Our very own Lee Clow. Making Vietnam proud.

Nice muscles.

Room 13 opens its doors in Vietnam this month!

Creativity is the color on the canvas, the waves in the ocean. Without creativity, our world would be flat, gray and painfully boring. Without creativity, so much of what exists today wouldn’t exist, like…. a fork! Someone had a creative idea to make a utensil with teeth that can also scoop up food. Solutions that are so familiar to us today had to be solved by someone who approached the problem differently and creatively.

When I think about creativity in my own life, I think about a story from my childhood. One day at the kindergarten I attended, we had an assignment to draw a crow, and a few days later, the parents were invited to the school for one of those “parents get to come watch their kids at school” days. On that day, my parents saw a room filled with pictures of black crows, because crows are, in fact, black. Except for one. My crow was HOT pink, probably because I used to like the color pink or maybe I just felt like drawing with pink that day. Why the hell not? The teacher didn’t say, “draw a BLACK crow”, she said, “draw a crow”.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that I have that “creativity” and freedom within me today, now that I’m an adult. I probably care too much about being correct, what something is supposed to look like, sound like, etc. I think kids are damn creative by nature, and it’s a beautiful thing, but where can you find a place today that encourages this type of creativity and freedom? That place certainly didn’t exist in the educational system when I was a kid. Well, in Vietnam, that place is going to be Room 13.

Room 13 kids in Scotland

Room 13 began in Scotland in 1994 as an art studio run by children between the ages of 8-12. It’s not an art class where there is a teacher or an assignment. The children raise the funds to pay an “artist in residence” who is seen as an artist with more experience who can help them and guide them if needed, and to pay for supplies as well. The kids who participate in Room 13 can discuss and create whatever they like.

TBWA got involved with Room 13 in 2004, and has been supporting it by helping launch the program in various countries. Today, you can find Room 13 studios in many countries, including South Africa, India, China, Mexico and Turkey to name a few.

It’ll be interesting to see what the kids in Vietnam will create in Room 13. Will they feel lost without an assignment, or will they feel liberated and enjoy being able to express themselves freely? I certainly want to see a HOT pink crow come out of Room 13 Vietnam and encourage them to continue to tap into their own creativity.

TBWA\VIETNAM ON CLOUD 9

Welcoming the team to Vietnam

“When George said: “Hey guys, you’re all invited to a party with Tom Carroll. He's our CEO” - I thought “How much fun is a party where I'll need to behave!?!” I was wrong.

The party was at a nice, cozy bar called Cloud 9.   Not only Mr. Tom, but we also had 4 other people from the executive committee: Emmanuel, Denis, Alain and Keith.


It was a great party.  None of us anticipated so much madness with the top brass.  Tequila, cocktails, beers and all you could hear was cheering, chit-chat-ing, haha-ing.  And it didn't feel like we were meeting them for the first time.  We talked and talked and talked.  From work to family and everything in between. They've set a new standard for Boss. Super fun and super cool.

A little French with Alain. Some Vietnamese-name-explanation for Emmanuel (his wife’s Vietnamese and he’s curious). More fun stuff with Alain, Keith and Tom.  My initial intention of showing up late and then sneaking off failed. I stayed until late over midnight.  I didn't want to leave.

-Vy, copywriter

Can TBWA give Communism a good old capitalistic push?

The Propeller Group, a mutil-talented production house, approached us with just such a proposal.  Well, more of a challenge really…  Could we successfully rebrand the idea of communism?   After all, here was a brand name that has been around for the last 40 years.  

An interesting proposal in and of itself since a marketing agency is one of the most capitalistic services that could ever exist.  After all, what is more capitalistic than creating preference for one service or product over another?

And this was the challenge for the agency; revive an aging brand that was in need of a refresh. The process would be at the heart of TPG’s latest documentary film the premier at the 2011 Singapore Biennale, a showcase of contemporary art.

It was an incredible and exciting challenge for us.  I don’t think anyone was concerned with the subject matter, but more about the sheer intellectual challenge that was being proposed.  When we did our analysis of communications and previous marketing, we came face to face with decades of symbols and marketing that had generated fierce debate over the years.  On the plus side, talk about brand consistency, EVERYTHING was red and yellow.

But the more we looked into this, the more we came to love the brand.  After all, it’s such a wonderful idea, a utopian society where we looked out for the best interests of each other.  It’s a brand that fits so perfectly with where the modern marketing world is headed as well as evidenced by the proliferation of values advertising and CSR efforts. 

Was this about love?  About being good to your fellow man?  About making the world a better place?  They were all avenues we had fun exploring.  Hopefully the result did justice to the Propeller Group’s expectations of TBWA.  


To find out more about The Propeller Group, you can visit www.propeller-group.com or the Singapore Bienalle, visit www.singaporebiennale.org

I will never forget my 1st VSVCFF (Very Short Very Cheap Film Festival)

Everyone is cranking like crazy. It is unusual. The daily briefs are either sidelined or worked on with jet speed. Colleagues have turned into competitors. That is the Very Short Very Cheap Film Festival (VSVCFF) time. I came up with a few ideas. At TBWA it is ‘our’ idea even if you have no clue about what is going on. One imparts valuable know-how. Another helps with the props. Some give free advice. The other helps with the music. I am grateful to this one person who instructs me to do everything even though I haven’t asked for it. I get a phone call before the shooting day just to ask if I’m nervous, if I can handle all the anxiety, which is just awesome. I’ll forever remember my first VSVCFF.

My talents, director, film crews, dearest mates, please take a kiss for showing love, a huge thank-you for jumping for the 20th time just to make the coolest jumping shot. I love you for burning yourself under the summer sunshine just to get the right lighting. You know what, I almost cried in happiness when receiving your email everyday just to adjust minor little things to make our film perfect. And our efforts have paid off. Our regional and worldwide creative directors send their wishes. Our film is now part the agency’s credentials for initiatives. And I’ve received much encouragement from the ones who’ve seen it. Now, get ready for the next big idea and let’s get together again. Again, muah muah.


- Nhung Nguyen, copywriter


*The Very Short Very Cheap Film Festival (VSVCFF) is a global TBWA\ initiative for its valued client partners.

More training!

Fiona Clancy, Disruption "Black Belt"

I have been working in TBWA for nearly 3 years, but all I know about Disruption is 3 steps: Convention, Disruption and Vision; and some case study such as Apple or Absolute. When George told me that I would go with him for Disruption training, I kept wondering why me, he should bring creative instead. But after reading Disruption book, I realized that this book for planners. This teaches you how to come up distinctive strategy. My knowledge about Disruption was improved a lot such as disruption can be applied for anything, from business, product, to communication. Disruption is not just a breakthrough idea for creative execution.

And I got more and more surprises when training. There was a big group; people came from different countries like Japan, Singapore, Korea, and Dubai…  My first impression is they look very senior which was totally different with George told me <he just wanted to make me confident…>. Some of them are regional planners, that means they don’t base in any office, their role are rolled out from different offices in the network who need their help for pitching or Disruption Day. So you can imagine how much professional they are.

The training is not to teach you about Disruption; it teaches you how to organize Disruption Day!!!!!!!!  For whom don’t know what the day is: Disruption day is kinda of brainstorm where agency and client spend a whole day or even more to solve problem for brand/company. But the problem here is very big, it affects the vision, the way cooperate run business, it has to get involved from top management. Our instructor used to run disruption day with 75 people, from marketing, brand team to finance. It will take agency a month or even more to prepare the day. During the day, participants have to gone a lot of exercises to find out the answers for problem. In the training, we were given exercise and set up the plan for Disruption Day…  Again, I never ever heard any exercises before until the training... Okie blog time is over. Now I get back to work.

-Van Anh, account manager

Social Media. It's all fun and games until someone gets fired.

Social media channels are a great way to stay connected with your family, friends and colleagues. They’re also great at helping you find out about special store promotions, news on upcoming events and just about anything you’re into. And now they’re a great way to get yourself fired.

With Facebook, Twitter and personal blogs, it’s easy to post your everyday random thoughts whatever they may be. It’s self-expression at its finest. People can find out what you’re up to and what’s on your mind. It’s generally something you never need to think twice about. And why should you? They are your thoughts and no one else’s right? Not really.

It’s easy to forget the real meaning of www.  Just when you think only a few people are reading your thoughts, several hundreds may have seen it as well. Essentially, it’s gone public. In the past, we’ve read news reports and stories about people being fired for posting how horrible their jobs were. One woman even posted on Facebook how much of an ass her boss was. Stupid right? Of course, she was well within her rights to say whatever she wanted to her friends on FB, but she forgot that she had ‘friended’ her boss (a mistake she’ll probably never make again). She was fired on the spot with a posted reply from her boss.

So should someone be fired for expressing themselves through social media? Truth is, it’s human nature to ‘bitch’ about things that frustrate you. And since we spend so much time each day at work, it’s not difficult to find something frustrating at some point in time. There’s probably not a single person alive today that can say they’ve never had an off-colour comment about their job or someone they’ve worked with. Although chances are any ‘bitching’ was probably kept between a couple of friends, a bartender and few drinks - not 800 of your Facebook friends.

Or should a negative post serve as a conversation starter between the disgruntled and subject of aggression? For any company manager, reading a negative post online from an employee is surprising and probably very shocking (Because morale is so great at your company right?). But it raises an honest question. Are your employees truly happy? Does the company do a good enough job in providing an open environment that allows employees to discuss work issues and problems with personnel without fear of losing their jobs? Obviously for this to work it requires professionalism and maturity on both sides, not just the employer.

Imagine if every company in the world made it a goal to be great at this, we’d probably never see another negative posting about work again (Don’t hold your breath). But until that day comes, you might want to refrain from airing work issues online and try going straight to your boss. Or better yet, head straight for the bar.