Every year Admerasia hosts an internship program for university students from Hongkong as part of its agreement with the Cross-Cultural Internship Program (CCIP).

University students from the CCIP program get hands-on work experience from Admerasia in New York.

The program’s mission is to promote cultural exchange and understanding between the United States and other parts of the world by opening the doors to a pool of talented overseas students to U.S-based companies as well as providing students with a glimpse of American approaches to business challenges, work culture, practices and nuances.

In the summer of 2010, Admerasia’s first batch of interns (more to follow) from Hongkong—Nok Ming (Jason) Cheung, Yuen Yan Leung, Cheung Wing Kay Ricky and Sheung Wan (Sharon) Cheung showed us how they are primed to become good marketers in the future.

Our interns were all business—and good presenters besides at 17 years of age. Yes, one of them is that young.

On their last day, they gave us thoughtfully written thank-you cards, certainly a lost art for many in this fabled city but one that teaches us also how different cultures have their own way of expressing their gratitude.

We are also grateful and we wish them all the best

In photo are: Nimesh Trivedi (in orange) of Client Services and Jie Liu (in blue), our IT guy with interns Jason, Sharon, Kinki and Ricky.

Contacts:
Tommy Ng, Admerasia
212-686-3333

Karen Lavariere-Sanchez, MassMutual
413-744-7660

NEW YORK, NY, June 8, 2010 —When collaboration works, it results in awards. In the case of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) and Admerasia, it proved to be a grand-slam victory at the recent 2010 Summit International Advertising Awards.

Admerasia, a leading Asian American advertising agency based in New York City, took home a record setting four awards based on the work it produced for MassMutual, the 158-year-old mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyholders. The Massachusetts-based financial company offers whole life insurance, annuities, retirement plans, disability income insurance and long term care insurance.

The following newspaper ads were awarded 2010 Summit International Awards in the Newspaper Advertising Campaign category: Gold for “Branding,” Silver for “Dividend,” Bronze for “Moon Festival,” and Bronze for “Recruitment.” To see the winning ads, visit massmutual.admerasia.com/2010summitawards/
“I congratulate the entire team of MassMutual for a job well done. What they have achieved for all categories, from the company and product campaigns to the recruitment ad, plus the Moon Festival campaign, amounts to a grand slam win,” said general manager Tommy Ng.

“Maintaining cultural relevancy in marketing communications and advertising is an absolute must,” said Chris Mendoza, assistant vice president of MassMutual’s Multicultural Market Development. “Based on feedback from consumers and our financial services professionals across the country, the ads are well received. Our work with Admerasia is based on consumer research and input from our producers to help make it the best that it can be,” Mendoza concluded.

Admerasia continues to integrate MassMutual’s logo into the insurer’s communication messages and various ethnic campaigns. The powerful visual treatment and messages that capture people in various important stages of their lives produce strong, culturally relevant messages that resonate with MassMutual’s customers.

Admerasia continues to distinguish itself with its record of creative and media excellence for many of its Fortune 500 clients, including Citibank, Nissan, P&G, Lowe’s and McDonald’s.

For more information about Admerasia, please contact Tommy Ng, general manager at tel. 212-686-3333, with offices at 159 West 25th Street 6/F, New York, NY 10001. Visit www.admerasia.com for more information. For more information about MassMutual and its advertising campaigns, visit www.massmutual.com/aboutmassmutual/saa/advertising

About MassMutual
Founded in 1851, MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyholders. The company has a long history of financial strength and strong performance, and although dividends are not guaranteed, MassMutual has paid dividends to eligible participating policyholders every year since the 1860s. With whole life insurance as its foundation, MassMutual provides products to help meet the financial needs of clients, such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance,retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities. In addition, the company’s strong and growing network of financial professionals helps clients make good financial decisions for the long-term.

MassMutual Financial Group is a marketing name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and its affiliated companies and sales representatives. MassMutual is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts and its major affiliates include: Babson Capital Management LLC; Baring Asset Management Limited; Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC; The First Mercantile Trust Company; MassMutual International LLC; MML Investors Services, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC; Oppenheimer Funds, Inc.; and The MassMutual Trust Company, FSB.

About Admerasia
Pioneering full-service Asian American advertising in 1994, Admerasia has since provided a constant flow of innovative ideas that has made it the best in its class. From building strong brand awareness to launching effective promotions, Admerasia’s rich history and enthusiastic adoption of the digital era translates into measurable results and inspiration for the industry. The agency’s success stems from not just knowing the market, but being the market as well. Admerasia’s ethnically diverse group of hothouse talents has consistently turned general-market brands into household names in the Asian American market. Creatively adopting cultural mores and languages is essential in communicating to a market that is both Asian and American. Through years of original thinking, Admerasia makes the multicultural world easier to reach, measuring success one client at a time. CRN201205-135272

You’ve heard the expression “culture shapes people’s minds?”

Admerasia, the leading Asian American advertising agency that provides integrated marketing solutions for Fortune 500 companies, took this concept to the extreme when it showcased its digital capabilities to its clients via a holiday greeting card. (Watch it here.)

The result is a digital card with the bodies of the Admerasia staff formed into the shape of “Happy 2010,” a holiday greeting from Admerasia to its roster of clients—Citibank, Infiniti, Lowe’s Home Improvement Store, MassMutual and Nissan, to name just a few.

Culture shapes people’s minds indeed. But in conveying this message, the Admerasia staff literally took the meaning to heart—and to shapes that also became a fun team-building effort.
“This digital holiday greeting card is for our clients, although it certainly gave us an excuse to fool around in our respective Asians neighborhoods,” says project leader Aileen Lao.

The staff claims the contorting part was easy. The hard part for them was actually the logistical aspect of the project—mobilizing inflexible bodies from near atrophy (rooted-to-the-desk-and-computer syndrome?), going to the assigned locations while watching their back for New York’s finest, and braving the chilliest of Decembers – that could rattle “Avatar’s” James Cameron out of his director’s chair. The last point is an exaggeration, of course.

The locations were all for real (not blue screen), of course. These are ethnic neighborhoods of the ad agency’s Asian American markets—the Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese, all at the Big Apple. Around the States, Asians now number 13 million and growing rapidly, further sustaining the agency’s niche business.

Admerasia is an early adopter of new marketing tools and technology since it was founded in 1993 as a full-service Asian American advertising agency. At the start of the millennium, for instance, it set the pace in digital advertising to the Asian American market, guiding E*TRADE with online advertising campaign and a ground-breaking Chinese micro site for its English-language website. Today, it has developed various digital projects with Citibank and Lowe’s.

Forming strategic partnerships with digital companies like Double Click and YouTube has also played a huge role in its business. Recently, Admerasia set a milestone when it initiated the development of a new online advertising system for targeting Chinese and Koreans in the U.S. through YouTube.

Admerasia continues to innovate for blue-chip clients such as Citibank, Foxwoods, Lowe’s and McDonald’s. While its digital greeting card is nothing like “Avatar,” for Admerasia, it’s the thought—digital, in this case–that counts.

Admerasia is located at 159 West 25th Street 6/F, New York, NY 10001, with tel. no. 212-686-3333 and fax no. 212-686-8998. Visit the admerasia.com for more information. — Dennis Clemente

Admerasia held its annual Christmas party at Trideci in Manhattan on Dec. 15, 2009.

Staff and dear friends had flowing drinks, games (drinking again) and raffles (with money involved, of course).

We all managed to come home in one piece. Nobody embarrassed themselves, if that’s what you want to know.