Business
Pornthip Phuket packaging takes to world stage

PHUKET: Pornthip (Phuket) Co Ltd, the island’s most recognized food-gift brand, submitted two of its award-winning products to contest in the AsiaStar Awards 2011, also known as the “Packaging Oscars of Asia”.
Having recently achieved national recognition at the ThaiStar Packaging Awards 2011, Pornthip’s Andaman and Sino-Portuguese gift sets will now join the regional ranks along with 54 other submissions in the Consumer Package category.
Winning will not be a piece of cake, as submissions include only national level design award recipients from all over the Asia-Pacific region – the cream of the crop in Asia production.
Nonetheless, Marketing Manager at Pornthip, Nuthaya Krakoljanad, told the Phuket Gazette she remains hopeful.
Launched for Phuket’s tourism markets in November 2010, Miss Nuthaya described the Sino-Portuguese and Andaman gift sets as collectible, cardboard, food gift boxes that contain a variety of local snacks and sweets or kanom.
The Sino-Portuguese set features a collection of model replicas of some of Phuket Town’s most famous historical buildings including the Phuket Thai Hua Museum, the City Clock Tower, Ang Mo Laow house, the Phuket Mine Museum and other antique architectural heritages around Dibuk Road, Thalang Road and Soi Romanee.
“The idea was to create a package worth keeping and at the same time remind and inform tourists about Phuket’s heritage. We chose cardboard so as to not add to the plastic trash problem. Even if the packages are thrown out, they can degrade easily, ” she explained.
Appealing to animal lovers is the Andaman Gift Set: a collection of 12 sea creature character-box packages for dried seafood, fruits, cashew nuts and other local preserved and processed snack items.
While the Sino-Portuguese packages serve mainly as collectible items, Miss Nuthaya explained that the Andaman (character) packages were designed with ‘reuse’ in mind, noting that the boxes can be used by children as coin banks or for keeping pencils and markers.
Though the idea and concept of the packages were the brainchildren of Pornthip Chairman Wirawat Piamwiwattiku, Miss Nuthaya confirmed that the actual designs were produced by Kamonthip Utarwuthipong and Nuntachai Santadkarn of Design Sense Ltd Part, a Bangkok-based design and branding consultancy.
Miss Nuthaya pointed out that the products were designed exclusively for the souvenir and food gift market, and not for export due to many of the snacks having a shelf life of less than six months.
She noted that in addition to the ThaiStar award, the Sino-Portuguese package design has also won two other design awards this year.
In October, it was the recipient of the Good Design Award (G Mark) in Japan and was one of 13 recipients of the “Design Excellence Award” (DEmark) at this year’s Prime Minister’s Export Awards held in Bangkok in September, which also includes categories that are for products not being exported.
As for the upcoming AsiaStar 2011 awards, which also includes submissions in categories for packaging designs for transport (13 entries), ecology (7 entries) and by students (42 entries), Miss Nuthaya is hopeful that Pornthip will do well when the entries are judged on January 11, 2012, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
— Steven Layne
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Business
Governments & old media versus social media – who will win? | VIDEO

We look at the recent changes made by the Australian and Indian governments to except control over the world’s biggest social media platforms. India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social. There is now an open battle between the rise of social media platforms and the governments and ‘old’ media that have been able to maintain a certain level of control over the ‘message’ for the last century. Who will win?
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told. The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
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Business
The social media giants in battle with ‘old’ media and world governments | VIDEO

“The rules signal greater willingness by countries around the world to rein in big tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter that the governments fear have become too powerful with little accountability.”
India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social.
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The companies are also being made to publish a compliance report each month with details about how many complaints they’ve received and the action they took.
They’ll also be required to remove ‘some’ types of content including “full or partial nudity,” any “sexual act” or “impersonations including morphed images”
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told.
The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.
Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.
Business
Turbulence ahead for Thailand’s aviation industry | VIDEO

When the airlines, in particular, were asking the government to put their hands in their pockets for some relief funding in August last year, it was genuinely thought that international tourists would be coming back for the high season in December and January. At the very least local tourists and expats would head back to the skies over the traditional holiday break. And surely the Chinese would be back for Chinese New Year?
As we know now, none of that happened. A resurge in cases started just south of Bangkok on December 20 last year, just before Christmas, kicking off another round of restrictions, pretty much killing off any possibility of a high season ‘bump’ for the tourist industry. Airlines slashed flights from their schedule, and hotels, which had dusted off their reception desks for the surge of tourists, shut their doors again.
Domestically, the hotel business saw 6 million room nights in the government’s latest stimulus campaign fully redeemed. But the air ticket quota of 2 million seats still has over 1.3 million seats unused. Local tourists mostly skipped flights and opted for destinations within driving distance of their homes.
As for international tourism… well that still seems months or years away, even now.
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