to. wa.- walking on the insight road (and not halfway there). - Latest Comments

Re: Rumours about Singapore being boring are greatly exaggerated.

Andrew Jerina — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 06:23:43 -0000

Lovely stuff and a testament to the fact you can find interesting stuff going on pretty much anywhere if you're willing to scratch the surface a bit.

Re: Rumours about Singapore being boring are greatly exaggerated.

Will Humphrey — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 05:55:39 -0000

Very nice, Thomas. Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

Re: Decision made. We’re moving to the Lion City. And I don’t mean Detroit.

addwax — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:51:17 -0000

Ey, that's great news! Congrats.

Re: Decision made. We’re moving to the Lion City. And I don’t mean Detroit.

FamousRob — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:36:43 -0000

Good luck! I bet you'll love it.

Re: Decision made. We’re moving to the Lion City. And I don’t mean Detroit.

Stefan Erschwendner — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:17:01 -0000

As you said already, it's going to be pretty fucking awesome. All the best for the future!

Re: A list of things observed and not necessarily understood in China

Thomas Wagner — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:17:22 -0000

Hey, nice to have you over here.

I thought I should've commented the stuff a bit more. Not all of it is 'weird', some of it I've seen at other places. Sometimes it was just the scale, diffusion or prevalence that made me put it on the list.

Malls. Yes, same in Austria. Kids hang out, date, shop, ... That wasn't really what felt different. It was their sheer scale, the use of gold and marble and that stuff. I've never seen such fancy malls.

Water. Tap water isn't good, no. And there are way cheaper options. But Evian for 7 euros does seem a bit much to me. It seems to me less for expats, but for rich locals.

Cages. We have them to. Kids play football and streeball there, but I was surprised to find them and the to me very US look and feel in Beijing (table tennis) and Shanghai (streetball).

Laserpointers. They were the thing here a decade ago, but they are THE SHIT in China. They're selling the ultra-strong ones on the streets. The one you can use to annoy pilots.

Redneck rim protectors. WHY?

iPads as cameras. Stupid.

Hello Kitty and co. It's just really, really big ...

Where else do men rub their bellies so publicly in a megacity? And why?

Re: A list of things observed and not necessarily understood in China

Andreea Nastase — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 05:48:15 -0000

To exclude the things I don't find weird...
- malls as religious experience: not weird to me; kind of expected really, Romania is the same and I need to give myself a kick to remember that every time I go back; when you don't have anywhere else to go, you go to a mall for everything. Teenagers hang out in malls...the siren call of accessorize...ohhhh.

- expensive water: I always assumed tap water isn't particularly great in China. Is it a case of expensive waters that the locals don't drink (just for tourists and expats who have germ fears) or expensive water that everyone is forced into buying?

- sports in "caged" areas

- laserpointers (I HATED them in school. everyone would point them into your eye)

- redneck rim protectors (seen them around in other places)

- iPads as cameras (tourists in London do this too)

- sweet stuff like Hello Kitty (Japan seems to love Disney...just a hunch)

- men rubbing their bellies.

The rest is kinda neat and quirky in its own way, especially the plastic food. Guess it's on par with the non-attractive food in kebab shops around here, hah.

Sounds like a nice trip :D

Re: Is Planning planning Obsolescence? A naive POV of a young planner.

Thomas Wagner — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:31:02 -0000

Hello Faris, and welcome to this space.
I just read your piece and absolutely agree. Advertising agencies, many of them, think they are purely in the advertising business, when what they really are in is the grow penetration/frequency/margin etc business. As long as clients don't find better ways or even dare to reach their goals differently, this system is still stable enough to support quite large corporations, as you most probably know better than I do.

What I meant with this little rant here is, that it is absolutely vital to be open for a alternative options – we're paid to come up with solutions that at least seam to be 'divergent', after all – but at the same time, not to lose the commercial element of out of sight. Creativity is always divergence and relevance – and in our context, relevance needs to be commercial, no matter how funky that Contagious award or PSFK mention might be.

I think planning should be open to more than advertising, and as you argue, for that, the context its placed in needs to rethink the business it is in. It just shouldn't 'to throw the baby out with the bath water' while rethinking.

Re: Is Planning planning Obsolescence? A naive POV of a young planner.

faris — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:01:28 -0000

Hello! absolutely. good advertising is super important - something about those persuasive symbols creates intangible values, that drive price premiums, consistently, over time.

self hating ad people are the worst ;-) but - and there is always a but - someone has to decide if it's to be ads or something else.And as strategist, we need to consider alternative options every time. http://farisyakob.typepad.c...

Re: The plan. (Not halfway there.)

Willemvdh — Thu, 24 May 2012 06:07:13 -0000

Awesome news Thomas, sounds brilliant!!

Re: The plan. (Not halfway there.)

Thomas Miskin — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:30:13 -0000

Good luck!

Re: 12 Brand Definition Themes Identified (by others)

Matthew Leanna — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:53:04 -0000

People usually define the word "brand" as a name used to identify a product or a service. Others have mistaken that as similar to a trademark since they are exclusively used by the product owner. But clearly, after looking at this list, we can see that it is more than just a single concept. It is actually a very broad idea spanning over different concepts.

Matthew Leanna

Re: Planning for equity. Or how I stumbled into owning part of an IT company …

curiouslypersistent — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:07:44 -0000

Good luck!

And how can we miss you - the red hair stands out a mile to the left of the white background (if I see you in London, I'll buy you a drink to say well done)

Re: Master exam time – my reading list as a MA student

Inventory Records and Reports — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:05:20 -0000

thanks

Re: Say hello to and please support Marica

Inventory Records and Reports — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:04:03 -0000

very nice work

Re: 2.2 What is a Brand?

Inventory Records and Reports — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 05:55:22 -0000

thanks

Re: 2.3.3 Adaptive Paradigm

Méhpempő tabletta — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:58:49 -0000

Nice article thanks for it.

Re: Nivea, confronted with being ‘denounced’ as a’jewish’ brand, adapting to National Socialist content and style in the thirties.

Guest — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:03:36 -0000

I enjoy you because of
all your valuable effort on this website. My aunt delights in participating in
research and it’s simple to grasp why.

Re: Say hello to and please support Marica

Guest — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:55:16 -0000

You made some decent
points there. I looked on the internet for the topic and found most individuals
will approve with your blog.

Re: Spring

Thomas Wagner — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:28:32 -0000

Thank you :)

Re: Spring

Roman Mittermayr — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:53:20 -0000

i am looking for the "play live stream" now button....

Re: Spring

Christoph Paulik — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:00:10 -0000

Sounds like the Hipster Version of the Man

Re: Master exam time – my reading list as a MA student

Thomas Wagner — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:25:36 -0000

Hi Neil, great to have you drop by. How are you doing?
I've actually read all of this. Just tried to get as little as possible new stuff on the list for my final exam. :)

Re: Master exam time – my reading list as a MA student

neilperkin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:46:25 -0000

Lordy, that's some reading list

Re: Approaches to ideas and a proposed metaphor

neilperkin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:03:52 -0000

Great post Thomas - just to let you know that it's shortlisted for the Post Of The Month vote over on Dead Fish http://bit.ly/q1udL0