pool

- THE DOPE SHOP

The concierge of cool - DOPE opens their online shop pushing the freshest gear in art + design, travel, music, publications, gadgets, stores, fashion, street culture, drinking + eating, nightlife, people, parties, festivals, lifestyles and alternative cultures.

www.dope.sg

- A NICE SET SINGAPORE, POP-UP EXHIBITION

AWE50ME launches it's POP-UP Exhibition Space with A NICE SET, Singapore.

Customized DJ slipmats by 99 artists for Singapore, Australia and the World.

- PSFK CONFERENCE ASIA 2008 VIDEOS

Jeff Staple on 'The Accident'

Jeff Staple, Founder and Creative Director of Staple Design and Reed Space, talks about his "accidental" career path. Jeff went from hand-silkscreening tee-shirts in school to heading a global design, consulting, apparel and retail operation in 11 years—On his own terms. He speaks to us about lessons learned and knowledge gained in the process.

Rob Campbell on How Creativity Can Liberate Business

Rob Campbell (Sunshine/M&C Saatchi) explains why he believes the future of brands is about creating fate - not advertising. Claiming that ad agencies don’t know the difference between an idea and an “ad” idea, Rob describes why true creativity is more cost effective than common philosophies of formal research & development, distribution and brain-washing media spend.

Rob explains why companies who are looking for the ’single insight’ are wasting their time and that companies who understand people and culture - not category - and who have a way to transform it into something that is motivating, will ultimately win.

Charles Ogilvie on Look & Feel

Charles Ogilvie (Panasonic), Creative Designer and Inventor of RED, the award winning in-flight entertainment system for Virgin America, speaks about service innovation, new revenue models, and the use of airborne technology throughout Asia and the world at large.

From the drab grey seats and drop down projectors of just ten years ago, Charles describes the process he and his team went through when challenged by Richard Branson to figure out “What’s next in aviation?”

Interestingly, Charles explains that in addition to personal entertainment systems, mood lighting, and all the wizzy-wig technological concepts being tossed around, Asian airlines in particular may actually excel best on a service level. Where rules regarding uniforms or service mentality have traditionally held back American companies, Charles encourages any business operating in Asia to take advantage of all that is possible.

Asian Youth Trends

Piers Fawkes (PSFK) moderated a panel discussion about youth culture trends in Asia and how they will impact business around the globe. With the help of trends experts from across the continent, including Achara Masoodi (Mindshare), Michael Keferl (CScout), and Sonal Dabral (Bates141), the panel shares insights and advice about gathering trends, and more importantly, how to best use them to stimulate change.

Piers Fawkes on The Creator Class

Piers Fawkes (PSFK) explains how an emerging class of creators is developing that inspire and challenge the way we work today. He describes the intricate relationship between creators, the community, and modern companies - and how we can react and adapt to be part of this new movement.

The Creator Class Panel

At the PSFK Conference Asia 2008, Piers Fawkes (PSFK) sat down with leading experts in Asia’s creative community to explore the emergence of a new generation of multi-skilled creative minds. These young individuals feel they can turn their hand to multiple product and service offerings, often challenging they way established industries operate.

Focusing on how this ‘creator class’ leverage the internet to hone their skills and market themselves to a greater audience, the panel, including Brian Tiong (B-Side), Paul Tan (POOL/AWE50ME), and Jason Anello (Yahoo!), explore how agencies and companies can collaborate with this unique group of talented individuals.

China & Identity

Floydd Wood and Jerry Clode (Flamingo International) look at the specific ways Chinese youth are creatively re-working their identity - an emerging trend vital to those wanting to address this demographic on their own terms.

Focusing on 'retro' and 'youth identity,' the two researchers explain how Chinese youth are re-interpreting their past to construct new identities. Drawing upon historical events and traditional lifestyles for inspiration, today's youth are carefully extracting aspects of the their past to form their own identity. But as Jerry states, "looking back [in China] is not always a comfortable process. Tumultuous events like The Great Leap Forward, the demographic effect of the one-child policy, and the current economic and social transformation have all contributed to influencing a unique group of young people who are delicately balancing an enormous sense of national pride with a growing influx of global culture.

Nick Barham on the Chinese Middle Class

Nick Barham (Wieden Kennedy, Shanghai) explores the anxiety, opportunity and extravagance of the Chinese middle class. Deliberately not speaking about the "Olympics, the Dali Lama, Tibet, the earthquake, their amazing economic growth, or all the reason why the West is scared or worried about China growing," Nick focuses on the aspirations of China's middle class and the broader social changes that are happening at that level.

Noting that the number of new credit cards issued in China jumped from 3 million in 2003 to 90 million in 2007, Nick describes how the middle class are embracing the growing pains of achieving their middle class dream. He explains how the word "nu," which literally means slave, has been re-appropriated by white-collar middle class individuals to refer to themselves - people, who through credit card payments, mortgages, and car payments, use the term in a positive light to assert control over their life and associate themselves with this growing middle class.

He also discusses how the middle class are 'under pressure.' both on a city level, due to the shear number of inhabitants and the speed at which that's growing, but how the people themselves are also under growing pressure to perform and keep up with all the changes that are occurring.

Make It With Us

Colin Nagy (Attention!) interviewed social media/grassroots expert Andrew Hoppin (NASA) and noted architect Mark Dytham (Klein-Dytham/Pecha Kucha Night) on the subject of collaboration.

To get the ball rolling, Mark Dytham demonstrated the format of a Pecha Kucha presentation - a ’show and tell’ slide show where individuals present a topic of their choice and are restricted to telling their story with only 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds - a primer to his topic for the panel: the evolution of Pecha Kucha Nights.

Andrew Hoppin then took the stage to explain how NASA is trying to re-invent itself by engaging their community through everything from virtual meetings and co-working events to robots and raves.

Following their Pecha Kucha presentations, both speakers sat down with Colin Nagy to explore the nuances of collaborative co-working and how companies and institutions can benefit from engaging their audience, staff, partners and the community to drive innovation.

Daryl Arnold on the Digital Mainstream

Daryl Arnold (Profero, Tokyo) explains what the billions of mainstream people are doing everyday on the net, what the secret is behind selling normal stuff to ordinary people, and offers digital experiences for cornflake eaters from around the globe to prove that mainstream really isn't a dirty word.

- AWE50ME Artist ZXEROKOOL does the dead

AWE50ME Artist, ZXEROKOOL's installation art for Helipad Club's DEAD CELEBRITY PARTY.

Who wants a DEAD CELEBRITY tee shirt?

- POOL at Republic Polytechnic, Singapore

As part of RP's Marketing Week, POOL members drop by the campus to spread the AWE50ME word on the 5th 'P' and the meaning of Brands in the life of communities.

VENUE: Republic Polytechnic, Singapore

Love the poster!

- 10 Leading Creators From South East Asia

Piers Fawkes, Founder & CEO of PSFK reports on 10 leading creators from South East Asia.

As part of PSFK Conference Asia, we presented the Singapore Showcase with AWE50ME. The showcase profiled 10 of the most exciting members of the new emerging ‘Creator Class’ of multi-skilled talents and their ambitions. These young creatives have innovatively redefined their genres in New Media Design, Mutant-Creativity, Recyclism, Cross-Over Art, 8-Bit Music Producing and Photo-Documentary Making.

MORE PIERS FAWKES HERE.

- PSFK Photo Album

Some great pics of the all the speakers, delegates and of course, the Jeff Staple Workshop.

VIEW THE FULL ALBUM HERE.

- BBH & PSFK TAG TEAM

After a day discussing the cutting-edge online trends and thinking at the PSFK Conference, BBH used the afterparty to unveil 'Wetagyou', a tongue-in-cheek 'analog photo tagging platform'. Reversing the usual tagging process, where photos are taken and then tagged online, BBH asked partygoers to first tag themselves with geek speak stickers and then have their photo taken. With a choice of over 150 nonsensical tags, ranging from memelord to lolcat to pediaphile, partygoers could then search for their photo at www.wetagyou.com

- SG Entrepreneurs at PSFK Asia Conference

"The real oomph of the conference was really the full day of entertaining and informative lectures and panel discussions."

READ MORE HERE:

After PSFK Asia

- Web Standards Group Singapore at PSFK Conference

"The PSFK Conference was easily one of the best conference I’ve ever attended. And that’s saying a lot, considering I’ve been to quite a number both here in Singapore and abroad."

READ MORE:

Initial Thoughts from PSFK Conference Asia 2008

Singapore and the Creative Spark

- Rob Campbell at PSFK Asia Conference

Notably one of the best speakers of the day, Rob Campbell (Sunshine/M&C Saatchi)) explains how the greatest creativity creates fate rather than hopefully encourages something to happen; and how creativity is more cost effective than the common philosophies of formal R&D, distribution and brain-washing media spend.

Psfk Conference Singapore Sunshine Presentation 1.3

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: psfk rob)

- Students from Lasalle College of the Arts blog about their experience at PSFK Asia Conference

"We had the opportunity / privilege to attend this event on Friday and it was really an eye-opener. You met people around the world who believe in creative ideas that could change the world for the better."

The student volunteers from Lasalle were fab! Helpful, proactive and just loving every minute of the conference, from listening intently to every speaker to having a great time at the after party, they made a huge contribution to the success of the event.

Here are some of them blogging about their experience with PSFK Asia Conference:

DAVID STEVANOVJUSTIN JAMES LEBRUNMENAKA CHANDRASEKHARLIM SI PING

MAY CHIANG
IRENE K WIKANTA
JESSELENE LIEW
SHARANYA KRISHNAN

- JEFF STAPLE WORKSHOP, PSFK Asia Conference, Singapore

Jeff Staple is AWE50ME.

"...there are so many talented designers in this world, but they don’t get noticed because they have no public relations or contacts or publicity."

The dynamics of Jeff interacting with the artists was amazing. Here are some links reporting on their experience with the man himself.

PING

BEN QUEK

ANTZ

MUTANTSTYLE

STEVE LAWLER

- EeShaun artwork sells at PSFK Asia Conference

AWE50ME artist, EeShaun SOLD at the Singapore Showcase of PSFK Asia Conference. His artwork titled Party People Actions is a tongue in cheek satire of the political system in Singapore attracted loads of interests from both speakers and delegates at the conference after party at Super Famous.

You can also download the artwork wallpaper and customized Party People Actions icons for MAC and PC HERE.

- MOJOKO artwork sells at PSFK Asia Conference

Steve Lawler aka MOJOKO artwork SOLD at the Singapore Showcase, PSFK Asia Conference. In his own words, the conference was WICKED!

"What a wicked day it was, great to hear some fun presentations by some pretty switched on people. Jeff Staple being the most inspiring personally, listening to his accounts of how he bounced up the food chain with his accidental design career. The artwork above is what I did for the conference which had a fair bit of interest from buyers. Good to get exposure to some out of towners. Look forward to next year, a great day…"

MOJOKO IS HERE.

- ZXEROKOOL reports on PSFK Asia Conference & his experience at Jeff Staple Workshop

AWE50ME artist, Zxerokool tells us about his experience sharing ideas and inspiration with Jeff Staple.

"Jeff dropped us some insights and tips to making our 'creative dreams' a reality, and how the artist/designer should also be aware of the business aspect of things, especially when you're working on making your own pet projects happen...etc...

Despite his fame, Jeff was a down to earth guy who has obviously come up a long way through nothing else but hard work, good timing and determination..."

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE.

- AWE50ME indie travel guide book writer & designer, Linz Lim on PSFK

During our Creator Class panel at PSFK Asia Conference, I pulled out an example of an innovative and successful piece of work by one of our AWE50ME creatives, Linz Lim, which drew some applause from the audience. Here's what trendspotter Jeff Squires of PSFK had to say about Linz who incidentally also won a Red Dot in Design for her indie travel guide, A Little Beijing:

"While visiting Singapore, PSFK was introduced to a young designer named Linz Lim who has created an ingenious travel guide for a seven day trip to Beijing on the road less traveled. Called “A Little Beijing,” the publication stitches together photographs, maps and descriptions of quaint destinations throughout the city in the form of 60 postcards.

Each day, travelers follow pre-determined routes (outlined on a color coded map) and carry with them 10 corresponding post cards. Upon visiting a place, travellers scribble down their thoughts and mail them back home. Once they get back, a complete documentation of their trip should be waiting for them in the post."

PSFK IS HERE.

- AWE50ME at PSFK Asia Conference, Singapore

As part of PSFK's 1st Asian Conference and the Singapore Showcase, AWE50ME profiled 10 of the most exciting members of the new emerging 'Creator Class' of multi-skilled talents and their ambitions. These young creatives have innovatively redefined their genres in New Media Design, Mutant-Creativity, Recyclism, Cross-Over Art, 8-Bit Music Producing and Photo-Documentary Making.

Featuring interviews and works by Mutantstyle, Mojoko, Ikuma, Recyclofashion, Antz, Imaginary Friends Studio, Sean Lee, Joel Yuen, Ben Quek and Ee Shaun.

AWE50ME offers an insightful slice into each member of this group as they inspire us not only with their creativity and authenticity, but by their power of connectivity with their community.

How does the world establish a relationship with this new generation as they continue to grow and self-aggregate to become the pop culture of tomorrow?

AWE50ME is a creative community space where unique individuals share their vision with each other. It is an active black book of exciting people across Asia living their passion and creating the scene around Art, Design, Music, Photography, Fashion, Video, Events and Popular Lifestyle Culture. Our network profiles their personalities, their work and their communities.

The AWE50ME Singapore Showcase was created, designed, written and produced by the AWE50ME Network.

DOWNLOAD: AWE50ME BOOKLET PDF

- Snap shots from A NICE SET, Melbourne

A great turn out at the No Vacancy Gallery for AWE50ME's 1st co-lab exhibition. Photos of A NICE SET, Melbourne courtesy of AWE50ME curator Scott of Supermarkart.

Special thanks to Plus et Plus, IDN and The Reed Space.

View and buy the mats HERE.

- AWE50ME presents A NICE SET, Melbourne

AWE50ME curator Scott of Supermarkart presents an exhibition by Plus et Plus and IdN of customised slip mats by 33 1/3 international artists joined by local talents Ant Keogh, Ben Frost, Dabs and Myla, Deb, Domenico Bartolo, Drewster, Dvate, Isis, James Gulliver Hancock, Jeremyville, Laura Mckellar, Logan Hicks, Luca Ionescu, Makatron, Marcela Restrepo, Matt Huynh, Phibs, Reka, Rone, Sear, Side Project, Supermarkart, Tom Civil, Wonderlust, Woody and some other very nice designers.

Exhibition September 4 - 7, 2008
Opening party Friday 5, 6-9pm with DJ A-Style (2007 DMC Champ) appropriately playing a very nice set.

Location: No-Vacancy Gallery
Street: 27-33 Red Cape Lane (QV)
City/Town: Melbourne, Australia

Supermarkart is HERE.

- Punk Planner gets AWE50ME

"These guys are popping. I particularly like Steve Lawler's work and don't forget to take a sniff round Poolatwork."

So says Charles Firth, creative Planner in advertising and trends from Beijing in his personal blog, charlesfirth.com

Charles Firth's Punk Planning is HERE.

- RIGHTCLICKA is AliveNotDead

RIGHTCLICKA joins Asian superstar network AliveNotDead and shares mixes with Jet Li, Daniel Wu, Van Ness, Rosanne Wong, Race Wong, Terrence Yin, ALIVE, Lisa S, Kelly Hu and the list of who's who in this network goes on and on and on....

Visit RIGHTCLICKA's AliveNotDead profile page HERE.

Join AliveNotDead.com HERE.

- AWE50ME Stencil Festival

AWE50ME curator, JD Mittmann (Melbourne) brings you the 2008 Stencil Festival. The official Opening Night Party is next Friday, 1 August from 6 pm till late.

This year's event again will be a massive showcase of street and stencil art, with a packed program including new films, talks and lots of live action by local, interstate and overseas artists. Watch the website for up-dates.

Stencil Festival is celebrating its 5th birthday. Be part of it.

The 5th Melbourne Stencil Festival 2008 is HERE.

- AWE50ME Kids hit the Air Rave!

Clash The Disko Kids do their thing really LOUD on Radio Metro, Australia. Nice one boys, you're doing us proud. The opening track just says it all. SHOUT! SHOUT!

Download the ass-kicking mix HERE.

- AWE50ME artist EeShaun new Pushin' On Tees

EeShaun puts his AWE50ME doodles on some superb tees for Funk and Soul DJ Collective, PUSHIN' ON.

Launch party on 25 July 08 at Blu Jazz Cafe. 9pm till the needle skips.

- AWE50ME's MOJOKO does FL.AG Magazine issue # 15 - Health

Conceptualized by Steve Lawler aka Mojoko, 40 international Artists, Graphics, Illustrators and Photographers were invited to contribute to the issue and depict what HEALTH meant to them. The issue is going to be graphically driven and brings back the theme to FL.ag since #10.

Pick it up free and check out the visions of health by Asylum, Jack Tan, Momorobo, Jeremyville, Jon Bugerman, Colin Faulks and more.

- AWE50ME on Francis Anderson Blog

"Wow. These guys make me want to move to Asia..."

Digital and social media pro Francis Anderson gives AWE50ME a Shout Out.

Francis is a communications planner who is an alumnus of PHD London, Chiat\Day and Fallon New York. He has had the good fortune to work with a number of boutique advertising and communication companies like Mother, Strawberry Frog, Amalgamated, Nitro, Naked, 50,000ft and wearegigantic, the Web2.0 startup Crayon, and some more established shops including Publicis and MFP.

Francis Anderson Blog

- AWE50ME eco- artists agency RECYCLOFASHION on PSFK

Having Fun, Doing Good, (Hopefully) Making Money

by Orli Sharaby

Recyclofashion is a quasi PR agency, sometime event planning firm, and occasional design collective whose mission it is to “promote eco-fashion industries, designers and works in Singapore and the rest of the world.”

Awe50me, a creative social network of sorts, interviewed the group in what ends up being a quirky Q&A about all things life and work related:

WHAT’S THE INSPIRATION BEHIND WHAT YOU DO?
We all love fashion and insanely good looking people. So that’s our muse. And we get very excited when we see people in the most awkward of situations. Vogue recently made models pose with athletes under the swimming pool. We loved it.

HOW DO YOU PROMOTE WHAT YOU ARE DOING?
We go to the zoo and give out flyers…

WHAT WILL THE FUTURE HOLD FOR WHAT YOU DO. LOOK INTO YOUR CRYSTAL BALL OR WHISKEY GLASS AND GIVE US A PREDICTION OF THINGS TO COME?
We’ve looked into the vodka glass and RF will be the top regional PR company for eco-artistes and a constant initiator of events, designs and wacky ideas in time to come. Then, we’d like to hold a monthly party in a warehouse some. Everyone has to rvsp and come in a trash bag.

That sounds like our kind of event.

- RIGHTCLICKA DIY Father's Day Boxset (UK No 1s - 1950 - 1960) -

1 of 1 handmade boxset with every number 1 in the UK from 1950 to 1960.

The first British record sales chart ("The Hit Parade") did not appear until 14th November 1952. Prior to that (and for many years afterwards), popular songs were measured by sales of sheet music, which was purchased both by professional musicians who performed live in pubs, clubs and theatres, and by keen amateurs who would play pianos, accordions etc at home.

Throughout the 1950s, Radio Luxembourg broadcast a sheet music Top 20. This was the first ever Top Twenty countdown show, and set the pattern of chart shows for the decades that followed.

- Asian Youth Cultural Experts Discussion - FLAMINGO interviews POOL -

Excerpts from the Flamingo interview with Brian Tiong and Paul Tan from POOL.

June 4, 2008

FLAMINGO: Can you give us your personal general perspective on Asian Youth behavior and trends? Are there any overarching themes or frameworks that come up?

Paul Tan from POOL with a few words:

PT: Generally, like any generation past and future, youth behavior and trends today stem from alternative culture, a peripheral reaction to popular culture – Look, Learn, Modify and Create. Just like a tent – individual structures or communities starting at base ground level which is the internet and meeting at a peak. This peak is where all youth behavior and trends converge in one big inter-section.

The RIGHTCLICKA Project is a good example to illustrate this view. Starting out at a ground level no frills mixtape blog because of the lack of access to good music, gathering an opinionated community as it grew and converging in the big inter-section of pop culture where it has influenced the creation of many other Singapore music blogs or groups to distribute ‘mixtapes’. You will find many interlinked communities both local and global promoting their music through ‘mixtapes’ on the internet today, especially in social networks such as Facebook.

The original mixtape blog:
www.rightclickamix.com

Other mixtape blogs or groups today:
www.rawjak.mypodcast.com
www.themixtape.mypodcast.com

FLAMINGO: Attitudes of Asian youth vs Western?

PT: Both share the same attitudes. I call this ‘Designer Socialism’, “A Left sensibility, purged of puritanical austerity and fear of pleasure, attracted to stylish made things but vigilant about being hoodwinked or exploited.” – Taking issues, ideas and concepts into their own hands and openly flaunting them in blogs and social networks, gathering like-minded allies or a community in the process.

A good slice of this attitude can be viewed at www.awe50me.com

FLAMINGO: What are the inter-relationships, within friendship circles / professional circles; family, religion etc…

PT: All online communities are interlinked with each other. Be it fashion dictating music or music dictating fashion, it all functions as one big community of friends, professional relationships and common interest – The source is open to all who connect with each other. This only happens because technology has allowed us to reach out more people than we could ever have imagined.

Family and religion are left in the cave unless you utterly believe that youths listen to their parents and religion, and if they do, you will be able to find them in their respective communities.

FLAMINGO: In particular what large trends do you see going on now, or what do you feel is ‘on the horizon’?

PT: The next big wave will happen when communities evolve into mini-corporations or agencies like www.awe50me.com This Tsunami is on the horizon and is gathering power as it approaches. Once it hits, it will blow everything away and force us to rethink all our strategies. After which the cycle will begin again with an alternative ripple.

FLAMINGO: Would you be able to sum Asian Youth culture in a few words or a sentence?

PT: Independently Modified Nations

Brian Tiong from POOL with a few words:

BT: Youth in SEA are obviously very different in terms of language, family, religion, ethnicities but looking at specific sub culture segments like music, design and the work we do with the RightClickA project, it seems that there is a common tread with trends in the music space in and many similarities between the western and Asian youth culture. We find similar results in AWE50ME our interviews with opinion leaders our social network for creative talent across Asia. The Internet has managed to connect these like minds together based on their interests irrespective of where they come from.

With the Internet, we have a common platform, Asian and western youth culture have an equal opportunity to reach a global audience. People are self aggregating in communities. We just have to watch these communities to understand what’s coming up next. Look at the online gaming scene, its huge in Asia.

Asian Youth culture & its sub culture will be very much bigger than its western cousins. Just look at Asia now (esp – China) now and how fast its growing on the Internet. The kids are creative and hungry and this kind of hunger creates sub culture and these sub cultures are the seeds of trends.

FLAMINGO: Any large trends that you see in relation to Asian youth and the digital world, or online activity? What are they?

PT: Any technology that allows youths to communicate and function more socially with each other will be a trend because of its utility. Be it small or large, they all contribute to the bigger picture. Social Networks, Bulletin Boards, Chat, Widgets, Blah, Blah, Blah…they are all happening and being created at a breakneck speed because there is a huge want to get with each other. COMMUNITY is the largest youth movement today.

FLAMINGO: Why do you think the internet is such an important resource for Asian Youth?

PT: The internet is less an important resource but more of a natural thing for Asian Youths because they were born into it. It is their state of being.

How else can you express yourself to the world so quickly? Where else would you go to access everything and anything? Where else would you go to find a hundred million like-minded youths? If they can’t find it, they’ll be able to create it online.

FLAMINGO: If the internet is indeed an important resource for Asian youth, how do we see this manifested - what are the main ways in which we see this? Any specific country / regional examples?

PT: We see an ocean of social networks and their clones out there catering specifically to Asian youths. A good example is the social network, Friendster. It is now available in English, Chinese, Malay, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesian and Spanish.

FLAMINGO: What about blogs? Any initial thoughts? How have they changed the digital youth landscape?

PT: Blogs have been around since desktop publishing in the 90s. They have and still do, provide a space for self-expression. For the youths of today, because HTML is so basic to them and because blogs have evolved and become so easy to put up that even a one-eyed child with 1 finger can publish, it is the quickest and still the trendiest way to say who you are and what you think. Even social networks such as Myspace and Facebook provide blogging functions.

FLAMINGO: Do you think that Asian Youth would use blogging or social forums as platforms through which to express a deeply personal agenda? Asian culture is on the whole more conservative that Western…we see lots of this type of agenda-pushing / investigative blogging in the West, any thoughts on the Asian perspective

PT: The more conservative you are the easier it is to express yourself thru a blog where you can either remain anonymous or have an avatar. That being said, we have to understand the maturity of Asian Youths compared to Western Youths. Most Asians mature much slower and therefore take a longer time to formulate articulate thoughts on certain issues. The trend is to blog as a group and community under a topical umbrella organization eg Asia Youth Environmental Network.

BT: Youth and Digital are really the same word different – Asian youth live online and their activities in social networks, blogs, bulletin boards and forums show this. Friendster is the no 2/3 site in SEA right in Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and these social networking, blogging, video sites that attract the Asian youth are in the top 10 most visited sites. We at POOL always start looking at these online properties for insights on all Youth trend & community related projects that we work on.

The Internet is an important resource for all Youth not only in Asia. Its also the largest social club out there for making friends and having conversations globally. How can you beat that?

Blogs have allowed Youth to have their own personal online space for whatever they want to do, share and talk about. Asian youth are taking this platform by storm. The most visited blog in the world is a Chinese one. Actress Xu Jing Lei has over a 100 million hit in the past 2 years. A lot of communities around the world use blogs as their main websites and some use a lot of open source software as building blocks to build their own websites. Have a look at this blog that documents street culture and part of AWE50ME our creative network. www.streething.com

There are a lot of blogs that are people rambling on about their day to day personal dramas, there are more interesting one talking about their passion or hobbies and like any mass attracting platform, you’ll every kind of personalities there. I don’t really see Asians being more conservative than their western counter parts online.

FLAMINGO: With web 2.0 and the collaborative atmosphere – where consumers or “pro-sumers” are co-creating with brands (cite some global examples like NikeiD; Adicolour; ConverseOne etc), do you see any Asian brands that are doing this particularly well?

- Which ones?

- How are they doing it?

- Any country specific or region specific examples?

- Any brands that have tried and not done it so well?

BT: Tiger beer was a Asian client that I worked for in 2006. They have a collaborative platform showcasing the best creative talents in Asia to the world. I think this year they have over 150 artist collaborating with the brand. Check out http://www.tigertranslate.com/2008/

Social networks are probably best for collaboration as this as it allows multiple different like minded artist conversations to happen at a time and this is the spark that leads to brand innovation.

Collaboration seems to be the flavor of the month with a lot of brand recently from sports (with athletes) to fashion (with designers) to music (with artistes)... The only thing brands need to remember is what’s in it for everyone that collaborates with them and what is the end result they are expecting. Its the spirit of authentic collaboration and the word of mouth after that is important. Brand innovation take the brand to new spaces that they might not be ready for with their community collaborators. The best brands out there firstly listen to their collaborators and then experiment with ways to create this innovation.

PT: I wonder if brands treat collaborators as equal to them? It is obvious to the consumer if the collaboration is exploitative and so yes, many brands have tried and not done well.

Giving collaborators due respect is in order because they bring not only talent to the table but also their community of fans and peers. One bad WOM and the seed of skepticism will be planted deep into their psyche.

FLAMINGO: As an audience how pro-active are Asian consumers as compared to Western consumers? Any thoughts on this?

PT: It boils down to how you treat your consumer. Asian consumers (if not all consumers) respond well when their needs and goals are treated with the proper accordance and not used and discarded after the campaign. I believe we all look for sincerity when it comes to collaborations.

FLAMINGO: Do they co-create in the same way?

PT: Putting the right ingredients together will always make a better soup. But this soup needs to be managed by the right chef.

FLAMINGO: Are they critical in the same way?

PT: Certainly if not more critical but in a quieter way. They may not express this to the brands openly but they will certainly voice their issues with their own communities. The brand will be quietly screwed without knowing a thing.

- ENDS -