regional markets: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Denver and Phoenix.

So, are they effective?

From the Wall Street Journal: "Chrysler and GM owners "have been defecting to Ford and Lincoln-Mercury products in great numbers since the beginning of the year," Amanda DeMouthe, a marketing manager for Ford's Northeast operations, wrote in an April 9 email to dealers.

Independent numbers seem to back up Ms. DeMouthe's assertion. In March, 48% of Ford buyers turned in cars or trucks of other manufacturers, up from 38% in August, according to Edmunds.com, an auto-shopping Web site."

Ford has had the benefit of separating itself from it's U.S. rivals by not taking a government bailout. This has left to a lot of positive perception from the general public, especially consumers angry about private companies begging for government money when the nation is in a pretty deep recession.

But Ford isn't the only one trying a conquest rebate. Suzuki is offering $1,000 to a customer who trades in an SUV or minivan to buy the Suzuki XL7, and the customer is required to trade that vehicle into the dealer. Details here in Adobe PDF format.

Nothing is really new with conquest incentive programs. They seem to be working for Ford.

Pontiac Solstice SD-290

The inspiration of Pontiac Solstice SD-290 concept is coming from a vintage race car design. The design concept really capture the design of vintage race car and evoke the emotions of classic sport cars. The concept design has an old school look with a passenger cockpit tonneau cover and a driver windscreen, creating a pure race car looks.

Pontiac reduce the weight of the car, improved the aerodynamics and also redesigned the fender gill panels. They also created a new hood with heat-extracting grilles, a red paint scheme and cockpit filled with auxiliary gauges, a roll bar and racing seat.

This race car concept has direct-injected, turbocharged 2.0-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engine that produced 290 horse power, this is the reason they call it Pontiac Solstice SD-290.

Official Pontiac Solstice SD-290 Features Highlight from GM :

- 2.0L Ecotec direct-injected and turbocharged generating 290 horsepower

- Five-speed manual transmission

- Weight reduction through installation of driver-side only windscreen and elimination of door glass/hardware, convertible top/hardware, HVAC system and wiper system

- Solo Performance cat-back exhaust system with center-mounted outlet

- KW Automotive coil-over suspension package

- Three-piston aluminum calipers with 13-inch rotors from Stainless Steel Brake Company

- Forged 19-inch wheels with Hoosier R6 racing tires

- New front fascia, grille inserts, hood and front fenders, leading to better aerodynamics

- Passenger-side hard tonneau cover

- Competition red exterior color

- Rear spoiler

- Tinted headlamp lenses

- Removable racing-style steering wheel

- Racing seat with four-point safety harness

- Chrome fire extinguisher

- Pegasus center console gauge package

- Driver's roll bar

Pontiac Solstice SD-290 Specifications :

General Specifications :

Country Of Origin : United States

Introduced at : 2007 SEMA Show

Engine :

Configuration : 2 liter Ecotec i-4

Engine Location : Front, longitudinally mounted

Powertrain Layout : Rear Wheel

Displacement : 2.00 L | 122 cu in. | 1999.6 cc.

Construction : cast-aluminum block and head

Displacement : 1.998 liter / 121.9 cu in

Bore / Stroke : 86.0 mm (3.4 in) / 86.0 mm (3.4 in)

Compression : 9.2:1

Valvetrain : 4 valves / cylinder, DOHC

Fuel feed : Direct Fuel Injection

Aspiration : Turbo

Drive Train :

Gearbox Transmission : 5 speed Manual

Drive : Rear wheel drive

Performance :

Power : 290 bhp / 216 KW

BHP / Liter : 145 BHP / Liter

Mission Impossible: Nissan Seeks Cool Creative Canadians

There are plenty of cool, creative people in Canada, but will they find out about Nissan’s Hypercube campaign?

Since it’s not easy selling cars these days, why not give away some excess inventory? But in the case of the Nissan Cube, I doubt Nissan will have much of a problem moving these quirky, stylish boxes on wheels and their latest campaign Hypercube is trying its best to bring several new buyers to the brand.

Nissan Canada is giving away 50 2009 Nissan Cubes to creative people. The top 500 have already been chosen and now the public is voting for their top 50 to receive a Cube.

The 500 are currently showing Canada how cool, fun, unique, different, creative, and interesting a person they are. There are a lot of musicians on the site, including a 2008 Scribble Jam Beatbox Champion. He has some very interesting beats showing his love of the Cube, but has some tough competition for the top spot.

Seems that if you want to win a popularity contest, it’s not about how creative you are; it’s more about how great you look in a bra. Yeah, that’s right the top spot goes to an attractive singer, Amelie Paul from Montreal. The good news is the winners are chosen, not by their ability to look great in lingerie; rather, “it’s a combination of votes from your peers and a panel of esteemed judges who make the final decision as to the 50 of you who walk away with a brand new cube.”

You can stay engaged with the Hypercubers by subscribing to their YouTube channel, Twitter account or Facebook. This is starting to become the norm with automotive brands who use everyday people to generate buzz for their product (see the Fiesta Movement for an example from Ford.)

The Hypercube.ca website is promoting the buzz being generated by having a live Twitter feed on their homepage, whenever “hypercube” is Tweeted. I’m also seeing a lot of the Hypercube contestants regularly talking about the campaign on Twitter, so it is getting out to their social network and probably creating some nice buzz for Nissan through their friend’s participation in the contest.

Giving away 50 cars certainly gets people’s interest, whether the losers turn into buyers is a whole other thing. Regardless, it looks like a well-executed contest and is certainly building awareness with the Cube’s aspirational target -- young creative types.

Congratulations to Hacienda Chichen Resort and Yaxkin Spa

Hacienda Chichen Resort and Yaxkin Spa have implemented an active and innovative sustainable eco-cultural and social vision that has gained them International recognition. We congratulate these dedicated companies for their efforts to preserve and promote the Maya Culture and protect the environment, empowering rural indigenous people is key to their success. The way they conduct their hospitality practices, service guests, help the Maya Communities near their property, and protect the flora and fauna within their vast private Maya Jungle Reserve is an example of good stewardship and commitment to improve they way to do business. Their commitment to promote and practice green awareness and social volunteer actions to empower the Maya indigenous people in their Yucatan municipality, has gained them the support and admiration from many respected institutes and International organizations. This April, National Geographic Travel editors selected Hacienda Chichen and Yaxkin Spa to be included in their 2009 Stay List Hotel We Love Guide.

"The hotels on our Stay List 2009 don't just reflect their surroundings-they help define them," says Traveler Senior Editor Sheila Feldman Buckmaster. "What they all have in common is a transcendent vision that goes beyond traditional hotel-keeping. This mindset is what gives these hotels their sense of place. Make no mistake: you'll sense the vibe at once. And after your stay, you'll leave with the kind of insight only soulful places can provide." Quote from National Geographic Traveler Senior Editor, Sheila Buckmaster.

National Geographic Traveler 2009 Stay List criteria and selection process
began by tapping into the collected experiences of veteran journalists, inveterate road warriors, and local experts. They based their nominations on key criteria. Is the hotel engaged with the local community? Does it subscribe to sustainable practices that respect the region? Does it truly capture the spirit of its setting? Further research and detailed questionnaires winnowed hundreds of submissions down to this sweet list of 129 hotels. The properties on their Stay List offer truly unique experiences, and National Geographic editos are excited to highlight them in their April magazine edition as well as their website.

If you have plans to volunteer this summer 2009 and wish to support the Maya Foundation In Laakeech Social Volunteer Programs, you can stay for free at the Hacienda Chichen's Maya Hut, donated by this green boutique hotel to support the social programs the foundation actively conducts in the Maya communities nearby Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, for detail information about how to apply to the ESL teaching volunteer and other job related volunteer opportunities with free rooming at the Hacienda Chichen, kindly visit the following webpage:
http://www.yucatanadventure.com.mx/volunteering-FAQ.htm

Is GM Marketing Trying To Kill Two Brands?

First, AgencySpy had someone share a Weather.com ad placement sponsored by Hummer promoting "Green Is Universal" on Thursday's homepage. Green + Hummer? Okay, that has to be just about the worst sponsorship buy decision, couldn't the GM Total Confidence team bring Chevy Volt into the sponsorship? Or is this a way to further kill Hummer as GM sheds its brands under restructuring? Who knew online media was part of the plan to bury the Hummer brand.

Then tonight I received an email marketing message from Pontiac with the subject line "Pontiac: Drive with Total Confidence", this on the day every automotive news outlet is reporting GM to "Kill Pontiac", not exactly the most confidence inspiring action to lure new drivers.

Maybe GM marketing is not very happy about the announcement of 20% of GM's marketing department to be laid off?

It's a sad time for General Motors and I really do wish them all the best, especially Pontiac as I love the new G8 and feel the brand has a lot of equity in the performance space, when given the right products. Unfortunately, GM doesn't do the brand much justice with products like The Vibe or G3 and the marketing team isn't doing GM justice by associating Hummer with Green and Pontiac with Total Confidence (at least this week.)

Indiaaaaaaaaa

So I'm superbly excited about our trip to India. Tentatively it will be from 18th July till 25th July, sandwiched between two time slots that I have to be in Singapore, but that's the best time for Asa and I, so a week it is. We are planning to take Tiger Airways to Chennai, get a train to Bangalore and fly back from Bangalore. Tentative plan lah.

Result of travel fueled adrenaline - 1:30am already still wide awake o_O I was lepaking half of yesterday and whole of today as well, totally not caring about my Tuesday test, nyehh... Tuesday still far away... anyway, ended up just reading up information about Chennai and Bangalore in the office, pestering good ol' Asa who was supposed to be working, with train schedules and random tidbits of Chennai and Bangalore.

For instance, did you know that the cheapest theatre in India is in Bangalore, where you can watch plays and stuff for RM3-RM7? WTFFF cheaaaappppp for live performance! And did you know that Bangalore was called The Town of Boiled Beans (Benda Kaale Uru in Kannada), boiled beans! hahahaha (OK no offense to Indians out there anywhere, I'm just so hyper happy now that I will just laugh at anything, even at German jokes hahahaha)

Chennai also has so many interesting things bursting with culture, such as Auroville (which seems to be like a commune of sorts), Cholamandal Artists Village, a thriving Tamil film industry which is known as Kollywood! Wahahahahaha! I am so tickled about it I'm not even sure why (apart from being hyper happy).

And finally I shall be able to go buy some Indian wear, I like the salwar which is something like a long tunic/skirt worn with pants, I've been seeing my Indian colleagues wearing them, they seem very comfortable and pretty! Though with my totally Chinese face I might look weird in them... but don't care lah XD

Trying to slot everything in, with more than 2 months to prepare and to do extensive research (exhausting all my Indian contacts and will be establishing new ones through CS). Asa was mentioning that I have many Indian contacts. As in, Indian Indian (as opposed to Malaysian Indian or Singaporean Indian etc.). Let me see, from the top of my head -

1. Nandakishor-you're-always-late, old Greenpeace pal
2. Kiran The Martial Arts Champion, also another Greenpeace pal
3. Kokil, one of the research students whom I went out once with
4. Blooma, another research student whom I asked about the salwar (research students have office space btw, and they're all my office neighbours)
5. Tejas - this CS guy who randomly contacted me through CS asking about traveling in Malaysia - and I just found out by chance through forum discussions that he is right now in Chennai! Must force him to return the favour, and CS rocks!!!
   
6. This Other Indian Girl - a project officer on my floor who's from Chennai as well. Can't remember her name.
   
7. Sidhu, from Mumbai whom I met quite randomly while asking for directions on the road to the Singaporean train station
   
8. Nandan my future housemate
9. Nandan's wife my future housemate #2
10. My future housemate #3 who's also from India (all housemates count because by July I'd have known them already)
    
11. Suruchi, one of the Master's students who co-wrote my Homosexuality and Films paper.
12. Namrata, another Master's student. We're going out to party after Tuesday's paper.
    
13. Hyacinths, another Master's student whom I worked with recently as a receptionist in one of the events that our school was hosting... my versatile PhD skills include smiling brilliantly at foreign diplomats and pointing them to the direction of the event.
    

Can't think of more now. Still damn happy. 2am already =_= I love planning trips, I love putting all the things together to form a seamless plan, no right answer, just the most optimal answer. And I love trawling through wikis and CS forums to find interesting things to do, getting maps of the place, figuring transport connections, highlighting quirky stuff to see, things that we must eat...

Damn. Tired already. Zzz.

Twitter's Home for Auto Enthusiasts, #CarChat

There is a small but growing car phenomenon on Twitter called #CarChat. It is a regularly scheduled event every Wednesday evening from 8pm – 10pm EST where fellow automotive journalists, enthusiasts and anyone interested in discussing cars is welcome to join in on a Twitter discussion by following and posting comments using the text “#carchat”. There is a “How-To: #carchat” post on vLane.com that tells you how to engage in the online discussion.

I finally had an opportunity to participate tonight. Unfortunately, the time doesn’t work the best for me as I’m usually in the middle of helping my wife put our twin three year old boys to sleep, but I was able to sneak a few posts and follow the discussion during our normal tucking in routine.

What I found is a vibrant discussion from a very automotive literate group of people. The sessions are led by vLane Featured Contributor Michael Banovsky (Twitter: @michaelbanovsky). Michael manages the topics and discussions run a good 15 or so minutes, or until the conversation gets stale. Here are some of the topics we discussed this evening:

Aesthetics and design-wise? What are your preferences for a dream car?

So is it better to all drive efficient small cars to conserve fuel, or switch to electrics and burn it somewhere else?

Has anyone here driven an electric car? Thoughts?

Anyway, #carchat is an interesting experiment on Twitter and one I hope some of my fellow automotive enthusiasts will follow. Maybe we can even discuss some of the marketing done by automotive brands in a future #carchat session?

Follow using the #CarChat Widget:

It was decided within 10 mins

[...random fei hua]

*Jun-E... It's about how much you can learn, not how much you know. says:
hahaha... actually, india seems doable
asa@small small master student says:
ooo
*Jun-E... It's about how much you can learn, not how much you know. says:
*go check tickets*
*Jun-E... It's about how much you can learn, not how much you know. says:
whaahahaha

[...random fei hua]

*Jun-E... It's about how much you can learn, not how much you know. says:
hmm hmm... flilght to india via airasia is abt 800 return...
asa@small small master student says:
walao eh~
asa@small small master student says:
go lo

[...random fei hua]

*Jun-E... It's about how much you can learn, not how much you know. says:
so so so
asa@small small master student says:
sososo
*Jun-E... It's about how much you can learn, not how much you know. says:
u up for like a week thing in india onot
asa@small small master student says:
up

[super long bunch of India-related random fei hua]

Kesimpulannya - We are going to India! =D =D =D

Audi Q5 Conquests Lexus RX

Currently the Lexus RX model controls 70% of the luxury-compact-SUV segment, but Audi is trying its best to reduce that dominance with their newest entry the Audi Q5.

From Advertising Age: "Roughly half of the trade-ins at Audi dealerships for the new Q5 are the Lexus RX, Audi Chief Marketing Officer Scott Keogh told Advertising Age at the New York auto show earlier this month."

"Although the pair of Q5 launch TV spots don't mention the Lexus model specifically, rows of the RX appear in both. In the ads, the actors can't locate their SUVs since all the vehicles look alike -- except for the Audi. " more.

Price points on the cars are pretty similar, though, the Q5 is a bit smaller in size and interior space. Audi is building some great products which is giving their product portfolio an overall lift. The Audi brand is gaining some momentum with some excellent products that are not only nipping at Lexus, but BMW too as the Audi A4/A5 are considered formidable competitors against the BMW 3-series.

The new Lexus RX borrows heavily from its shared platform sibling, the Toyota Venza. They share a lot of the same interior treatments; though, the exterior of the new RX is quite inline with the RX model DNA, yet it is a bit more egg-like in the new design. So, the new look also may not be helping the Lexus against some formidable competition.

Toyota Believes the Smart Money is on Venza

Contextual integration is a great way to increase interest in your brand especially when your audience is not in-market for a new car, which let's be honest is just about everybody these days. Toyota realizes this as it is in the midst of launching the new Toyota Venza in a falling market.

So, how do you get people to see your product in a positive financial light?

You link up with Smart Money. Toyota is running online media under the tag line "Planning for Life 2.0" which is a nod that life is changing, at least our financial life after losing half of our retirement, worrying about job loss, or going through foreclosure. Of course, the media is a bit more positive than I am.

The execution looks at saving people money in how they plan their financial decisions, perhaps Toyota is hoping some better financial decisions about my home or my retirement might improve my situation and free up some money to buy a new SUV.

There of course is no financial advice when it comes to your automotive purchase, since buying a $30k plus car isn't the best financial decision when you may or may not have a job next month. And Toyota has yet to follow some of its competitors with a Hyundai Assurance like promotion.

Regardless of the financial decision benefits, it's about getting in people's natural path and people are very interested in better financial decisions.

Ford's Fiesta Movement Launched Today

The Fiesta Movement launched today. Here is some coverage of the event and what it means for Ford.

From Convince and Convert social media blog: "I predict that the Fiesta Movement will be looked back upon as the event that made social media a real player in the marketing mix. When corporations began to not just realize, but act upon, the fact that companies today garner the customers they deserve, not the customers they buy via advertising."

You can now checkout some of the content being generated on the Fiesta Movement website. Checkout the "Live Feed" tab for different types of content being aggregated from YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.

When you watch a video posted by a Fiesta Agent, they will ask that you vote 5 stars and leave a comment for them on YouTube. Agents with the highest ratings, comments, and I'm guessing views will be eligible for prizes. What prizes? I don't know but it looks like Agents will compete against each other and the social media space will vote who is developing great content or, at least, making the best plea for ratings.

It's an interesting strategy since higher ratings lead to improved placement when people search in environments like YouTube, where you can sort by Rating or View Count. Theoretically this will give Fiesta Movement some priority if the Agent content is well received and engaged with on platforms like YouTube; thus leading to casual users of sites like YouTube to view content from regular people experiencing the car, which is what Agents are supposed to be.

It will be an intriguing experiment for Ford as it will showcase genuine comments about the product, provided people accept genuineness from people receiving a free car, free gas, and free insurance from Ford.

Michigan Dealership Gets Politically Charged

This post is running a week behind schedule. I ran across an article in last week's Detroit Free Press showcasing Les Stanford Chevroloet Cadillac in Dearborn, Michigan who released a new advertisement attacking Alabama Senator Richard Shelby. In Michigan automotive circles, Senator Shelby is Public Enemy Number One. Shelby was very outspoken during the Detroit Three congressional hearings earlier this year and late last year. For example, "We're wasting our time trying to keep them alive," he is shown saying in one ad.

So, it was local news when a dealership edited in some of Shelby's comments in their dealer TV advertising.

From the Detroit Free Press: "The ads are the work of the Sussman Sikes agency in Southfield. Owner Alan Sussman, who describes himself as "the last angry man in America," said in the 1940s and 1950s, Shelby's anti-Detroit rhetoric would have been considered treason.

'What's wrong with an autoworker making $100,000?' Sussman asked. 'This is America.'"

I'm not too sure how effective this approach is. On one hand, it probably attracted some additional traffic to the dealership, especially if a Cadillac buyer was cross shopping dealerships and may have added Les Stanford to their list because of the spot and it resonating with a heavy local GM employee and retiree population.

The negative aspect would come from a group probably not too interested in bailed out companies like GM or Chrysler. There certainly are a lot of Americans dissatisfied with taxpayer dollars being spent on bailout after bailout, and this ad further inflames this group.

I'm sure this strategy plays better in Michigan. I wouldn't suggest it to an Alabama dealership or anywhere else outside of the Great Lakes region, but that goes without saying.

So I'm feeling better.

It's my artistic temperament. Or since I haven't been doing art much lately, most of the artistic part of the balance have morphed into temperament. And of course, a (humongous) dose of PMS.

I'm spending the Sunday holed up in my dorm trying to study for my test on Wednesday. Yesterday I went out to buy my rations for today, and as I was slouching on the bench staring at my readings pretending to read, this family was enthusiastically flagging down a taxi. When they finally found one that did not have "HIRED" in a red sign on top of it, the Dad bundled everyone into the taxi and smiled brightly at me. I mustered a bright smile back, and he asked me where I was going. I said Jurong Point, and the next thing I knew, he bundled me into the taxi as well =D

There you have it, I hitched my first ride in Singapore, and I wasn't even sticking my thumb out. Who would have thought. It was a very friendly Singaporean family, Mum and Dad visiting Daughter in the campus and presumably bringing Daughter out for dinner. Their random act of kindness really lifted my spirits, several degrees up from minus. It was not like I needed the ride, because from the corner of my eye I saw the bus coming up from the rear, but it was nice, really nice, to have some warmth in the coldness of Singapore. Figuratively speaking, of course.

*smile*

I slept at about 1am yesterday night, and today I woke up at 10:45am, which is an amazing feat because I have been having so much trouble having good quality sleep lately. I'd go to bed around 2am, and wake up at 7:30am. Every morning without fail. Maybe it's the stress. I am looking forward to the end of the finals, when I can finally go home and muck around for a bit, and come back and move house (sidenote: I found out that my wall map can be removed with quite minimal damage to the wall!) (sidenote of sidenote: Kazakhstan has Couchsurfers. I checked.). I'll be getting the notice from the AEJMC Conference held in Boston around that time as well, fingers crossed.

I was wandering around Fairprice Xtra yesterday and saw so many things that I could have in a month. Couscous. Wooden stick to be used in frying stuff. Foldable clothes hanging thing. Muesli and milk, had separately of course. Soup ingredients (they package everything - the vegetables, the spices etc. into one set, what you have to do is just put in some meat and voila!). Pasta sauce. Mushrooms. Bread. And what comes with bread is Nutella! I'll finally be able to have breakfast like a normal person. Right now, with no kitchen and no fridge and only boiling water at my disposal, I can only buy drystuff and fruits (to be finished within a day or the ants will come).

For my rations this week, I got:

1. three persimmons. (not sweet kena conned =_=)
2. 500g of seedless green grapes (sweet but not crunchy)
3. Some healthy-looking cookies, sesame oat thingies
4. A bag of Cheezels
5. A bag of prawn crackers
6. 100g of mixed raisins and chickpeas
7. some packet soup.
8. a spoon to drink the soup with. And a fork to accompany the spoon.

That's pretty much a whole day of eating only interrupted by studying. Or blogging. Or watching movies.

OK before going back to doing whatever I was doing, does anyone know where to get modest-priced furniture, in Singapore? Somewhere between the price of Fairprice and Courts. I need to get a mattress, and the $300 ones in Courts is just too much for my meagre student budget. The ones at Fairprice though, are cheap but they're also very thin, too thin for my meagre student back. Why does everything about a student have to be meagre?

Volvo's YouTube Ad Integrates Twitter Live Feed

Volvo is the latest brand to integrate Twitter into their online media campaign. They did a highly visible execution that allowed people to Twitter Volvo that showed the Twitter feed in their YouTube homepage ad. They also set up a way for people at the NY Auto Show event to Twitter their immediate feedback after seeing the car.

Today, Volvo is sharing on Twitter that “[they’ve] been overwhelmed by the response to our YouTube ad from Wed.” A lot of the overwhelming response is due to coverage in the media space where several marketing Twitter users have inundated Volvo with requests to see the ad they missed last Wednesday. Fortunately, Volvo created a mirror website showcasing their ad at http://www.thevolvotwitterad.com/.

I did not catch the ad on its live day, so it is unclear to me if the Live Twitter feed was filtered before appearing on the YouTube ad. After watching the recent Skittles experiment, that made the Skittles homepage their Twitter profile page, the Volvo feed talked just about the car and the Volvo execution. It didn’t turn into comments like “Hitler loves Skittles” or similar nonsense Skittles had to deal with before moving their homepage to their Facebook fan page. I’d be surprised if Volvo didn’t moderate comments before they appeared on the YouTube advertisement.

Overall the Volvo YouTube ad is an excellent integration of their live event at the New York Auto Show and allowing Twitter users to share their comments too. It gave the ad an interesting appeal from an innovative perspective and, more importantly, from a credibility perspective. Why credibility? After looking at some of the Twitter comments, many people shared their personal experience with the Volvo at the NY event. This, of course, is much stronger than Volvo telling you in an ad that their City Safety system is great or their interior is luxurious.

Here are examples from the Twitter user comments:

“City Safety should be on every car!”
“It was mean son. It officially stops. The car STOPPED. I’m in!”
“I saw the commercials & wondered how it worked. It was cool.”
“The car is cool inside.”

More information about the execution can be found at ClickZ.com.

Billboard Revenge Facebook Style

As a BMW enthusiast, I became inundated this week with people telling me about a recent billboard exchange of words between Audi and BMW. I'm sure you have seen it, it's basically BMW responding to Audi's recent campaign that directly challenges Audi's main competitors: BMW, Mercedes and Lexus. The Audi billboard reads, "Your Move BMW" with a photo of their new A4 sedan. BMW responded with a billboard across the street saying "Checkmate" with their new M3 coupe. All of this brought out the alpha-male in all my car enthusiast friends and certainly provided some nice laughs at the Audi fan boys.

Since this has spread across the web in typical viral fashion via Facebook, emails, Twitter, and even my non-automotive friendsa asked if I saw the billboards, Audi had to come back with a response. Audi decided to engage its fans by asking its Facebook fan page members to develop a new billboard mocking BMW's "Checkmate" statement.

What came back were several images of Audi's supercar R8 and a few featuring the new S5 sport coupe. Slogans included responses like "Game over"; "Run along children, play time is over"; and "Let's up the stakes". It was a good attempt to bring the fans into the dialog, instead of Audi marketing coming up with some witty reply or ignoring the viral laugh BMW gave the web.

The unfortunate part for Audi (and yes I'm trying to be a subjective BMW owner, I know it's not possible) is that the clever statement of BMW is like the well timed, sarcastic comment at a party that should just stop there, but someone always tries to carry it out without the same successful wit.

So I decided to go to bed early.

Slept for half an hour. Woke up at 11pm. Stared at my wall map lit by the dim light of my bedside lamp. Shifted my blanket around. Too warm. Took my blanket off. I like sleeping with a blanket on me. Pulled the blanket over my head. Too warm. Kicked the blanket away.

Stared at Kazakhstan. Wondered if there were Couchsurfers in Kazakhstan.

Listened to the lyrics of some songs from The Bird and The Bee which was still playing, from before I slept. Good tracks. Good vocals. Can't remember what the lyrics were about though.

Lay still. Thought of the weekend in front of me. Got depressed. Tried not to get depressed. Got extremely depressed. Turned on the lights. Went downstairs and got some snacks from the vending machine. Still people walking around. Of course, it is but 11pm.

Tried to smile at this Chinese girl who did not smile back. Stood in a corner of the lift and felt that I did not occupy space. Got out of the lift. Got into my room. Turned on the computer. Started watching 海角七号. Finished the snacks. Decided that I wasn't in the mood for 海角七号.

Still depressed. Lah.

Taiwan portrayed in 海角七号 is somewhat alluring. I want to go to Taiwan. Maybe I should go to Taiwan. The other day I checked flights to Frankfurt. I have enough of savings to afford that. Though it would be a very, very budgeted trip. Make that very, very, very. And that would burn my savings to the ground, which would not be wise. I also looked at East Malaysia. Impulse trip alert. Fuck lah need to go away. Anywhere. Need to run. Need space. Need to get out.

I am tired of mankind. I am tired of the virtual world. I am tired of myself. Do you know how tedious it is to be with yourself, like 90% of the time? All the internal monologues. Repeating and repeating. All the hopes and dreams. Repeating and repeating. All the want, all the despair, all the want again. Repeating. But that is not the worst. The worst is when you get to a point when nothing matters anymore because you're fucking bored of your life.

Why sleep, when you are going to wake up and relive today, over and over again? And over. and over. again.

No longer homeless (in a month's time)!

WAHAHAHAHA.

Just paid deposit for the place that I am going to move into in a month's time. It's within walking distance (like 15 minutes? Even nearer than my current place, which is a 25min walk), the room's big and airy, my future housemate looks like a decent fellow who's going to be married in a month and staying in the house with his new bride. The price is acceptable for the location and the size of the room. Although technically I am getting a raise in two months' time, I am actually going to be poorer because the room's going to be SGD200 more expensive than my current room, not counting utilities.

But still, I have a home in a month! And staying outside campus, I feel so grownup. MRT's within walking distance as well, like 25 minutes I estimate, and there's also a primary school right in front of my building. Not that I have any use of it at the moment, but we never know. There's even a secondary school a couple of blocks away. That's reassuring.

Anyway. I've got the music post blogged out in the drafts but don't feel like putting it up yet, maybe later. For now I am just going to ramble on for a bit. I studied like 2 pages today, was totally out of form - partly because I was nervous about the house, it's actually the first time that I've looked for a house on my own. Yuen couldn't come with me because she was rushing for an assignment, last minute work come second nature to students I've noticed - so I went, had instant rapport with my future Indian housemate and managed to negotiate a good price for the big airy room instead of the small dingy one that I was supposed to take (thanks Mum for giving me my magic smile).

*happy and relieved sigh*

So now that's settled, I just have to figure out the logistics, I'm moving out around the second week of May, have to pack and stuff, also have to buy a mattress. I'll have a fridge! Finally! And no longer have to pay for laundry... though I need to figure out how those pole thingies work. Wouldn't be fun to drop my laundry 12 floors down. There'll be a nice white wall to put my Map of Asia (With Europe Thrown In) on - I learnt to appreciate nice white walls after seeing some pictures of another HDB flat that I was looking at - bright pink walls with pink lacy curtains! Seriously. Why would anyone deface their house like that?

Gosh. Some guy's screaming his head out outside. Exam pressure I guess.

*continues dreaming happily about future room*

Test.

I was going to blog about the songs that I'm listening to lately but Imeem gives me all the advertising crap when I try to embed its players. This is a test to see if it displays correctly. Post will be updated later when I'm feeling less PMSed or more bored than I am now.

test
best
belt
bolt
colt

text morphing yo.
yo.
ya.
la.

Sigh. Guilt-ridden me will start doing some readings to appease the stupid nagging voice in my head. Reading commences now. Shut your face.

Tiny Products Warding Off Big PR Problems

After $4 became a reality in the summer of 2008, there has been a progressive push to build smaller, fuel-efficient cars for the U.S. market. Advocates, like author Thomas Friedman, have dedicated significant pages to greening the US car industry by raising CAFE standards and promoting more Euro-like auto choices instead of behemoth SUVs.

So it was a bit disheartening yesterday to read about some rather poor crash tests performed by theInsurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). They reported that three popular small cars - SmartForTwo, Honda Fit, and Toyota Yaris - all received a Poor rating when in a front, off-set crash with a midsized sedan.

From Kicking Tires: "What these fresh results from IIHS spell out is that in a frontal collision, physics dictate that the larger vehicle in the test will fare better than the smaller one. Force is distributed unevenly, making the small car lose out in any matchup versus a larger car.

Crash statistics prove this to some degree. In 2007, small-car crashes resulted in a 17% higher fatality rate than midsize-car crashes."

One company was especially irate about the test they criticized saying, "IIHS devised a test that no automaker has designed to and that they claim only represents about one percent of real world accidents."

Safe and Smart is a site Smart car is using to generate user content about their owners real-world experience with the car's safety capabilities. The site is very interesting, for many reasons. First it features real crash photos and stories from owners detailing what happened to them and how they walked away. You can also "Share Your Story". (Yes, I was tempted to write a story of how I was involved in an offset front crash with a Mercedes C class and upload the picture from IIHS.)

The site also provides product details about the safety measure Smart has taken with the car's technology and design. I also found in Smart's press release to the IIHS study that the promoted this site as a more informed response to IIHS's approach.

Toyota ignored the report, from what I can tell; however, their online Toyota Community did not. Someone started a threaded discussion entitled, "What is 'wrong' with these new subcompacts?" where several people shared their thoughts on the topic.

Alicia_at_Honda on Twitter did not comment on the story nor did Honda release any statements on the Honda USA website.

The good news for Toyota and Honda (and Smart too) is that other outlets are responding to the study with contempt. Some reader comments on blogs found it interesting that no American car company cars were featured, like the Chevy Aveo. This lead to comments like this on Edmunds, "I wonder if this is an attempt either by the media or domestic manufacturers to smear foreign automotive manufacturers."

Motor Trend had another theory: "Yes, our highways would be safer if we removed anything smaller than a midsize car, and larger than a half-ton pickup, too. Buses and semis included. Of course, IIHS doesn't expect that to happen -- it doesn't want that to happen. It simply wants to make sure that the money you save by buying a small, fuel-efficient car goes into the pockets of your auto insurance company."

Going Bankrupt? Just Smile

From The New York Times: "We get a lot of, ‘You’re going out of business,’ ‘You guys are going bankrupt,’ ” said Shannon Melahn, part of the Chrysler presenting team. She shrugged and added, “We just smile.”

It must be a difficult time to be an automotive spokesmodel. I'm sure it is in New York City as they are in the midst of their annual show this week. The New York Times is reporting some of the tribulations models have incurred while trying to showcase new products at Chrysler and General Motors displays.

I attended the Detroit Auto Show last January, two public days and one supplier day, but heard no heckling from the Michigan crowds. Not that it didn't happen, but for some reason it doesn't surprise me in a climate of a new round of bailouts, rising unemployment, and an always opinionated New York population, GM and Chrysler are finding some strange outbursts from show visitors.

My personal favorite, "One G.M. presenter said a woman told her the company was responsible for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. The logic went like this: if G.M. made more fuel-efficient cars, the country would not need so much oil, and if the country did not need oil, United States troops would never have invaded." Yeah, I don't think people like this "woman" really understand the costs of electric vehicles, their unproven long-term durability, and the mass consumption of electric cars it would take to significantly reduce our dependance on foreign oil."

Oh well, I do feel sorry for the attractive women and men having to market the products at the show this year. Maybe GM should just have Bob Lutz be the spokesmodel, while Chrysler's Jim Press crouches behind a Fiat 500?