Student Feature: Esther Subramaniam

What’s up people! Been busy mugging for your papers? C’mon, time to take a break and check out who we have to feature this week!

Talented, exotic beauty and brains all rolled into one. Yes that’s who we will be featuring this week. Esther Rose Subramaniam. Born on the very special date of 9^th August, she is already special since the day she came to this Earth.

Photograph and Interview by Mr. Tan Kay Chin

One of her greatest passion is to sing. Look! She has already aspired to be a singer when she was still in primary school. Other than being part of the worship team in her church, Esther also performs for school events such as DMC Connect and SPACECares. You would know your DMC experience isn’t complete if you have never heard her melodious voice before.

If you find her familiar, don’t be surprised. You must have probably spotted her pretty face around school, online or in the October issue of Teens magazine.

                                                                          Teens Magazine, Oct 2011

Talent aside, Esther also has the brains. Who doesn’t like a smart girl? In Year 1, she topped the whole DMC cohort and was awarded the Director’s Honours Roll 2010 for her outstanding performance in academics. And psst, she even has a personal spot on CASS Wall of Fame for that! If you think this isn’t a big deal, how about topping the cohort while being the Deputy Network Director for SPACE and also the President of the SP Student Comperes. Beat that!

More about Esther!

Alma Mater

Yio Chu Kang Secondary School

What do you love most about DMC and CASS?

“I guess I love DMC for the vibrant personalities that our community is made up of. Every day I meet and work with people who can be cool and collected or outspoken and outrageous. The best part is that I have had the pleasure of making really exceptional friends that I will always hold close to heart.”

Which is your favourite foodcourt/food stall in SP? Why?

“My favourite foodcourt would be FC6 for the practical reason that it is located at CASS. I’m rather lazy haha. Besides, it offers cuisines of every kind that undoubtedly appeals to different palettes. With local delicacies like chicken rice and nasi lemak to whole wheat sandwiches and Japanese ramen, I am a happy girl dining at FC6.”

Quote of the Week

“Find reasons to be thankful for something each day because it brings hope and a promise that every sunrise bears a new gift.”

Well that’s Esther for you! Expand to your fullest potential, just like Esther, with Singapore Polytechnic Diploma in Media and Communication. Because with SP, it’s so possible!

Written by:

Toh Weiming

Workshops for SPMCC!

Workshops were the core of SP Media and Communication Conference. The 3 day workshop was put together by Year 2 students of Singapore Polytechnic's Diploma in Media and Communication (DMC) students and they lasted about 3 and a half hours each day. They were targeted at secondary school students from all around Singapore, so as to allow them to experience what DMC students learn on a daily basis.

The students, who were broken into around 20 groups, were given the task to brainstorm on ideas to promote Madonna’s World Tour by at least two media channels and make it stand out, as Lady Gaga would be coincidentally having a concert in Singapore at the same time.

Some students came out with ideas such as informative posters, flash mobs, radio speeches and the usage of social media platforms such as Twitter, to trend #MDNA for Madonna’s World Tour, and Facebook, for competitions with attractive prizes to be won. Due to time constraints, only five groups were chosen to present their wonderful ideas. The DMC lecturers who made their rounds, listened to the ideas discussed by each group and therefore made the decision to choose them. Prizes were given out to the five groups, namely two consolation prizes and the first, second and third prizes. The second and third prizes were Popular vouchers and the first prize was Cathay movie tickets.

In my opinion, the workshops held were an amazing experience for both the Year 2 DMC students and the secondary school students. Everyone was hyped during the workshops and you could see true effort being put in when the students thought of their ideas and presented them. Time passed really quickly and soon it was time to bid goodbye to the secondary school students. Everyone could not bear to part and made sure they took group photos and exchanged Twitter accounts with one another.

It was a refreshing experience for all Year 2 DMC students as this was our first hands-on opportunity to plan, organize and execute an event, which was luckily a smooth ride. The time and effort we took for this event was definitely worthwhile.

A Pictography of the Workshops

This is Group 7, which I was in charge of, busy brainstorming ideas and jotting them down on paper.

The worksheet which had the task for the day.

Toh Yu Xun from Clementi Town Secondary School, who was game to act as Madonna and put on her well-known piked bra, for the flash mob which my group thought of.

The top 3 winning groups for the third day of the workshop!

Written by: Joanne
Edited by: Clare

SPMCC 2012 Closing Ceremony

Our Media and Communication Conference: Click to Connect has officially come to an end!


The 5 day long affair ended with a bang, and left our DMC students beaming with pride. (I kid you not, you should've seen our proud faces)


The Closing Ceremony started off with the amazing Mr Damien Cummings, Online Director in the Consumer & SMB team at Dell.

Mr Cummings has had over 15 years of experience in the digital media industry and was a judge for the 2011 Digital Media Awards and the 2009 Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards. He is a top-ranked speaker on social media.

Next up, we had Mr Julien Courant, Managing Director of dgm Asia who was incredibly funny and engaging!

He talked about the different strategies used to generate online sales and return on investments for clients with the use of social media. It was really refreshing to hear fresh viewpoints about social media.

After the speakers delivered their amazing presentations, we headed out for a short break where everyone could mingle and network with one another.

After the tea break, we headed back in to listen to our very own Mass Media Research team present their research findings on the Impact of Citizen Journalism on You(th).

Soon after they presented their findings, they had a Question-and-Answer segment through the live twitter feed. The audience were all engaged in it and quickly tweeted their doubts away. Best part is, the  people who asked the top three most insightful questions during the session were awarded with a Starbucks gift card as well as a thumbdrive!

Finally, the conference ended with an influx of applause (and some wild cheers) by the audience. 

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves (we know we did!), and see you next year at the Media and Communication Conference 2013! 

Written by: Nadhirah
Edited by: Clare Huang

Vocanic Talk

Think Social Media’s just for fun? Think again. Meet Oliver and Rachel from Vocanic, a communications agency. When it comes to word of mouth marketing, these guys are the coolest experts on the block. What’s more, we got to meet them here in Singapore Polytechnic where they shared with us all about Social Media in marketing!

 Oliver and Rachel!

Why’s Social Media so important? Let me give you the numbers. Singapore has a population of about 5 million. Out of these 5 million, 2.6 million (55%) have a Facebook account. That means 1 out of 2 people in Singapore could potentially be a friend on Facebook. Out of the 5 million, 3.2 million (60%) people watch Youtube videos. That means 3 out of 5 people in Singapore could potentially watch that really embarrassing video of you throwing up drunk after a night of clubbing your friends had the cheek to film down and upload. That’s over 4x the circulation rate of most magazines in Singapore, which means that there could be potentially more people watching your drunken misadventure than people reading about your latest achievement that got featured in a magazine. That’s the power of Social Media for you. And that’s why people like Oliver and Rachel become really important!

People like Oliver and Rachel a lot time on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter looking for cool things to reblog and upload onto Facebook pages. Ever seen “101 ways to make yourself look better with xxx brand’s make up” on your favourite makeup brand’s Facebook page? You might have. Chances are, it got taken off someone else’s blog. Social Media guys aren’t THAT hardworking, they’re just really good at putting up stuff that we like, which is kinda good for us.

Alright, now I’m guessing you’ll go “hey, that’s easy! I could do that and make big bucks!” Except it’s NOT that easy. Social Media specialists like Oliver and Rachel also have to handle complaints from “that-one-customer-who-has-nothing-better-do-and-needs-to-complain” (or actually has a valid complaint, in which case it’s okay). Which is harder than it sounds. Delaying a reply might well mean an unhappy customer and rushing a reply without thinking would result in a really stupid sounding response. Now that’s tough.

But don’t worry, there’s always a solution! As Sun Tzu once said(and Oliver once quoted) ”If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be defeated in a hundred battles”. Translation: Know your audience, know what you do. Then find the best way to communicate to them based on what you can do. It’s that simple!

With that, Oliver and Rachel left us with this quote.

 “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” - Seth Godin

So go out and be amazing.

Written by: Daniel Chai
Edited by: Clare Huang

SPMCC 2012 Opening Ceremony

February 13th 2012 marked the Opening Ceremony of the Singapore Polytechnic Media and Communication Conference.

This year, three excellent speakers were invited to share about issues relating to the conference theme: Click to Connect. At the end, a panel discussion was held.

The event was kicked off with high energy by our student emcees, Charmian and Joel.
Their lively introduction had the audience revving for more.

The conference was led by an opening address by Mr Lee Yew Leong from Starcom MediaVest Group. The topic he spoke about was "Future Media. Future Proof." His views on how there is no better time to be a consumer had us nodding in agreement. Interestingly, he also questioned whether digital technology is a master or a slave. Mr Lee also mentioned with the growing number of marketers, content is the key currency.

Mr Lee Yew Leong, Executive Director of Starcomm MediaVest Group

 The following speaker was Mr Gerald Ang, Head of Digital Marketing at Blackberry. His topic was "Connecting to Consumers: Telling the Blackberry Story". Mr Ang told us about the importance of engaging your community and utilising what you have at hand. He then showed us how Blackberry had involved their homegrown community in Indonesia in their marketing efforts, allowing them to cut costs while creating a personal touch. He also revealed that the best engagement strategy was to find the points that connect to your audience and tell a relatable story

Mr Gerald Ang, Head of Digital Marketing at Blackberry

 The last speaker of the day was Mr Shalabh Pandey from Nokia. His speech was about "Social Media at Nokia: What Goes into Creating a Holistic and Ground Breaking Social Media Strategy". Mr Pandey introduced to many of us the fascinating concept of the social megaphone. While conventional marketing is targeted at the person holding the megaphone, Mr Pandey stressed that is was more beneficial to target those at the receiving end of the megaphone. In other words, instead of merely considering your target audience, you should also bear in mind their followers. This is known as a propagation strategy. Mr Pandey's speech opened our eyes to many new concepts we had not heard of before.

Head of Earned Media and Marketing, Southeast Asia and Pacific Consumer Engagement, Nokia

 The conference ended on a high note with a panel discussion moderated by Mr Geoff Tan who is the Vice President and Head of Strategic Marketing at SPH Limited. The discussion involved Mr Geoff Tan himself and the three prior speakers. Members of the audience enthusiastically shot questions at the panel who answered them with truthful insights. The energetic discussion brought to light issues such as evolving technology, reaching one's consumers with passion points and how to better handle industry competitors.

Day 1 of SPMCC was indeed a success. With the efforts of the year two DMC students, the lecturers and the invited speakers, the Opening Ceremony of SPMCC will be a day to remember.

Written by,
Nicole Loh

Photographer:
Victor Seow

Singapore Polytechnic Media and Communication Conference

Join us at this exciting event!

Click here to register for the Opening Ceremony now!

Or here to register for the Closing Ceremony!

This Valentine's Day

February 14th is just round the corner, and I bet all of you lovebirds out there are cracking your heads thinking of the perfect gift, perfect place (and perhaps perfect person) to spend this special day with. Of course, the celebration of Love isn't just for lovers; so even if you have no one particularly special to spend the day with, fret not! Spend it with people who mean just as much and it can be equally meaningful!


Here are some tips from us at DMC to make your V-Day this 2012 unforgettable!


1 Plan Ahead
Everything on this day must be perfect. To make sure things go according to plan on the actual day, remember to plan early and keep everything in check! But with studies and a keep-up on your social life, how is it that you can plan V-Day early?!

Make a Checklist!

(Swear to God when I searched for "cute checklist" Rob Pattinson's image came out)

From which gifts to get, to making reservations at a nice restaurant; write them down. Making a checklist helps you save time recounting what to do next and gives you maximum assurance that things will go right on the actual day. Remember to always "check" the task right after you've done it so you won't be confused! Although if you forget what you need to write on the checklist then.. HMM.

2 Give from the heart

There is no better way to show your loved one(s) you care than to make the gifts YOURSELF. Truth to be told, most people do prefer hand-made gifts rather than gifts you can buy from a store, because they are often more sincere. Hand-made gifts are also easier to do if you happen to not know what your partner/friend wants. Here are some awesome-possum handmade crafts and foodie ideas that will melt anyone's heart!

If you can bake:

If you can't bake:

OR you could always pre-order them (I mean they're still HAND-picked by you)

Here's a really adorable cupcake store whose website you should totally check out:

www.cupcakesonline.com

Cupcakes by Heather and Lori have this really interactive website where you can pick out the cupcakes you like from a wide range. They even have different categories of cupcakes for different occasions!

Here's an example:

But if you're more of a Knitter

Or a Craft-maker 

Whatever it is, gifts from the heart always bring a smile to people's faces, so don't be lazy and start work!

However, if you have already made up your mind to buy something nice, fret not! You can always accompany it with hand-made cards! Like this:

3 Surprise surprise!

Now that you've got everything planned and you've decided on the perfect gift for your loved one(s). The last thing to do is to make it memorable. What makes all the effort and time planning worth it are the priceless expressions you see on your partner's/friends' faces!

A personal favorite: Fairy Lights! 

They always give that extra atmosphere, but be sure to check that there's a power source nearby!

After all since V-Day is the day to show your loved one(s) how much you love and appreciate them, some magic wouldn't hurt! If all goes well, you'll expect that their faces won't be like:

But kinda more like:

So yes, make the effort to make it a wonderful day for you and your loved ones and be prepared to be surprised by them too. (:

Speaking of things to do this Valentine's Day, SPMCC IS COMING! Fun-packed with knowledgable industry speakers from reputable companies such as Nokia, Dell as well as Blackberry AND  workshops for secondary school students, the 5-day conference from the 13th to 17th February is one not to be missed! If you're an upper secondary school student who wants to get a glimpse into what being in a media course is like, SIGN UP NOW! We can't wait to see you guys :)

Here's wishing everyone a LOVEly Valentine's Day this year, and no, don't depend on Cupid to help you with that. *wink*

Written by: Charmian Tan

Edited by: Clare