The big news this fall is that Plus Factory has now opened their 2nd overseas office in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). PF VN, as we are calling the new office, will compliment PF China as an additional ‘backend’ production office for our North American based Clientele.

Vietnam is a booming country, and HCMC is one of its major cities. The city center is situated on the banks of the Saigon River. The metropolitan area is populated by more than 9 million people, making it the most populous metropolitan area in Vietnam. And with its growth, Vietnam has produced a great wealth of talented digital individuals which PF VN plans to recruit, train and bring online.

We have chosen our first office location close to Lam Son Square (District 1), which is in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, and is within walking distance of the main tourist attractions, restaurants and parks.

Plan to look ahead to more news about PF VN and other big news coming from Plus Factory.

New Skyline of HCMC

Our office by Lam Son Square

Our Receptionist

Stan - Office Manager

Stan's Office - But thats not Stan

Open area of the office

Conference Room

Growing up in a Toyota, I have to admit… I live, breath and die Toyota. There are very fond memories of my family riding the forest green Camry on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to either my parents job or the local Pathmark. But the minute news struck about Toyota’s recall, I immediately went to the boards to see what was going on.

How did Toyota handle the spread of concern and feedback on the web? The story goes back to the history and culture of Toyota.

This wasn’t magic that poofed into the air to make the recall mess go away. It was over decades of brand building, focus on quality and customer relationships that made the recall less off a threat and more of an opportunity to showcase their strengths. Their ability to respond to the recall put them ahead of the mess rather than behind it. Toyota’s secret to success has always been to deliver what they promised from the start; quality and a continual emphasis on customer service.

Their will to put the safety of the public first became the reason why the recall did not have as much as a negative impact as it could have. The company followed up such measures with a Twitter account to address the issue, offering Q/A sessions to the users of Digg for the CEO and the other, endless efforts to be upfront and personal. In the end, transparency is the name of the game. The string of humorous commercials promoting their minivan line has also proven to move away from the recall and bring an uplifting feel to the situation. In all honesty, it works.

Last month, Toyota reported that it recovered its sales and increased profits based off the previous quarter.

Take a look at the viral video below. The video echoes brand recognition, a sense of “they get it” allure, promotes their high quality product and offers some comic relief. It has a great share appeal, too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4&feature=player_embedded

Now, lets go get our Swagger Wagon.

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100507/toyota-cracks-the-viral-video-code-heres-your-swagger-wagon/

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/02/09/reasons-why-toyota-will-recover-quickly-from-the-recall-mess/

Welcome our newest member to the Plus Factory team, Christine. Christine is a new member to the elite Plus Factory Project Management team. She will be running multiple programs for our clients especially the cool mobile work that we are getting more and more involved with.

Before joining Plus Factory, Christine was an PM for a major e-commerce company, working with developers and getting involved with SEO for products that the company sells (SEO is very big in the e-com world). Her experience in SEO will bring added benefits to our current roster of Clients.

So if you hear her name, say hi, she’s friendly, energetic and eager to work on your projects.

So the Munny Exhibit on 5/15/2010 was a smashing success! Many people came, and the Kid Robot Mummy dolls were a huge hit with the audience and the charity auction. The Plus Factory team were able to go in person and check out the Kid Robot’s. Also while we were at play, we still were working (as is the Plus Factory motto), and the Munny Exhibit site was going into post-event launch, with new sections opening up on the website.

Come to the website, http://www.munnyexhibit.com, to check out each industrial designed Munny doll from the exhibit, plus photo feeds from the event, video feeds (including the infamous BlimpCam), and see the live tweets that came in about the Munny Exhibit. Lots of fun stuff to check out.

We are proud to welcome to the Plus Factory fold, Fred. Fred and I go way back to the 90′s, where we worked on Coca-Cola at McCann (animated gifs at 30k, remember those things?). Fred was a Sr. Flash Developer in those days, when Flash was still owned by Macromedia.

After many years of working together and launching successful online campaigns for Coca-Cola, Fred decided to go another path in his career. That path took him to the world of 3D, After-Effects and post-production. Fred was a 3D animator for shows on Discovery and the History Channel. After spending most of the last decade mastering his skills in post-production, Fred now wants to combine his ninja skills in in post with Adobe Flash circa 2010.

So Fred has come abroad Plus Factory as our 3D/Motion Graphics/Flash guru. He is already fully engaged on numerous projects with our clients utilizing his skills. So if you need Papervision, 3D, motion graphics, green-screening video, etc, you know where to get it. At the Factory.

So as we discussed in the beginning of the year, expansion is a big story for Plus Factory in 2010. One of the biggest chapters in our existence just happened today, with the launch of Plus Factory onto the west coast (specifically LA).

Plus Factory is proud to announce the joining of Jamie Ashe as Director of New Business. Her job is to spread the special magic and joy that Plus Factory currently offers to potential new clients on the west coast. It seems that the timing is right, and the market is ripe for the Factory to come in and help out.

Jamie will be the 1st step in a gradual process of Plus Factory opening up a full service LA office. She comes from a long and successful career in interactive creative and media. She previously held executive positions at organizations like AOL, ValueClick and Medium 21. Now she is going to bring her full mojo media and new business magic to the Factory. Jamie specializes in ‘Hybrid’ media marketing programs, offering clients not just the creative/production/technology that a Plus Factory can offer but also the media and media drivers that make these programs a huge success.

We will talk more about the new services/offerings of the Plus Factory in later posts. For now, if you want to contact Jamie, please reach out to her at jamie@plusfactory.com.

What happened to Mehmet before he had his baby? Watch and see.