Wednesday, April 23, 2008

SDCC Secretaries Week Ad Campaign

This past week, secretaries all over the world stepped into the limelight as Secretaries Week took place. And Sime Darby Convention Centre, one of CC+J Adhaus' clients, shared in the festivities as they held their first-ever Secretaries Luncheon.

The CC+J team was commissioned to develop a full campaign - press ads, flyers, posters, tickets, billboard - to promote and enhance the event. "Whatever it takes," in the client's words. "To fill up the hall on that day."

To ensure that the campaign would appeal to bosses, we first identified several key reasons for them to send their secretaries to a social event with no immediate benefits.

a) Emotional gratitude - Simply because they're kind bosses ("When was the last time you made your secretary smile?")
b) Face value - Because they want to appear as kind bosses ("A good boss rewards his secretary.")
c) Productivity - A happy secretary would uplift the workplace. ("A happy secretary makes her boss happy as well.")

It became apparent that the Approach C worked best. Approach A was done to death and seemed preachy. Approach B appeared cold and conniving. However, Approach C was comparatively fresh and appealed to both bosses and secretaries.

From there, the campaign message of 'Everyone loves a happy secretary' was developed and tested on 3 different visual approaches.

Visual Approach 1: Graphical, vibrant, colourful





Visual Approach 2: Traditional, Warm, Humanist appeal








Visual Approach 3: Iconic, Typographical, Friendly

The client chose Option 3, an approach that best reflected the mood and theme of the event. Next came the full range of event items, further developed from this visual direction:


Poster

Press Ad in New Straits Times, The Edge, Berita Harian, Utusan Malaysia



Flyer


Flyer (Front and back)



Bunting


Billboard


Ticket

Have a Happy Secretaries Day, all! Don't forget to keep her happy. =)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Warmest welcome to our new Art Director, Henry!

CC+J Adhaus now has a new superhero in the family!
Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting to you Henry Leow, our new Art Director!

The story starts about 2 years ago when Siang Kar, a friend of our Creative Director Joescher mentioned to him once during a discussion about Kancil Awards that he has a friend called Henry Leow who earned a merit in the 2006 Kancil Student Awards. One day, Siang Kar went to find Joescher in the office and with him was Henry. The 3 started chatting about design and Joescher, who was very busy at that time, was so impressed by Henry's vast knowledge and strong passion about design that he actually stopped work for 4 hours just to continue talking to Henry. Henry who was then a freelancer, left his name card that day. Knowing one day he would work with Henry, Joescher kept his name card very well.

1 year later, when the company was in need of a freelancer, Joescher remembered Henry and immediately took his name card out and contacted him. According to Joescher, Henry was the only freelancer that he gave a job to without first looking at his portfolio. Makes you think doesn't it? So it is without a doubt that Henry is indeed extremely talented and very passionate about design.

With his passion, strong conceptual thinking, vast knowledge and exposure in International design, Henry will bring value to the company by making sure every project is a unique solution and lift CC+J up to our benchmark of comparing our works to International standards. He will indeed be our CC+J family's new superhero.

So welcome Henry to CC+J Adhaus and let's make brands famous!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Interesting Sharing #9

Cents is in the haus and he's here to stay, people!!

Armed with his deep knowledge & ready to shine, he took down his competitors just like that in his debut into Interesting Sharing... Mok, our reining champion didn't stand a chance and was left in the dust of his victory..

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am please to announce that Cent has brought back the CC+J tradition of winning in the first round (which I broke... T_T )!!

*Crowd goes wild with stomps and standing ovation*

In his winning sharing, Cent shared about "habits". He commented that a habit is hard to change because when you take away the "h" you still have "abit". When you then take away the "a", there's still a "bit".

Therefore to change a habit, you first have to change your thoughts. When you change one of your thoughts, your behaviour will change. When your behaviour change, your habit will change. When your habit change, your personality will change. When your personality change, then your fate and destiny will change..

Makes your jaw drop, doesn't it? A really interesting insight to how you can take reponsibility on your life.. So let's all stop being a victim and start being responsible!


(Others) For Office Use:
Chin Yong shared on http://www.newwebpick.com/, a worldwide portal on design news, update and discussions.
Joescher shared on giving and how he gave by sponsoring a child through World Vision. He quoted "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" by Winston Churchill.
Henry shared on a design hub in Singapore called Old School where the founders have the concept of something old bringing out something new. http://www.oldschool.sg/
Zen shared on How the way a cigarette burns round and round relates to how one's life can go round and round but at the end it's all about how you enjoy life.
Crystal shared on why the fourth finger is the ring finger.
Mok shared on the book "Born on a Blue Day" about how an asperger strived through life, found his uniqueness and is now a famous author. Mok feels that we should all focus on our own unique selling point and focus on it as a catalyst for success.
Sharon shared on The Gourmet Garden Company, a landscaping company in UK where the objective is to not have a nice yet useless garden but have a nice and useful garden with plants that can be harvested and eaten. http://www.thegourmetgardencompany.org.uk/

Cent 4, Mok 2, Crystal 1, Zen 1, Sharon 0, Chin Yong 0, Henry 0, Joescher 0

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Cent is in the Haus~~

There's a new baby in the CC+J family - CENT TIAN!

(Of course, the term 'baby' is used here figuratively. Cent is actually a VERY big man.)

We first got to know Cent at an MIM Toastmasters meeting, where he attended with a group of classmates and lecturer. Always being one to stand out, the big man volunteered to take on the Table Topic Challenge and delivered a hugely impressive speech.

Following that, his lecturer approached Joescher to enquire about an internship programme at CC+J Adhaus. We gladly accepted and invited the entire group of 7 for a group interview. Suffice to say, Cent shone brightest with his passion and conviction - for the job, the agency and his personal goals in life.

In fact, when Joescher SMSed all the candidates asking: "How much do you want the internship? 1 - It would be nice to have, 2 - I would really love it, 3 - I would do whatever it takes.", Cent was the first and only one to reply 3. And so, here he ended up.

A major in Psychology and Sociology, Cent has proven himself to be an extremely insightful thinker and speaker. Even when the creative team was brainstorming for ideas on a major project this past week, he willingly joined to chip in with new perceptions and relentless research.

Cent will be serving as a Project Manager in CC+J Adhaus for the next four months - in other words, the guy responsible for breathing down our necks and making sure every project gets delivered ON TIME, and ON PAR! Mentoring him shall be the legendary Creative Director Joescher and Account Director Zen - the dynamic duo will train him in areas of Project Management, Servicing and Business Entrepreneurship.

Keep learning hard and live the CC+J experience to the fullest Cent - the team is behind you all the way!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Interesting Sharing #8

He aims.. He shoots.. He scores!!

*The crowd goes wild with cheers and scream*

Ladies and gentlemen! The VIP(very interesting person) and winner of the 8th round of Interesting Sharing is none other than... Chee Chiaw!! With his keen eye for interesting stuff and the intention to win, he has risen to the challenge and beaten Mok the former champion! This, my friends, is indeed a moment in history!!

The winning sharing is a story about a man in Australia who is auctioning his life, his friends, his job, his house and all of his possessions on Ebay after his wife left him.. He decided to sell everything as he didn't want to be surrounded by all the memories of his life with his ex-wife.. For more information, check it out at http://alife4sale.com/ ..

Makes you go "Wah liao eh!!" doesn't it? Well, I wish that fella all the best and hope that he at least gets his money's worth of a new life.. :)

As for my debut in interesting sharing, me failed to follow the tradition of winning in the first round.. :P But I managed to get 1 vote so all is good.. I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve.. ;) So it ain’t over yet..

*Terminator voice* I’ll be back..

Others (For office use):
Mok shared on playing Chinese Chess in 5 minutes.
Sharon shared on women magazines.
Teh shared on “How you define happiness in your life?”
Crystal shared on why an avocado is called that.
Zen shared on last minutes-ness.
Chin Yong shared on http://www.corofolt.com/ which is a website for designers to show their portfolio around the world.
Chee Chiaw 4, Teh 1, Crystal 1, Zen 1, Sharon 0, Chin Yong 0, Mok 0