14th of February 2007 – a date of significance.

Not because I had a hot date on Valentine’s Day sipping classic wine in a French restaurant in the highest floor of Hotel Maya overlooking the Petronas Twin Towers. Neither because I receive a love letter by Anonymous via a pudgy little white pigeon when I was contemplating and looking out of the window staring at blank white walls of my neighbour’s house.

It was actually the day where my very first real-life marketing campaign saw its effectiveness, at least in the eyes of Mr. Aaron Lo.

To enlighten those who flash the big question mark at the thinking bubble/cloud behind them, 14^th of February 2007 was actually a theme day at my college, or in other words, a day where people dress up in accordance with a designated theme.

It was Pink and Red day on Valentine’s Day (still wondering how and why love is associated with pink and red).

The idea is to have everyone to dress up in either a pink or a red shirt. As a member of the Student’s Council, I volunteered myself to do a poster marketing campaign for this event, since I felt utterly uncomfortable not being busy.

And viola! This is the advertisement that I created. (And was pasted around college; See the two pictures below)

In brief (I could explain this in a two pages Microsoft Word document bearing the font size of “6” couple with the mundane font of “Times New Roman”), the idea is to show that there are indeed many ways of showing love (as shown in the top of the ad with the words “ways of showing love # 465; “465” is just a arbitrarily generated number to depict the sheer amount of ways to show love), but some can be expensive (that is what the platinum diamond ring and its price tag are for).

Thereafter, I conveyed the intended message, telling my targeted audience that a less expensive way of showing love is to wear a pink and/or red shirt, which I presume many already had at least one and that there is absolutely no necessity for them to fork out that extra money to get one. Hence, the “inexpensive exhibition of love” concept aimed at appealing to and in line with the reasoning and emotional side of my targeted audience.

Apart from that, one thing that I created without any “hidden agenda” was a logo for CIMP Theme Days at the bottom right of the ad. I am contemplating using the same logo for any future theme day’s advertisement. Indirectly, I’ve created a logo or a sense of identity for the student’s council that is bound to be pass on from generations to generations, and I am the one receiving all the credits and a ticket to the Hall of Fame. Wahahahaha – Not!

Initially, the plan was to have other expensive ways of showing love appearing on another ad, to bring out a few different but still integrated advertisements. Example: Ways of showing love #263, with a bouquet of roses with the price tag of US$ 99; or Ways of showing love # 784, with a Malaysia Airlines ticket for two to Maldives costing US$ 699 each. You know what I mean?

Alas and alack, time is scarce (I have said this plenty of times).

Nevertheless, I was quite please about the favourable response received when I first unveil the advertisement (I try to be as oblivious to unfavourable response as possible, though I have yet to receive any). Miss Ford, the Student’s Council teacher advisor gave me a thumbs up with an utterance of two words, “Very nice!” while my close friend Jeremy Gan said it sucks when I send it to him via MSN Messenger. A while later I notice the violation of my intellectual property rights when I see my ad on his blog with all that florid words depicting a favourable response to my ad. (The word is hypocrisy.)

On Valentine’s Day, many dressed up in pink or red, and that alone brought me much satisfaction and eagerness to come up with greater and more effective marketing campaigns and advertisements.

Anyway, the A Level’s Committee (some organization bearing some functional resemblance to Student’s Council) came up with a similar “wear pink/red” message few days later. You have to guess who is the copycat. Take a look:

I think I prefer mine…