I know, my group could be the last group out of the eight to post about Project Trafford, a secret project initiated by our beloved Asia’s first blog advertising company, Nuffnang. After possibly reading 35 entries on Project Trafford, I am sure you have pretty much a good idea about what’s going on, but that’s not going to stop me from writing about it.

Introducing my group mates,

team leader #1, klubbkidd.blogdrive.com,

team leader #2, timothytiah.blogspot.com,

team member #1, joshuaongys.blogspot.com,

team member #2, bigboysoven.blogspot.com,

team member #3, hweiming.blogspot.com,

team member #4, goodboygonebad.com,

and last but not least, team member #5, myself.

To give us the extra edge, we even managed to get Hannah Tan as our guest member. Yes, the smoking hot Hannah Tan.

Looking at the list, there are seven guys and a girl, which makes the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs team!

The objective of Project Trafford is actually a collaboration between Nuffnang and Mister Potato to enlist the help of 40 bloggers to come up with eight different ideas on how to promote a certain contest and / or win the current on-going contest.

Generally, it would be the advertisers who would enlist professional marketing and advertising agencies to do the job or come up with a marketing plan. However, Nuffnang is able to persuade the people in Mister Potato to take the bold move and enlist the bloggers’ help to come up with new, great and fresh ideas to promote the current or even the upcoming contest. In other words, a marketing plan by customers, for customers and together with customers.

The contest, is to collect as many as possible red canister paper seals from 160g Mister Potato canister and / or empty packets of the 85g or 55g pack. The grand prize? A whopping 30 tickets to Old Trafford, stadium and home ground of the EPL 2007 / 2008 champion Manchester United, to be given away to the top 30 highest collectors. That prize itself is already worth RM15,000. To top if off, the top three would be walking home RM5,000 richer! Now, as far as I know, this could probably be the first contest to send their winners to an English football club home ground all the way in UK.

Now, stay tune to read our plans on how to win the 30 tickets as a group and promote Mister Potato products.

After one month, all 16 bloggers (except Jolene) gathered at Izzi K.L. again for the closing ceremony of the Samsung - Mobile World phone program. How time flies when you are having good times with the “free” phone. Everyone was early and punctual, but the event was late itself. It started with the obligatory speeches by the editor of Mobile World, Kash and also the representative from Samsung Mobile, Sam with the prize giving followed after.

As expected, I didn’t win, but I received a consolation prize for my our hard works. A Samsung Bluetooth Headset WEP200. Honestly, I don’t talk much on the phone and the headset isn’t that useful to me. I do have an idea who to give it to though.

Lydia Teh and phone lover Ng Jun Yan both walked away with the phones for the best posts. Jun Yan wrote freaking 29 posts in a span of 30 days to deserve himself the free phone. Vincent Chow bagged the phone as the site with most traffic (up to 2000 visitors per day), beating Muzaffar Shah. I was surprised, really. Ellie Chee won the phone under the category of most people the phone was shown to, with a figure of 190 people.

Long story cut short, we were then treated to a buffet and it was then, the bloggers cam-whoring session started. Credits go to the respective camera owners.

Of course, there are more pictures and details, which you can hop over to David Cheong’s, John Ling and Ellie Chee’s.

That aside, while I always see my own name in the papers, this is probably my first time seeing my own name in the latest issue (May) of Mobile World magazine as a blogger.

Again, I extend my sincere gratitude and thanks to the people in front and behind this Samsung Mobile - Mobile World phone program for giving me the opportunity and exposure. To the bloggers who participated, it is my pleasure to get to know you all and hopefully, we shall meet again.

Last but not least, one for the album.

The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off
The Outlook
The Specifications & Symbian Series 60
The 3.0 Mega Pixel Camera
The Summary

For the past two months, I actually met a few bloggers, which I didn’t blog about as what we did was just another day in Malacca. Same old place, same old food, same old picture but with different people.

Robin Wong of robinwong.blogspot.com. Read his side of story by clicking here.

Tho Xin Yi of a random blog. Technically speaking, I knew her as my colleague first, before knowing that she blogs too.

Mochii of michystudio.blogspot.com. Read her side of story by clicking here.

Rachel of roym1002.blogspot.com. Read her side of story by clicking here.

Pelf Yeen of pelfychen.com. I call her Mei Mei, which I got to know during the last Spirit of Penang.

I sure hope I didn’t miss out anyone.

It was late evening when I came back from class and received an email from the editor, Kashminder Singh of Mobile World, informing that I was one of the 16 bloggers invited by Mobile World and Samsung Mobile to take part in their phone program.

I should have taken the picture when I first got the bag. Now, the picture looks so crumpled up. My bad.

The 16 bloggers are Jazlin Ernida, Muhammad Norizwan, David Cheong, Abner Lim, John Ling, Ng Jun Yan, Praveen, Visithra, Amy Lai, Kugan, Muzaffar Mustapa, Vincent Chow, Ellie Chee, Jolene, Lydia Teh and myself.

Group photo contributed by Jolene.

Looking at the names, I only know Jolene personally, saw the name Lydia Teh somewhere before, realized Muzaffar Mustapa is Nuffnang’s August Featured Blogger and read a few David’s (Royal Shortness) pings at Project Petaling Street. As for the rest, I didn’t know their existence until the event. Shame of myself, really.

Correct me if I am wrong, most of the bloggers in the list don’t ping PPS and probably are not that active in the blogging community / scene. It wouldn’t be very offensive if I assume that we are the lesser known bloggers (except for a few ones, of course) compared to the mainstream celebrity bloggers in Malaysia, right? Some of the bloggers are even just a few months old, I mean, their blogs.

Now, that being said, I am truly grateful that Mobile World and Samsung Mobile actually dared to be bold and had the courage to select us instead of the more well known and established bloggers. Seriously, all these while, it was the already famous one gets even more famous and the less popular ones continue to envy them. Hence, kudos to the organizers for taking the road less taken and hopefully, with this bold move, others would follow suit and give all bloggers in the community a chance to experience something out of the blue.

We would be loaned either a Samsung SGH-i450 or Samsung SGH-i550 for a month to abuse use and blog about it, with no strings attached. To top it off, negative comments about the phone are allowed (Probably, not recommended, I think.). Obviously, I got the SGH-i550.

The kick off event was held at Izzi Kuala Lumpur, where we would meet the teams from both Mobile World and Samsung Mobile and also the other bloggers. Of course, there are the usual speeches by the management people of Mobile World and Samsung Mobile before proceeding with a briefing session about the phone. On going are three competitions, best post, highest traffic and most people the phone was showed to. I doubt I would win any, so, I shall not elaborate on it. Looking at the pictures, I think its time for me to seriously consider to get an external flash for my camera. Bad pictures.

We were given a goodies bag as well. Two magazines, a round shaped (Yes, round!) playing cards, a DVD and some funky items.

I didn’t pay attention to the CD case at first, thinking it would be some promotion CDs with less useful informations inside. However, upon taking a closer look, its freaking Beyonce’s B’Day Deluxe Edition DVD!

Now, I am a rather huge Beyonce fan and I have always wanted to buy this DVD but was reluctant to do so because of the price. Man, this is just so OMG! Well, not surprising as Beyonce was the ambassador for one of their mobile phones. Now, for the people at Samsung Mobile, I wonder you guys can give me her posters. Oh please? Haha!

Well, that was it, about the kick off event. There will be multiple posts about the phone itself in the upcoming weeks. Of course, there will be my usual food / life posts, if I have any which currently, I don’t. So, stay tune!

P/S : To get awesome prices on prepaid cell phones, the net can be a good source of information. A cell phone company usually has a lot of various phones and plans to pick from, so read very carefully before you sign up for wireless plans or contacts!