Comedians are already on to the Dubai case. One compares Dubai with a juvenile Monopoly player who buys up everything on the board and then goes bust. Abu Dhabi is the smug player who waits it out and then says: “Erm … I think I’ll have your hotels … and your planes.” It has long be [...]

Tallest building – Burj Dubai; 818 meters Largest Mall – Dubai Mall; 12 million sq ft Most expensive party – Atlantis launch, $20 million 2nd Tallest Hotel – Burj Al Arab; 321 meters Bigger man-made Island – Palm Jumeirah; 5 x 5 km Biggest Indoor Ski Slope Biggest drop in property value – expected to [...]

Dubai World, the largest corporate entity of Dubai, is under a mountain of debt so heavy ($59 billion to be precise)  that it has announced a 6-month standstill on its loan payments and the appointment of Deloitte LLP to restructure the group.  Instead of ‘transformative, diverse, pioneering’, words that will now be forever associated with the [...]

Saab, a quirky little car with lots of personality, has not been able to find a Chinese or Indian savior for its brand or the company (unlike its bigger Swedish rival Volvo).  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574555703312066522.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us Have you seen anyone one driving a new Saab lately? Most friends I know who own Saabs bought theirs in the 1990s.  There [...]

Three years ago, we stayed in a Tree House Hotel in Oregon http://www.treehouses.com/treehouse/treesort/prclst.html. But that unique experience doesn’t even come close to the latest invention from France – a Hamster Hotel.  You not only sleep like a hamster, but you could eat and dress like one as well as shown in the picture below. I wonder, how [...]

PPR Group, the holding company behind luxury and mass market brands such as Gucci, YSL, and Puma, plans to exit the less lucrative and much more localized retail business in France. The proceeds from the sale will likely feud acquisitions of more mass market brands along the lines of Puma.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574554194085237158.html PPR’s plan demonstrates once again [...]

Josh Goh, Director of Corporate Services at GMP, shared insights on brand building and viral marketing at BrandHub’s 5th BrandXchange last Thursday at  the Screening Room. GMP’s highly creative Raffles Ghost campaign won a Grand Prix at the Singapore Effies Award last year. A key take away –  if the viral campaign doesn’t spread like a [...]

What will Americans read, buy, think, vote without Oprah?  Check out the super power of ‘O’: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-oprah-winfrey-powers-pictures,0,3849989.photogallery

Mr. Hardy, the renowned tattoo artist, has become so successful as a brand that criminals online and offline are producing and selling fake products under his brand name.   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/us/13sftattoo.html?pagewanted=1&hpw Will the fake products and over exposure by the likes of Jon Gosselin damage the coolness factor associated with his brand?

Megan Fox, the mini Angelina Jolie with the not so good acting, shows her true colors and how she manipulates the media and expertly plays the fame game.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33917306/ns/entertainment-access_hollywood/ As Megan has expertly demonstrated, if you want sound bites, be controversial, be outrageous.