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Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Yes, Akiko can...

Sesame Street according to Bangladesh

I love our June speaker.  I do.  She's my wife.  And she was talking about Sesame Street.  Who doesn't love Sesame Street, right?

But I also love what she had to say because it is so intrinsic to all creative industries.  Bill Bernbach (a famous, old ad guy if you're into that kind of thing) once said, "It's not just what you say that stirs people.  It's the way you say it."  Using her experience on Sesame Street to illustrate the effectiveness of engaging audiences, we learned the power of entertaining and engaging your audience.  Akiko compared it to hiding vegetables in something yummy in order to get your kids to eat healthy.  Sesame Street uses modeling, repetition, and humour to ensure that kids got a solid dose of learning with their laughter. 

Does it work?  Does it ever.  Today Sesame Street can be seen in more than 140 countries with more than 120 million viewers around the world.  In twenty countries, a local version has been created.  By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was the fifteenth-highest rated children's television show in the United States.

She also gave us a behind the scenes peek at the level of effort and detail invested in ensuring kids were drawn into this world of edutainment.  We learned about little things like making sure puppets always looked directly at the viewer and not off camera to "eye tests" where the focal point of young viewers was measured.

And Sesame Street isn't without its own controversy as they tackle tough subjects such as introducing Kami to their South Africa production, the first HIV positive muppet.  Akiko used this point to illustrate the value of locally relevant content.  I was very surprised to learn locally produced versions of Sesame had a higher level of engagement than dubbed US versions due to relatable and recognizable characters.

Just one of the thousands of
pieces of Sesame Street branded
merchandise available around the world

I'm certainly going to take a lesson from Sesame Street's mantra, "If you can't reach them, you can't teach them."

-George

Meet our June speaker Akiko Yabuki

Akiko Yabuki

Akiko Yabuki is a former global producer for Sesame Street, overseeing their co-productions in Turkey and Bangladesh.  She has also worked with Fuji TV in New York City. Today she is in Vietnam trying to launch edu-tainment to help a generation find education through entertainment.

Akiko is going to talk about why engaging your audience is key to getting your message across and how that has helped Sesame to become the effective education machine that it is.

Don't miss out this coming Friday!

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Saigon Creative has a logo, courtesy of TBWA Vietnam  and we have opened up registration for our June event.

Please sign up and reserve your ticket now http://saigoncreativejune.eventbrite.com

Big thanks to Sophie Paris for hosting us again and providing a lucky draw gift!

Let's talk about fashion

Gen Lehn introducing.

That's what we did. We got the inside scoop. A journey of tales. Starting in Milan, where we learned that fresh graduates are being picked up by the fashion houses on next to nothing wages. 

€200-400 a month and a one year contract. Renegotiable upon end of year. Except that the contract will not be renewed and another fresh student will take that spot as well as having to find a part time job to sustain a life in the city. 

By life, it means food and shelter for most of your time will be spent working.

All the glamourous images and smokescreens came tumbling down. Being a fashion designer is not glamourous at all. 

Hard work and true love and almost an obsession for fashion will take you further down fashion street, anyone else will get lost and have to find another path to walk on.

Very brutal. Very competitive. A business. A money making business. Money. It's all about the money.

Graduates are leaving with ideas of how they want to change the world with their designs. We all have been there, young and naive and then we met the established system. 

Some can make it work by being a rebel, by being different, but they don't sell well. Success is measured in sales. 

Creativity within defined key elements based on the heritage of the brand. All brands change slowly and use their old designs for reference and modify them, but hardly will they do an all over re-design. Too much at stake. Nobody wants to lose sales and earnings and for prices, prices are set based on the perception of the brand value. 

For example, a €900 garment at wholesale price, will most likely retail at €1800, and cost only €30 to produce. You pay for your brand experience.

We learned about the trade shows, their mood booths and future trends. Everything you see is two years ahead. 

We learned about a job title has many positions baked into to it. People are expected to help and get the job done. Such as when you are prototyping and your fashion show is only a few weeks ahead and your boss decides to scrap everything for a new vision and your staffs are hiding because of the scream they heard when the news broke.

2-3 hours sleep on average per night in the run up to fashion week. Having a show and the garments are still not ready. Getting the receptionist and the cleaners to help getting button holes done on time. Sewing decor elements directly onto the model the minute before stepping out on the catwalk and having to tear it all after the show.

Photographers photographing every piece of the collection on the day of the show, delivering images and the printers are working overnight to produce the look book that is delivered to all the buyers on the morning after the show.

While you are selling your current collection and dealing with buyers, you are researching and producing your next collection, the cycle never stops and Gen is traveling onwards, still in love with fashion, just like her heros, such as Jean Paul Gaultier: "I live fashion. I breathe fashion. I am fashion. Fashion is my passion.

What is fashion?

Gen showing some of her designs.

Audiences discussing.

Thank you Gen for your inspirational speech!

Our lucky draw winner! Big thanks to Sophie Paris!

The third time's lucky proved correct this time. Two previous names were not present and the third was. So please not only sign up, please attend, you never know what you are missing out on! See you next time!

Saigon Creative May Speaker: Gen Lehn

Gen Lehn

Every journey starts with a single step and looking at Gen Lehn's achievements, we can all see that she's been traveling far indeed. Gen Lehn was born in Hungary from a German aristocrat mother and a Hungarian father. Her family was the owner of Central Europe’s biggest beer factory but her passion was, and still is, in fashion and beauty.

Fashion brought Gen to Italy and after graduating in Milan, Gen participated in several competitions, including Lineapelle, an annual fashion fair held in Bologna, where over 40.000 fashion professionals/buyers selected Gen’s work as the best new-comer design.

Inspired by the response, Gen then started to work for prestigious labels, such as Versus, Elio Fiorucci and Luisa Beccaria. Preparing collections for Milan fashion week and directly handling buyers from the US, including Neiman Marcus.

Her love for Asia and Asian culture brought her to Vietnam some 5 years ago where she first started as Head of Fashion in the largest media group in Vietnam, Sun Flower Media. 

More recently Gen was running a fashion label called: Lacoll. Lacoll is present in Japan Fashion Week and sponsors events such as: Viva Music Awards (Europe) and Miss Asia Europe. 

Currently, her latest step forward, took her to the position of General Director of Luxasia, Asia’s premier luxury distribution. 

Many steps and many stories to tell. Come and hear it all at Saigon Creative's event, Friday morning. See you there!

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Get ready and sign up for Saigon Creative's May event

There have been quite a few changes since our April event, we have changed our name, our blog and we have acquired a new location sponsor, Sophie Paris Vietnam.

The new venue will be able to host 40 people +, so please help spread the word.

Our May speaker is an exclusive, from the fashion industry and more details will be posted shortly.

We will have a lucky drawn with gifts from our sponsors!

Sign up below and see you all Friday!

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