The local movie by Jack Neo “Money No Enough 2″ opens today at cinemas in Singapore. Go watch it! It’s so funny, I am sure you will laugh your head off! Ever seen Singaporeans go on strike on the road? Check it out at the cinema soon!

If you love going to the movies in Singapore, I am sure you have came across this hilarious ad before the start of your movie show. The purpose of this ad is to make you laugh and of course, not forgetting the important message behind the ad, that is:

Switch off your mobile phones while you are in the cinema so as not to be a source of disturbance and annoyance to other movie viewers.

The clip is also a great way to promote one of the most popular movies in Singapore: Money No Enough 2

Enjoy the clip here:

I was just finishing up my last blog post about a few minutes ago regarding my bad experience with Nike  before I hit the Publish button to publish my latest post.

Nothing to do at this hour (6.40am Singapore time), I went to Google.com again and search for Nike’s global running event on 31.08.2008.

To my surprise, my latest blog post which was just published a few minutes ago was already indexed on Google search results. It was ranked number 5th. My earlier blog post about Nike Human Race event was ranked number 4th. (See my screenshot below)

While getting top rankings for my various online projects are nothing new to me, I am just quite amazed at how fast Google spiders are indexing my web pages.

Like what my Internet Millionaire mentor told me, blogs are great ways for fast search engines rankings! Now I really see the true power of blogs!

Also, looking at my own traffic logs for this blog now, apparently a lot of searchers are finding my singaporelifestyle blog when they are searching for Nike’s 31.08.2008 run event.

So my conservative estimates about the number of readers reading about my bad experience with Nike will easily be in the range of hundreds, if not thousands.

Talking about this, I remembered another incident with another local start up company last year (company name to be withheld).  This new startup is supposed to pay me my due commissions after I marketed and sold their products online for them and made myself a few hundred dollars. Despite numerous emails back and forth with their company staff for weeks about my commissions which they said they are going to send, but the cheque never came.

Eventually I ran out of my patience, and so I warned people about this company at an online blog.

Surprisingly, just a couple of days later, their staff called me up for a meeting to pass me my commission cheque as well as to meet with their Vice President (also the owner of the firm).

I am happy with this outcome and I also learned an important lesson here.

“Beware of your reputation online, it may make or break your business.”

You can quote me above.

That day, I was browsing one of Nike stores in Singapore when I got to know about the Nike Human Race 10K.

So, I went online to check on Nike Human Race Singapore and realised that there are 2 types of registration for Nike Human Race 10K on 31.08.2008, that is, registration for the physical run and virtual run.

Before I could get my friends to sign up together for the physical run, the official registration has ended when I re-visited Nike web site. So I opted for the Virtual run registration instead.

As shown on Nike site over here, I am entitled to these entitlements as a virtual runner registered with Nike+:
From now till 1st September 2008, all Nike+ Human Race Physical and Virtual Runners can receive:
* 20% discount off selected running products.
* SGD$10 off when you purchase a Nike+ SportBand (U.P S$99.90)
Just produce the downloaded voucher* to enjoy the exclusive runner’s discount.
(Available in your confirmation email/Nike Human Race Newsletter Issue 1)
*Selected stores only. Terms & Conditions apply

So I went to one of the Nike stores along Orchard road to buy some “running” products today, and showed them the only email that I got from Nike+ after my registration. But they insisted that I showed them my 20% voucher before I can get my discount. I did not get any voucher for download at all despite registering myself the second time on the web site after I failed to see any voucher for me to download during my first registration.

The counter staff then checked with his colleague, and then another colleague. All 3 of them insisted that I should have a discount voucher for download because when they did their registration (I think), they have the voucher and a different email message from their completed registration.

I was unhappy about it because it kinda looked bad on me as if I am trying to save some meagre dollars off my purchases or worst still, trying to pull off a ’stunt’ to trick them into giving discounts for my purchases (which I was entitled to in the first place). So I graciously told them it will be ok, I shall pay the full price for my purchases (and of course, less some purchases like the Sportsband and a new pair of running shoes).

Somehow I felt cheated by Nike because what is beautifully marketed on the web site did not get its due proper execution on the actual ground. And now we are talking about getting consumers to patron your business by investing their time and money with you.

Great Idea, Lousy Execution.

Nike, Just FAKE It.

I will stay away from Nike, and shall inform all my contacts to do the same.

Dear Nike
If you cannot coordinate and execute your marketing campaign properly, and honour what you claim to the consumers, stop spending big dollars to lure consumers to part with their money.

PS: I will forgive you but I will not buy from you again…

Since the very first launch of Apple IPhone previously, many people in Singapore has been anticipating the arrival of the Apple IPhone in Singapore. Those who can’t wait for the IPhone to come, actually managed to get their hands on one by “sneaking” in from outside Singapore.

It seems that our wait is going to end soon when it comes to Singapore in Sep 2008 (hope there will be no change about it on the date). And based on the announcements by Apple not too long ago, we will be getting a 3G version of the IPhone. Great news for business users like me because a phone without 3G function is like owning a gun without ammunitions. We need the higher data speed transfer in order for us to do our work remotely from office.

I think I will get one Apple Iphone for myself next March when I can renew my phone contract with Starhub (hopefully by then, all the telcos in Singapore are carrying it. Based on what I have read online, all Singapore-based telcos will be selling the IPhone by the end of the year. Good news for all those IPhone fans).

Apple is great with their marketing, I must say. Many companies can try to learn something from them when it comes to marketing.

Nevertheless, I have got numerous friends who owned the first generation of the IPhone and they did not like it, and so they sold it off. I had to make a decision between Apple Iphone and Motorola Q9H about 6 months ago when I was getting a new handset. Apparently, I had chosen Motorola Q9H over the IPhone because of its 3.5G feature and the QWERTY keyboard. In my opinion, Motorola Q9H is a great business phone too and I loved it, especially its keypad and loud speakerphone!

Back to the IPhone, given its cheaper price coupled with a mobile phone contract plan, I wonder if the IPhone will spark off mainstream adoption in Singapore. Having an IPhone in hand will mean that you can do away with your IPods from now on (maybe unless you are a music and video fan that requires bigger storage space on your Ipod, if not, I think IPhone should be able to do a nice job of replacing your Ipod for many users!)

BTW, the 3G Iphone sells a million units in its first weekend of launch!

For more information about the much sought after IPhone, please see Apple web site here

The notorious “poster boy” Mas Selamat of Singapore is in the news again. Many months after his escape, 2 businessmen are offering $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mas Selamat, whether he is inside or outside of Singapore.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng revealed this in Singapore Parliament on Monday 21 July 2008 in response to a question on fugitive JI leader Mas Selamat.

The million dollar reward has been put up by two private individuals who approached the Home Affairs Ministry.

You can check out Channel News Asia here for more details about this piece of news. There are also news coverage on the local Singapore TV.

So, anyone of you into the quest to re-capture Mas Selamat?