December, IKEA and everything nice

There's something delightful about December. Maybe it's the way the air smells or how water tastes a little bit sweeter this time of year. But try as you may to ignore it, you know it has something to do with Christmas. When the adverts begin and the decors go up, when the sales come swooping in and Jingle Bells starts playing in the mall, you find yourself drawn into it all faster than you could switch the lyrics to "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg..."

We would know because we were involved in the mastermind of the IKEA Advent promotion. With the economic down slide as of late, who would not like cheap trinkets for family, friends and even themselves? To celebrate the Swedish tradition, IKEA is unveiling two promotional items every day of December till Christmas Day. Let's just say it's IKEA's attempt in the whole "partridge in a pear tree, turtle doves, french hens, calling birds, golden rings... so on so forth" business. You know, that 12 days to Christmas song. Just gives you another reason to stop by IKEA every day, if you aren't already doing that.

And for the many Santa Little Helpers out there who like spending time in the kitchen, especially this time of the year, IKEA has got a fun way to decide on how you can re-decorate your kitchen. Whether you are a Scandinavian soul, a modern mom, a young swede, or a country lover, we have helped IKEA put together a fun quiz to find out what type of kitchen suit your heart, as well as giving you some pointers on how to put that in your own house.

www.ikea.com.my

Pay it a visit and you just might find the solution to your Christmas present headache. We all know how hard it is to find the perfect gift for the perfect someone. At the same time, you might even get yourself a brand new kitchen, just in time for the new year.

It's a brand new year now. Smile and be merry. Have a great Christmas ahead and a very happy new year!

Roar! goes the Tiger

If you've been browsing the newspapers, the sports section in particular, you're bound to notice a fearsome ad showcasing Zaquan Adha - Malaysian football's poster boy in skin tearing glory. The caption goes, "Warriors don't cry over split skin" which I thought was a pretty awesome play on the century old idiom, "Don't cry over spilled milk".

The ad directs you to the website which we of course, proudly designed. In the run up to the AFF Suzuki Cup happening early December, Nike launched the new National Team Kit for Malaysia. The concept that holds the idea together is the act of skin tearing which will ultimately reveal the brilliant new jersey.

"Shirt on, Fear Off" is the super that captures the spirit of the Malaysian Tigers who promises to fight till the end. Work began when we paid a visit to the team's training ground in PJ to conduct a photo shoot and to interview the players. With the necessary materials in hand, we then started the development phase.

I shall not bore you further with the details. Just sit back, kick off your shoes and enjoy the Malaysian Tigers in their full skin tearing glory.

www.nikefootball.com.my

This is Nike Sportswear

August has come and gone and what a great month indeed it was. The Beijing Olympics was a spectacular affair and everyone will remember it as the greatest sporting event of the decade. That's not all there is to it. Apparel companies triumphed too as their athletes chalk up world records again and again to show the world that the human spirit knows no bounds.

We contributed too in our own quirky way. We took part for the very first time in a video shoot for Nike Sportswear and it was simply blockbuster. Models Ian and Azura graced our set and lent their elegant touch to make our virgin video production an interesting one indeed.

The idea came about as we were brainstorming for our NSW campaign to coincide with the Olympics. Out of this world ideas were thrown about and as we slept over each one of them, we eventually agreed to do a site take over, skinner ad that showcases Azura and Ian modeling vintage Nike gear.

Check out the youtube video to see how the ad actually works. It's taken by now of course, but when it was running it's due course, we thought it was pretty damn cool. Yes we're biased and we know you love us for that!

Till the next post, toodles!

FIRST 10K IN 56 MIN

Following up on my earlier entry on the Nike+ Human Race, managed to clocked in my first 10K in about 56 minutes. Felt good about it : ) 2 more weeks to the race and guess i am prepared to complete the race within an hour.

My mini was thrilled, did another victory dance. Not sure about the white eye brows though. I chose a black one but it doesn't show while in preview mode. Anyways, as long as he is happy : |

From my last log, this pair of shoes of mine has clocked in 600KM in a period of about 1 year. Before Nike+ it was kinda hard to estimate on how far and how much i have ran. It has definitely helped me to improve my run. For you who are serious about running, Nike+ will be rolling out some training tips and content soon, directly synced to your Ipod. I had a preview of it and its really cool.

My Air Structure Triax

I caught the Olympics Women Marathon this morning and was inspired by Paula Radcliffe (who holds the current World Record). You see, she didn't win, in fact finished 23rd place. She had the cramps about 3 quarter way through and yet still continues on. This really enforced my believe that the Marathon is what epitomize the Olympics is all about...not giving up...the will to fight on. It also makes me wonder...42KM...not impossible at all.

1 Million Runners, 1 Race

Who could have pull off such a feat other than the company with the swoosh. Yes it's true, Nike will be holding the largest running event - The Human Race on 31 August 2008. 1 million runners from 20 countries will race that day. Malaysia, unfortunately, is not one of those countries (not surprising actually) BUT our neighbor down south is! Check it all out at www.nikeplus.com.sg.



When we first heard about this event back last year, I was immediately challenged by my colleagues (more like my employees, the younger ones...how dare they!) to participate. You see, I have been running for the past couple of years but I have never participated in a marathon. Well, i do use Nike+ to log my runs and i occasionally bragged about how many clicks i did that day. Serves me right!

I've been training for the past couple of weeks...waking up at 6.30am and running on weekends. 7km was the furthest I've gone. 10KM does not seem too hard or too far away : ) Sometimes I do slack a bit but then I've got my little mini to keep me in check. He's a cute little guy, complains when I missed my run and dance when I clocked in some clicks. So far he has done the MC hammer thing (sorry i forgot what you call it) and some line dance steps...really cool!




Check out my Nike+ Mini in action at this link - http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=runners,avatar_viewer,1216767593

How to get your very own Nike+ Mini? Well, its simple, just log on to nikeplus.com.my, register for an account. There's a selection for 'MY NIKE+ MINI' under 'MY RUNS'. Click on it and you are on your way to create your very own mini! However to make your mini comes alive (more interesting of course), you will need to sync your runs so you will need to own a Nike+ sport kit or the newly launched Nike+ Sportband (do not require an IPOD nano to sync your runs... way cool!).


23 more days to go. Now i am really looking forward to it. Can really feel the excitement as the countdown to race day begins. I will definitely blog about the experience after the race so keep posted. Time to show those young , unfit boys at the office how it’s supposed to be done. Be sure to root for me cos im holding the torch for the mighty mid 30’s generation.

Welcome to Our New Home!

Entrance to Jaya One

The past week has been very interesting for us folks at Compass. Our normally serene office (not taking into account the noisy banter that usually happens when you've got 15 young at heart people trying to get the better of each other) saw quite a few life-defining events taking place.

Old studio

Will sure miss the FREE car park!

Staircase to heaven...NOT! Studio only...

Okay, maybe life-defining is a bit of an exaggeration but seriously, how often does one actually move? Unless you're a nomad yearning for the life of an adventurer of course.

We've been rather fortunate. In the past 11 years or so since our inception, we've achieved quite a substantial growth to the extent where our headcount has exceeded the amount of room we had in our previous home.

We consulted the gods, checked out the constellation, shrugged and then said to ourselves, "ah what the heck, this is a good a time as any." So we ringed the movers and got them to drop boxes at our place and pretty soon our lives were all packed up and living in cardboard boxes - all 11 years of drama and history.

Then began the actual physical labor. It is rather amusing to see geeky programmers and dorky web designers actually taking part in real physical work. We had to drill holes in the wall to put up a mirror and what normally takes 5 minutes took us an entire hour. Of course, when the time came for our office-warming dinner, everyone was seated at the table without any unnecessary delays. Talk about priorities eh?

Wai Mun striking a pose

How many programmers, designers & copywriters to drill a hole in the wall? 1 each...literally!

Our chill-out area - The Pantry

Weary bones and aching muscles we might be but our minds are completely recharged, eager to take on new challenges. Don't be shy. Drop by or give us a call anytime you feel like it and we can discuss further any possibilities.

Here's our address and contact details.

Tel : +603-7957 7776 Fax : +603-7956 7776
37-6, Block C, Jaya One,No 72A, Jalan Universiti,
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan

Create History: Participate in Project Lightweight

Calling out all inventive, creative, innovative, intelligent, smart, acute, bright, artistic, imaginative college students!

Here's a chance to do something big. Enormous. Mammoth even. Like standing on the shoulder of giants.

Bring to life an idea in your head that goes to show the future design of a lightweight concept. Construct this prototype and be in the running for a trip to Nike HQ in Oregon, United States.

This is Project Lightweight.

www.nike.com.my/projectlightweight

In Touch With Our Feminine Side with Palmolive Pure Silk

The ratio of of gender segregation in Compass is rather biased. Boys outweigh girls to a staggering 4:1 which makes the testosterone level in the office rather, intimidating, So when we heard that we've been awarded a project to work on Palmolive's Pure Silk shower gel via MindShare, we embraced it with a sigh of relief. Finally an excuse to be in touch with our feminine side.

As with every project we take on, the work flow always begins with a grand idea. This sparks off a chain reaction in every department to get their butts off the coffee table and return to their desks. In the case of Palmolive's Puresilk, we digged real deep and looked to history for a dose of inspiration. A few months back we were brainstorming for a previous project also by Palmolive called Thermal Spa when we came upon a neat idea of personalizing a "spa" experience in line with the product(thermal spa is a shower gel manufactured specifically for a home "spa" experience). The user (that's you) will be allowed to input their name, fav colour and a host of other details to generate their own virtual spa. Unfortunately the stars didn't align itself so this grandiose scheme was shelved.

Ahh but as with all great things, they remain timeless. When MindShare came to us to help market Palmolive's latest Puresilk body wash, we immediately pitched this idea in and everyone was smiling with approval. Of course we had to tweak the concept to suit the purpose of Puresilk and here's what we got.

A personality test that displays a bathroom according to your character.

Whoa..What in the world, you ask? Allow me to explain. The girls will get to participate in a personality test that asks all sorts of intimate yet addictive questions which will generate your personality. Once that has been determined, the system will automatically render a bathroom that fits your designated personality. Imagine you're a Man-Slayer (for example-lah), your bathroom will be fitted with seductive decorations like luscious red towels and expensive designer lipsticks and....well you get the point.

Designing the site was easy. We've had enough experience with website constructions that we breezed through the framework in a matter of days. The challenge began when we started development on our personality bathroom segment. First step was to give life to our characters.

Giving them a soul, making them matter was quite a task. We scripted out a short survey and passed it around to our female staffs, our girlfriends and anyone of the fair sex who walked by our office entrance. Once enough information was gathered, we scoured through them and with it as reference, we created 5 unique characters that girls will definitely be able to relate to.

Next step was to commence the 3-D rendering of the bathroom layout for each character. Our visual artists cracked their minds and work closely with the compiled survey to come up with an accurate depiction of each character. This is where our programmers came in and started lending their geeky skills to construct a viral element to this.

How it works is simple.

"I take the test and I get my personality. I'll send that over to my girl friends and ask them to take it on my behalf so we can compare if they know me as well as i hope they do. They then loop back the test to me and soon enough we've got a whole web of bathroom-personality girls who can't wait to talk to each other about it."

Here's a sneak preview of what you can expect. We're excited. We hope you are too.

www.palmolivepuresilk.com.my

Of rebirth and whatever not

We're back people.

It has been 6 long months since our last entry and a lot has happened - earthquakes, world famine, fuel price hikes, presidential elections, royal weddings and the likes. Yesterday, our esteemed MD, Wai Sun decided it would be fun to look at life from another angle so he climbed up the roof of his porch. Up there he saw the stars align and at that very moment of serenity, he achieved an epiphany.

Morning came and as I stepped into the office, I was summoned by Wai Sun. Fast forward 30 minutes and here I am composing the first entry to our new brainwave. Watch this space as the moonstruck people at Compass attempt to bring you a whole new experience in digital interaction.