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	So I made it to day two, extremely sleep deprived, but curious about what the buzzwords will be for the day. Promising start with Andy Berlin differentiating United as "Voluntarily United group of creative companies", as opposed to the rest of the holding company types. Even if it was deliberately staged, the tune of collaboration is more pleasing to the ears when sung by voices of different accents with exotic sounding agency names like La Negra United and 1861 United in Milan. I like how their entire strategic philosophy was reduced into one word - Cool...simply "there's something cool about every brand", and agency's job is to define what's cool and take it very seriously. Perhaps the power of cool is best exemplified in the marketing success to the tune of US4.1 billion that Coca-Cola paid for Vitamin water. Rapper 50 Cent's not just appeared in the advertising, but also owns some of the company. I wonder if they had a PBR on that client? All in all, a promising start to the day with little BS, lots of hunger and entrepreneurial drive. As we get shipped off to DraftFCB, with some sniggering and gracious agreement not to bring up Walmart, Howard Draft felt compelled to get that out of the way early in the meeting. Look, some of us in Asia expect more than expensive sushi and fast cars as part of prospect servicing so let's cut them some slack. Eager to prove its creativity, the entire presentation was a Joan Miro-inspired graphic representation of the new DraftFCB approach. The highlight for me was really the passionate German chief intelligence officer, Michael Fassnacht..if you could have those two words in one sentence. Truly, if DraftFCB can replicate its passion for accountability and creativity in that 30 minutes in every new business meeting, I don't see how a prospect won't yield to their ROI (Return On Ideas) proposition. Check out their Kmart and Toyota Auris (Johannesburg) cases for starters. But it did take them a year for North America, jury is still out for the rest of the world. Heading straight into more digital mumbo jumbo, we powered on to a roundtable discussion with digital agencies Sapient, R/GA and Avenue A/Razorfish on digital agency pitch challenges. General consensus is that not enough clients understand how to connect with consumers in the digital age. Excluding leading advertisers like Nike and Apple, digital agencies are sitting at the kids table, not the CMO table. By now, we're hoping Maurice will not just talk about digital... even though allegedly, he started out in the computer department. With no Powerpoint, Levy was determined to convince us of the "human behind technology" and the raison d’etre of Publicis being the consumer, not the client. With a huge dose of humility and passion, his account of Publicis Groupe's digital prowess was made more compelling with facts such as having double the market average revenue contribution from interactive, and cutting edge projects such as swym.com and blogbang... In one word, Levy was charming and graceful, no wonder he acquires with lower multiples. Last but not least, the Richard Pinder and Olivier Fleurot show, which convince most of us that they have the most dynamic and energized management team..so far. It is certainly the only agency with an APAC representative with chief creative officer Calvin Soh speaking on behalf of 3 billion consumers in the region. With pedigree creative hotshots from Fallon, Kirshenbaum+partners and Wieden, it is clear Publicis has its focus on raising the creativity bar, and if the recent global Citibank work is an early indication, we may be looking at an agency headed in the right direction. At least Steve Jobs think so, we're thrilled with another agency credentials in an iPod. Goh Shu Fen is principal and co-founder of R3 Asia Pacific		4:48am - Mr Melatonin, you still suck 5:48am - Wake up again to NYC wildlife, rumbling of meat packing trucks 7:20am - Video skype with kids 9:35am - Andy Berlin shares lowdown on WPP United 10:15am - The "I want to be 50 Cent" moment 11:05am - Jump into a different type of stretch limousine..aka bus to DraftFCB 11:38am - Disappointed that there's no sushi...Howard Draft explains why DraftFCB is a new breed agency 3:15pm - Digital agency or agency in the digital age? 4:30pm - Half tortoise postures, re-energise 5:18pm - Powder my nose, pose for photo with Maurice Levy 7pm - Everything still sounds charming in French English 7:33pm - Richard Pinder and Olivier Fleurot double talk 9:10pm - Another fashionable roof top dinner, no foie gras though

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