Responsibilities:

• Rock solid skills in Sales
• Able to converse in English well
• Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor’s Degree / Professional Degree, any field.
• At least 2 year(s) of working experience in the related field is required for this position.
• Preferably Managers specializing in Sales – Corporate or equivalent.
• 5 Full-Time positions available.

The day that I leave this office finally came.

To be completely honest, there’s a sinking feeling in my chest. I don’t like it. Maybe I’ve just got too comfortable here.

You guys are more than just mere colleagues. Hell, you crackers are more than friends to me. I see you guys as family, as siblings.
Which makes it a whole lotta hard to let go.

It’s time to close this book, and open a new one. And I know I have all of your blessings to go out and do what I wanna do.

Forgive me for any of my wrongdoings. I’m sorry if I offended you with the way I speak. I’m sorry if I accidentally raised my voice at you. I’m sorry if I got snappy. I’m sorry for isolating myself for way too long. I’m sorry.

But at the same time thank you.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn so much.
Thank you for taking a risk with me.
Thank you for believing in me and my limited abilities.
Thank you for the random hugs, the jokes and the laughs.
Thank you for turning me into a much, much happier person than I was before.
Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

But it’s not like I’m gonna die or anything right? So if you just feel like hanging out, I’m just a phone call/text/tweet away. Drop me an email. I’ll drop by the office lor to visit. And I’ll bring cookies :D

“Weekend warriors and our best friends
The writers weren’t kidding about how all good things must end
Then again some things, then again some things are far too good
Some things are far too good to go ahead and let go

Always up or down, never down and out
Dream of demons when you speak, that make you stutter when you sleep
Always up or down, never down and out
Dream of demons when you speak, that make you stutter when you sleep
Sleep now or forever hold your peace

We won’t forget Tony or Johnny
No matter how they miss us they still wish us the best on the road
Garrett took a plane to Paris, France
Now he’s cooking up entrees for the pretty pretty French girls
Bookends, Blue and Clarity to The Wall and Grace
Darkside, Wish and a toast to the Late Figure 8
Weekend warriors and our best friends
The writers weren’t kidding but the good things will live in our hearts”
- ‘Down and Out’ by The Academy Is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQQNSMJ6me8)

This is a blog post I made yesterday, but it’s in Bahasa Malaysia. If you wanna read it, this is the link. :)

You guys are amazing. Don’t let other people tell you otherwise.

Forever grateful – your ex-colleague, your friend
Lina Halizah binti Abdul Halim

We live in exciting times and I’m honored to have been given the chance share some insights about the youth market. I hope this transcript of the presentation is useful to you in sharing your ideas as well.

To those who didn’t attend the presentation, the 6th Malaysian Media Conference (MMC) is an annual alumni of about 250 media pundits, industry specialists and key media decision-makers in the fields of media, marketing, branding and advertising across Malaysia. Amongst the speakers featured are thought leaders in their space from Malaysia, Singapore, India, Australia and Japan. http://www.adoimagazine.com/mmc2009/

I was very humbled by the opportunity to speak there about the one thing I am most passionate about.

Here are the transcript and slides:

Good morning everyone.

I’m excited the Malaysian Media Conference 2009 dedicated some time to focus on the youth market.

As you know, these pesky kids are causing marketers a lot of pain. How many social networking websites do they need? Why can’t they all just watch twelve hours of TV every day?

Well, I guess we’re trying to be nice to them today, considering they’re the future of our business. They’re the ones buying all our stuff, they’re setting trends, and calling the shots.

And there’s a lot of them.

Market size-wise:

• Southeast Asia. Ages between 15 to 34. We have 200 million of them.

• Add a dash of China and India. You add another 1.1 billion of them.

• If we zoom in on Malaysia. Next year, 65% of our population will be under 35.

Yes, A LOT of them.

And collectively, they’re deciding who to support. Or who to ignore.

Today’s presentation is about them.

The youth.

My name is Khailee Ng, from Youth Asia.

We will take a good look at what they’re telling us about MEDIA, INFLUENCE, and WINNING THEM OVER.

We’ll start with Media. And influence.

To paint a clearer picture, I’ll use history’s most effective (but sometimes controversial) method to paint the picture to you.

I’m going to use women. I’m going to use images of women to show you what I mean by youths, media and influence.

Ready?

Look at her. AMAH. Ho Bo.

She’s my grandmother. She is 97 years old.

She watches 12 hours of TV everyday. And she doesn’t change the channel during ads.

She doesn’t have 1,000 friends on Facebook. But her sphere of influence directly involves my dad, and my maid.

Next up, is my Mother.

Here she is holding a melon. Or cucumber. Or something.

She watches TV 4 hours a day.

She’s on the internet 2 hours a day.

She line dances rest of the time.

As for influence, she consumes news off the internet, finds information, and forwards me loads of emails. She uses email to forward stuff to her line dancing friends, too.

That’s my mom.

Now. I’d like to introduce you to some girl who works in a nearby office, Rina.

Rina’s in her 20’s.

Unlike grandma, Rina does NOT watch 12 hours watching TV. She only watches TV when she buys DVDs.

She’s spends 12 hours online at work and at home.

She uses all these websites, social networks, devices…

Facebook, twitter etc…

Those are all tools she uses to interact with all her different circle of friends….

Rina is different from my mom, and from my grandma.

Why?

The key difference is in the so called “media” she consumes via the internet created by her social circle. Not by advertisers, or big name producers.

She communicates via the same “media” to influence her friends. She spends time on the internet doing all this, because it’s socializing.

Most of you know this as Social Media.

She uses online tools to interact with her friends. Which are major influences in her life.

A study by Forrester Research and Intelliseek in 2006 revealed that recommendations from consumers leads to consumer trust. Online banner ads are right at the bottom with text ads on mobile phones.

A similar research done by the Nielsen Company reinforces this. “Recommendations from people known” and “Consumer Opinions posted online” top the charts in consumer trust. Online video and banner ads are way at the bottom with SMS text ads.

But most of you already realize that friends influence them the most, and they influence their friends. Not banner ads.

And this affect youths like Rina? I’m talking about homegrown Malaysian youths in our backyard, not skateboarding teens in New York mind you.

Here’s how it relates to marketing to Malaysian youths:

According to the MCMC: Young Malaysians aged 15 – 34… about 87.7% of them have access to the internet!

So we ran a quick study yesterday with an open survey on YouthSays. We got 900 responses in 6 hours, telling us:

• 90% of youth have a Facebook account
  Average of 225 Facebook friends
• 95% of youth have a Friendster account but only 32% login frequently
  Average of 296 Friendster friends
• 73% of youth have a MSN IM account
  Average of 109 MSN IM friends
• 87% of youth have a Yahoo IM account
  Average of 117 Yahoo IM friends
• 38% of youth have a Twitter account
  Average of 30 Twitter followers
• Average of 278 phone numbers in their mobilephone
• Average of 262 email addresses in their email addressbook

Of course the sample is skewed to existing internet users, but remember, 87.7% of Malaysian youths between 15 to 34 use the internet… and we can conclude our Malaysian youths aren’t exactly living on trees.

Like Rina, they’re connected, and using social tools to communicate with friends.

…

Let’s review what we know about youths, media, and influence so far:

1. There’s a lot of them. 200 Million in Southeast Asia age between 15 to 34.
2. They spend most of their time online, connecting with friends.
3. They’re heavily influenced by friends, not by online banner ads.

HOW DO WE TRANSLATE IT TO MARKETING – ?????

This is encapsulated in the deep wisdom of the 90’s youth marketing gurus:

If you want my future forget my past,
If you wanna get with me better make it fast,
Now don’t go wasting my precious time,
Get your act together we could be just fine

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.
Make it last forever friendship never ends,

What do you think about that now you know how I feel,
Say you can handle my love are you for real,
I won’t be hasty, I’ll give you a try
If you really bug me then I’ll say goodbye.

And this, is why the dominant “Marketing TO Youths” model is broken.

Brands try to use tools to reach youths.

Some brands use the IM, the Twitter, the Facebook, to get their attention. Eyeblast them, stuff in text ads, interrupt them, locate where they are, target them…

Sorry, brand, but you’re not their friend.

Friends don’t do that kind of stuff. Stalkers do.

This is why ad banners are NOT VERY WELCOME in social media.

So this is why other marketers prefer to do it “the other way”. And what way is that?

A way which begins with respecting that youths are using their social tools to communicate with friends.

So you start with a substantial number of youths. You understand what they want – what motivates them. You develop your value proposition. Give it to them. Make it easy for them to use their tools to share with their friends.

This is also known as, “marketing with youths” – my own buzzword. Not too fancy, I know. Marketing With Youths. TM. Has a ring to it.

Give youths a compelling reason to use their tools to talk to their friends about you. Simple.

Realizing this, the team at Youth Asia has spent the past 4 years with these youths – understanding them, representing them, organizing them, connecting them to agencies, brands, and the government. Basically, Youth Asia cultivates friendships and builds trust with youths, then collaborate. We produced over 200 youth research projects. Nationwide campaigns, and the country’s largest youth festivals, like YOUTH’09 earlier in January.

All of this are based on direct relationships with youths, and a deep understanding of what motivates them.

How did this begin?

We cultivated this friendship via YouthSays.com

We built YouthSays.com with the understanding that youths are always voicing out, all over the web. And our value proposition to these youths instead of voicing out to no one. Now, their voices will be heard. Not only by like-minded fellow youths, but by brands, business leaders, and the government, too.

We started with 1,000 unheard voices.

In 18 months, That grew to 168,000 members across Malaysia who were reaching out to brands with opinions, ideas, and feedback.

YouthSays has grown to becoming an action network, where youths voice out for various reasons.

• 28,342 Question asked
• 269,727 Answers
• 18,931 statements, 19,738 agree/ disagree, 47,650 discussion comments
• 3 million survey questions answered!

And we continuously cultivate our friendship with them.

• We have had nationwide research projects which involved getting them to fill in diaries about who they were, and what their lifestyles were like.
• 
• We got their feedback on 1Malaysia, and presented it to the prime minister. The youths were ecstatic to know their voice was heard.
• We identified which movies they liked, and gave them pre-screenings to watch them before anyone else, then share reviews of the movies.
• We did nationwide surveys on brands they use across 13 different product categories.
• Our latest research was with Jobstreet who in turn send what young jobseekers are saying to employers across Malaysia.

To date we have conducted over 200 research projects for clients, some for ourselves – we needed to truly understand what motivates them, what makes them tick.

Truly understanding them was the best grounds to develop a real friendship for marketing with them.

For a simple example, Nike was having a warehouse sale in 2 days. They wanted a lot of people to come and buy stuff.

Instead of advertising and telling youths about it, they gave YouthSays members an hour headstart before anyone else – like how a friend would get you into a club for free. We got 1,400+ RSVPs within 2 days and over 600 of them were reported to go.

For a larger example, we’ll look at replicating “Marketing with Youths” on a mass-level.

We’ll look at what went down in history as the largest youth festival ever held in Malaysia.

YOUTH’09.

Working with our community of youths enabled YOUTH’09 to attract 20 brands, 36,720 youths over for 100 activities in one weekend, packing both halls of PWTC.

It all began by realizing that

• Young people wanted to be part of something big
• There were multiple niche youth communities already organizing their own events and trying to get noticed.

ORGANIZING

We identified each leader of a hot niche and gave them a platform, support, and promotion to host and organize their own mini-festival. Like how dance crews organized their own series of dance activities and competition throughout the 3 days.

We replicated this across 30 youth community interests.

PROMOTION

So what we did was to ask our friends at YouthSays.com what was most relevant to them, and recruited 3,500 evangelists.

These evangelists were then given tools to promote YouthSays through social media and on ground.

• They were given a unique link and “free pre-event passes” to give to their friends. For every friend who signed up, they earned RM0.40
• They could form their own groups of friends who were going. 250 groups were created through a social media widget badge
• Anyone who wanted to go could meet each other and discuss. A discussion of up to 10,000 comments were facilitated in YouthSays.com
• We asked them to create their own Facebook events  featuring Youth’09, instead of trying to own our own. 15,000 invites sent through Facebook with 2,068 confirmed guests attending
• 1,812 Friendster.com members became fan of the event
• For everyone who signed up online, we recruited volunteers for flyer distribution. 100,000 flyers distributed by evangelists and volunteers around KL, 3 days before the event.

This resulted in more than 15,000 pre-event signups on our site. And 200 volunteers involved with managing the event.

All of this was good news to the brands who believed in the power of youths.

RESULTS

• 36,720 youths participated in over 100 activities – half of them were sponsored activities aligned with brand associations.
• 1,000 new signups on Celcom’s latest prepaid plan
• 5X targeted revenue achieved at Petronas Mesra popup store
• 2000 youths signed up for the Ministry of Youth and Sports membership program
• G-Shock was reintroduced to the dance community
• Over RM100,000 worth of products sold by youth traders
• 92 bands competed in Battle of the Bands, sponsored by Celcom
• 350 participants attended HSBC and Dutch Lady sponsored National Youth Entrepreneur Convention

Post Event:

• •400 blog write ups
• •50 YouTube videos generated

Ladies and gentlemen,

And for the 166 thousand young Malaysians on YouthSays, this is only going to be the beginning of what they can achieve when they flex the influence they have over all their friends, and the rest of the country.

To wrap things up, I’ll briefly run through how this “marketing with youths” model worked for other marketers.

Obama being the main one.

He started with an awesome value proposition, based on what the citizens of USA needed most at the time.

Change.

They didn’t have mass media budgets to splurge though.

So his strategy focused on giving very specific segments of people specific tools to reach out to their sphere of influence.

And they did. The rest, you can say, is history.

As for our side of the world…

We have 200 million youths.

It’s only going to get harder to market to them with a broken model of “Marketing TO them”

The next 5 years will have more social tools, more fragmentation, and rapidly evolving media consumption trends. Finding new tools, new ways or new technology to market TO them will be complicated.

Times like these, it’s a good idea to tap into the power of solid marketing fundamentals.

Whether you’re research, advertising, communication, awareness, engagement, activation, events, etc.

GET CLOSER TO THE CONSUMER.

Do your marketing with them instead.

THANK YOU

Slides will be on youthasia

Our co-founders, Joel Neoh and Khailee Ng  were selected to represent Malaysia in the One Young World, a global leadership summit for young leaders. The inaugural summit took place on Feb. 8-10, 2010, in London.

During the One Young World Summit, together with 1000 young pioneers from 192 countries, Joel and Khailee were guided, counselled, considered and voted on the One Young World resolutions. As decision makers of the future, they had plenary discussions about issues that are affecting and would eventually affect our world, such as global health, political leadership, interfaith dialogue, media, business and environment, were guided by the One Young World Counsellors.

These Counsellors include: Kofi Annan; Bob Geldof; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Oscar Morales – the Founder of One Million Voices against FARC; Nick Haysom – the Director of Politics at the United Nations; Tony Fernandes – Founder and CEO of Air Asia; Elio Leoni-Sceti – Global CEO of EMI; Richard Sambrook – CEO of BBC Global News; Carole Stone – Managing Director of YouGovStone; Muhammad Yunus – Nobel Peace Laureate; Alejandro Toledo – Former President of Peru; Dr. Santanu Das – Founder of TranSwitch Corporation; Martin Davidson – Chief Executive of the British Council; and Harald Ludwig – co-chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment. These Counsellors are leaders of global stature who are committed to giving One Young World delegates a platform of real and global importance.

In line with what Joel and Khailee are doing in Youth Asia and the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 in Malaysia, where they organized the participation of 500 youths from South East Asia, they were selected to participate for this One Young World for their leadership potentials and engagement in social works.

Watch this space for more stuff related to Youth Asia’s involvement in ONE Young World, coming up soon.

A few meetings. Then a letter.

Our co-founder Joel Neoh was amongst one of 20 appointed to join the Majlis Perundingan Belia Negara, or the National Youth Consultative Council for 2009-2010.

“Youths from various racial and career background have been appointed to the National Youth Consultative Council,” Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said.

The minister further said that the appointments were based on the 200 nominations made by youths. Forty candidates shortlisted were interviewed and 20 agreed to become his appointed members.

This was not a new body.

The council which had existed since 1971 was a forum for youth leaders to meet government leaders face-to-face to discuss policies, strategies, issues and approach to youth development programmes.

In 2007, the council was gazetted under the Youth Organisation and Development Act, making it a consultative body responsible for youth development.

For more information, head over to the official site.

Joel Neoh talks about his experiences in entrepreneurship

MyLDS was another activity of AIESEC in Malaysia which aims to provide an international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential for them to have a positive impact in society.

This six-day workshop brought together about 500 AIESECers and young people from universities and colleges from Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and India. The delegates aspired to be leaders and change agents for their societies. Some of the featured topics which stirred their emotions and interest were about HIV/AIDS, Entrepreneurship, and Environmental Sustainability.

Responsibilities:
We are looking for a managerial level person who has strong market research technical knowledge (both quantitative and qualitative experience required), yet versatile enough to quickly learn and eventually represent Youth Asia well for our other range of products (Campus event activation, social media marketing and youth festival).

· KPIs for this person are (1) sales (2) profit (3) excellent project delivery

· The personality traits of this person are (1) passionate about work (2) driven & result-oriented (3) strong ability to conceptualize a campaign based on clients expressed and derived needs (4) strong determination towards completion of task started (5) unwavering desire to deliver the best all the time (6) objective and fact-base (7) efficient (8) well-organized

· Other skills that are must-have are (1) proposal writing (2) selling and servicing (3) analytics, report writing & turning insights into solution (4) people management skills at all level, within function & cross function (5) presentation (6) project management (7) PnL understanding (8) command of English

· This person must be comfortable working in a start-up environment and perfectly aligned with the company’s vision to grow aggressively within and outside of Malaysia

Requirements:

* Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor’s Degree, Post Graduate Diploma, Professional Degree, or equivalent.
* Required language(s): English
* At least 5 year(s) of working experience in the related field is required for this position.
* Preferably Managers specializing in Market Research or equivalent.
* Full-Time positions available.

Our Executive Director Joel Neoh has been selected as a Supervisory Group Member of AIESEC!

On top of his (huge pile of) duties in Youth Asia, Joel now has something new on his plate: he will now oversee the overall organization and management of all AIESEC projects.

Watch this space for more exciting collaborations with AIESEC! :)

AIESEC is a global, non-political, independent and not-for-profit organization run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher learning. Its members are interested in world issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national, ethnic or social origin. It is the world’s largest student organization, an international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential so as to have a positive impact in society.