Malaysia, Truly Asia, Wow Philippines, Go Korea(?)

Malaysia, Truly Asia. - Who's behind the ad campaign? Why has it stayed alive? Is it really the budget factor or the idea itself? Why is Philippines lagging behind other SE nation's ad campaigns?

As one watches the international channels such as CNN, Discovery channel and the likes, these tourism advertisements do their job in promoting their respective countries. One of the most successful ads that we cannot help but like is Malaysia's Truly Asia. We cannot help but like the it over our own country's ads, as much as we want to be patriotic and put our vote for the Philippine's and Korea's ads.

Korean tourism ad has had some funny incarnation. From the culture laden vids and over driven catchy sound of K pop, it has recently come up with a more decent one. I remember it having the super K pop beat on the background, then switching to a super slow and downright boring ad. For now, it has toned-down and it seems to be hitting a middle ground on the culture and modern sights (read HALLYU) and a more subdued sound as a background. It was quite intriguing the first time we saw it.

As for the Philippines' --- that is another matter. The Wow Philippines' ad almost got around to Malaysia's, as well as Incredible India's but it was short-lived. I'm not saying that it was that good but it did have something. Unfortunately, it only aired for a while mainly because of limited budget as reason. (Just my guess.)

Lagging behind Malaysia's ad would be Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia (I don't remember much of this, though), and Philippines from SEA. These brings me to search for the ad company that made Malaysia and brought me to ISC after googling for the Malaysian ad company. I hoped to find out the person behind the company and found Mr Austen Zecha, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TWBA-ISC Malaysia Sdn Bhd. Here are a few copy pasted bios taken from their own website and another page on the net.

A lifetime of experience in humour.

Over 30 years of experience in journalism and marketing communications.

Passionate and vocal about everything and anything.

You either love him or hate him ? there is no middle ground.

That's Austen Zecha for you.

His nationality is a "marketing mix" ? a Dutch national born in Indonesia with a Eurasian father and Malaysian mother. Educated in the US, Austen graduated from Eaglebrook School and Phillips Andover Academy. He also holds a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree from Stanford.

Having spent his initial working years in Malaysia as a journalist from 1962 to 1964, he returned to Malaysia in 1974 to start his first agency venture. Since then, Austen Zecha had a dream: to create a fully integrated marketing communications agency that offers much more than just advertising.

TBWA-ISC is the dream come true.

TBWA-ISC's clients are advised by some of the best indigenous brains in Malaysian marketing while leveraging on the additional expertise of one of the world's top 10 international advertising agencies. With a Malaysian management team and co-owners that embraces a global perspective, TBWA-ISC truly gives vibrancy and life to what has become a cliché ? ?think global, act local?- whether in concept testing, research, or cultural sensitivities.

Austen Zecha
	Group President & Chief Executive Officer, TBWA-ISC Malaysia
	Austen Zecha is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of a Malaysian-headquartered marketing communications group of agencies, which include the TBWA-ISC Malaysia, WMD, Tequila-ISC, TQPR Asia-Pacific, Hype, and since October 2001, Loomis-ISC, a Honolulu-based agency. He graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1957, before earning his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Stanford University in 1961 and 1962. Throughout his pre-prep, prep school and college years, he starred in three varsity teams: soccer, track and tennis. In 1962, Austen started as a Southeast Asian journalist accredited to three organisations: The Associated Press, The Asia Magazine and The Straits Times of Malaysia and Singapore. By mid 1974, he returned to the US to join the personal staff of the late Robert F. Kennedy, who was then an Attorney General, and later became the Senator of New York. Following this, he joined the New York headquarters of the former Exxon Corporation and subsequently, the former Mobil Oil Corporation, as an International Advisor. It was in Hong Kong during early 1971 that Austen started his marketing communications agency life with his own advertising agency, which was later sold and became DMB&B Hong Kong. He moved to Malaysia in early 1975 to start another agency, which he sold, and became JWT (Malaysia) a few years later. His third agency group in Malaysia became Southeast Asia’s largest, and sold its advertising arm to Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide in the late ‘80s and its public relations arm to Edelman Public Relations. He started the present ISC agency group in early 1994, selling part of it to New York’s Omnicom Group, TBWA Worldwide in July 2001, and bought a controlling stake in Honolulu’s Loomis-ISC in October 2001 “for a rainy day and to keep senility away”. Austen has been married to a native New Yorker since 1969, has two married sons – who have made him into a four-time grandfather – and a third son and daughter who are still in university in the US. He has been included in numerous “Who’s Who” listings since the early ‘80s, sits on the Boards of several Asian and US organisations, and currently serves on the Board of Advisors for Chaminade University’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Business Program in Honolulu. Born in Indonesia of Eurasian parents before World War II, Austen has a permanent residency in Malaysia, but is a citizen of The Netherlands. His interests include current events, history, sports (he is a PADI-certified scuba diver, and has a bona fide 18-handicap in golf after teaching himself the game only since 2007), boating, music, movies and travel (especially to his favourite Bali). -Asia Pacific Media Forum

Am I watching too much tv now? :)

Rolled Backpack or not?

Last Friday, my son's quite cheap trolley type backpack finally broke. It was a happy occasion as I have been meaning to get him a new one. That one was bought with only a year of service is enough and that's it. Basically just for his kinder year with less books and frequency of usage in mind. It did surpass my expectation. :)

Now that it's finally out of commission, the question is what kind of new one should I get? Initially, I was thinking of something that is sturdy, with well padded straps, strong back support, and can last at least two years. He's still young so his book load won't be as much when he hits 3rd or 4th grade. But after seeing that it could really be quite heavy even now that he is just in his early grade school year, I am more inclined to get him either a decent backpack with a hand carried book bag or a wheeled or trolley type school bag. I am willing to fork out slightly bigger budget than before for a decent bag for him.

The big problem is hubby prefers a good quality traditional backpack and a big NO NO to the trolley type. Upon insisting that we head out to the local department store right away, I objected and suggested that I check the thrift shops first. I have been checking out the bags at the store and they are not worth their prices. They are quite overpriced in my own opinion. The pads are still quite thin compared to the ones that I can find in thrift shops that is almost half their price. Good thing is that he relented. Problem is, with that choice of store, the most likely bag that I would find is a backpack.

So we ended up buying a backpack which is quite big in my own opinion. It was a good quality but still a little too big for my boy. He may be able to carry it but to put in all his morning books is going to be too much weight. And here is another battle with his father. He doesn't listen to the fact about the issue on the toll of heavy bags in one's spine. We ended up arguing about the topic all the time. Why he cannot listen to the stats and researches and still subject his son to such is beyond me.

I had to do a more specific online search about the weight proportion. Some says that it should be ten percent, while others give 15 percent of the body weight. The last time I check my son't weight, he is roughly around 20 kg. That makes his ideal backpack weight to be around 2 kilos only. I still have to check that it is the actual things that he will have in his morning bag.

Hmm...wait 'til I get around to it and...