Well after much pushing and shoving, finally our group (nickname BUMP for Bloggers United for Mr. Potato) has come up with a unique idea to win the Mr Potato contest. We’ve named our strategy OPS Kentang (you know like how our cops always use this codename for their operation like OPS Rempit, OPS Botak, etc).

First, let me bring you up to speed regarding this contest. In case you didn’t know, Mr. Potato is sending 30 lucky Malaysians to a tour of Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, its museum and also to catch a live game!

How much it is worth? It’s RM15,000 each! If you’ve been supporting Manchester Utd all your life I’m sure you’re having orgasm right now. Well you have to control yourself as you still need to know how you can win this and join my group to fly there.

To win this is easy, you don’t even have to think of a slogan or draw a brand new logo, all you have to do is eat. Yes, just munch all the Mr. Potato that your mouth and tummy can handle.

Now just remember is not to put the seals and bags in your mouth, as you will need them to collect the precious points. Just like a football league table, the more points you have, the higher you are in the ranking.

So just by being in the top 30 when the contest duration ends (30th November 2008), you can start packing already!

That’s not all, if you are one of the top 5 for any month, you will also win the monthly prize of a signed jersey from your favourite star player! Just to make sure your friends don’t think you’re crazy by signing your own jersey, you are also presented with photographs and a certificate of authenticity.

Ouch – the offer is so good, I think even liverpool fans would want to join in the contest and fly to Old Trafford haha.

So keep your shopping cart empty and look out for the following item:

To get more information on how to send in your points, head on over to the Mr Potato website.

What is our group’s game plan to win this? Well it took almost a week for this to come out but it’s nothing short of sheer determination and burning the midnight oil. Oh and it came from a marketing student in our group (ahh what a blessing hehe).

So OPS Kentang is basically convincing Mr Potato brand to sponsor our police (PDRM) with their yummy snacks of Mr Potato goodness for the whole duration of this contest, as a reward and also to say thanks to the police force for all of their hardwork. This is a no-brainer.

If I ask you to imagine a police from the USA eating, what is in your mind? He’s eating donuts right? I’m sure you’d have this picture in your mind.

Well now what about Malaysian cops? If I ask you now to imagine our police eating. What will it be? Nasi lemak? Roti telur? Blank right? Well this is where Mr Potato can gain some unusual marketing and an odd but simple association with the cops.

The returns for Mr Potato is priceless, their image is associated with an ever present figure in our society, I think it will stay even years after the sponsorship ends.

For the police, they will get free snacks. They can eat it during their stake outs, you know just so that they don’t fall asleep and let the criminals run away. However, they will have to keep the wrappers and this is where we get our rewards for initiating this wonderful partnership. Each of us will have to collect the wrappers from our own assigned area.

How many wrappers/seals can we collect? Well there are 837 police stations in Malaysia, assuming each police station has 65 police officers and Mr Potato sponsors 10 packets and 5 canisters for each officer, for 5 months we will have to collect half a million wrappers and quarter of a million canisters’ seals – tell me with that figure, who says we won’t win it? Heck we could even split the points and give it to another team and they would still be among the top 30! But of course we won’t do that mwahahaha.

Our suggested tagline for the partnership:

Okay so here’s a summary of each of the members’ task:

Team Leader/Chief Communications Officer / General Manager – Pink Pau
Provide guidance, leadership and moral support to all members of the team

Chief Operations Officer – Justina
Developing the plan and facilitating the execution of it
Regional Manager (North Peninsula) – Ping Ping
Regional Manager (South Peninsula) – Bryan
Regional Manager (Sabah) – Mr. Badak
Regional Manager (Sarawak) – Clare

As you can see, I am responsible to collect the seals and bags from each police station in Sabah! Aiya, with all the mountains and jungles! Don’t forget the rivers!

Luckily, I have good networking through my forum! In case you didn’t know, I have a community-driven website, SabahRhinos.com, a website for the Sabah football fans. The membership now stands around 600+ with the members all scattered all over the world but of course, the majority of them are located in Sabah – all over Sabah!

So all I need to do is select one member from each district and beg and plead them to collect the items from the police station and just send them to me through Pos Laju. I’ll pay the courier fee la and maybe a little bit more to pay for their troubles and petrol.

Of course, for the KK area (surrounding areas) it will be handled by me and my green sports car Israwa Aeroback.

So you think this is a brilliant plan? I think it is! It is a win-win situation for everyone!

Don’t understand my plan fully? Maybe my other team mates can explain it better. Check out their explanation on their blog.

1. Justina(her idea this)
2. Ping Ping
3. Clare
4. Bryan

And just to show our appreciation to Mr Potato, this is how we will look like when we fly to Old Trafford!