FHM Girl Next Door 2013 Finale Party

[Event]

Some of you might remember that I used to work with FHM Malaysia under two (2) different companies namely Mediacorp Publishing and MEASAT Publications (which has now been renamed to Astro Publications).

During my tenure with FHM Malaysia there was one (1) campaign that I always looked forward to managing and that was the FHM Girl Next Door search.

Ok a little history lesson here:

The FHM Girl Next Door Search evolved from the FHM College Girl Search which was held back in 2005. The first FHM Girl Next Door Search was held in 2006 with roadshows and parties after which the following year’s search was done purely in the magazine due to some budget constraints (I hadn’t joined FHM yet).

When I joined FHM Malaysia in 2008 it was too late to do a FHM Girl Next Door 2008 Search thus we decided to skip a year and do a 2009 search instead. It was very much an exciting time for me as the campaign involved on-ground recruitment in shopping malls and clubs (woo hoo!), visits to partners, radio stations, right up to the finale party and then an after-party! The winner for the 2009 search was medical graduate Jezamine Lim who eventually ended up marrying renowned local funny man Harith Iskandar who actually came to the finals to support her!

In the 2010 search, the magazine had changed hands to MEASAT Publications (under Astro) and I followed the magazine over. This time with MEASAT we had more options available as the resources of the group – Astro TV, AMP radio stations and even the digital arm were available to leverage on thus the search gained even more prominence than previous years.

Now a certain ‘founder’ of a very notorious online banner advertising agency whom I will not name has on numerous occasions claimed to have made finalist Yvonne Sim the winner but I can assure you that what he claims is very far from the truth. This certain ‘founder’ had not influence whatsoever on the decision and the FHM Malaysia team ensured that the scores were accurate and unbiased and we even enlisted the help of our finance department to assist with the tabulation.

Yes Yvonne Sim won entirely on her own merit through a combined score tabulated from live judging at the finals and reader votes and that’s how I like to see things done in Malaysia. Meritocracy NOT cronyism and corruption should be the determining factor whether in a girl search, recruitment for jobs, awards for scholarships, or supplier contracts. Race, religion, and politics should not have any influence (sorry to digress).

I was not a part of the 2011 search where the lanky Esther Tan won as I had left MEASAT Publications to pursue my career elsewhere but I was very happy to be invited as a VIP guest together with my bloggers from Malaysia’s Hottest Bloggers for the FHM Girl Next Door 2013 Finale Party that was held in Zouk Club KL on 31 January 2013.