The email came in just as I had stepped out of the ad agency, and was enroute to a meeting with the client. It was Thursday, and I was in the thick of prepping for a TVC shoot two days away.

The email was from a PR firm, asking if I’d like to be part of a blogger campaign for a product by one of its clients, a relatively major name in consumer electronics. The campaign called for me to take photographs with this new product, which was enough to pique my interest way more than the time I was asked to participate in another campaign (Philips’ home entertainment system) of which I had no interest in and thus politely declined. After I was reassured that I would get to retain the copyright of the photographs, I said yes.

I went for the briefing yesterday. At 6:45 PM, I was handed the product. The folks from XPR, the PR firm behind the campaign, took great delight in reminding the ten of us that we are the first persons in Asia, ahead of even media folks, to get our hands on this gadget.

“It’s so new the sets you are now holding were shipped directly from the factory,” said the representative from the client office, beaming as he did so. One of the PR folks chimed in.

“Oh, you get to keep the product, of course,” he said, almost casually. “It’s our way of thanking you for your participation.”

Neat. I wasn’t expecting that.

An hour later, I left the briefing the chuffed new owner of a LG Viewty Smart GC900 camera phone. Thanks, guys!

Viewty Smart(LG-GC900)_(1)[20090418182216412]_crop

In the next two weeks, I will be putting this camera phone through the paces as part of the “LG’s ‘Life is Viewty-ful’ Photoblogger Campaign”. At the end of the two weeks, my photographs may be selected to go up in LG’s booth during CommunicAsia 2009 from 16-19 June 2009.

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