Friday August 7, 2009
Viva Elite winner is one car-ing boyfriend

PETALING JAYA: Systems support engineer Chow Kok Keong jumped for joy, as anyone would, in winning a sparkling new Perodua Viva Elite.
Chow, 27, who won the newly-launched car after entering The Star Power of 9 contest, immediately declared that his girlfriend Ivy Chah, 24, would be the one enjoying the thrill of driving the car.
“She used to drive a Kancil while I rode a motorcycle to work. Now, I’ll use the Kancil and she can drive the Viva,” he said after receiving the prize from Perodua managing director Datuk Abdull Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar and Star Publications (M) Bhd group managing director and chief executive officer Datin Linda Ngiam yesterday.
The car, which was presented to Chow at Menara Star, came as an early birthday surprise for him. He will be celebrating his birthday on Aug 23.
Viva, Chow!: Hafiz presenting the car ‘key’ to the systems support engineer as Ngiam and The Star executive director Ng Beng Lye look on at the prizegiving ceremony at Menara Star in Petaling Jaya yesterday. Eight lucky winners also received cash prizes of RM1,999 each.
Greeting card company executive Vimala Devi N. Kathirvelu, 44, won in the very first contest she has participated, thanks to her son’s prodding.
“I was clearing the newspapers at home with my son Meithillen when we saw the contest. I asked him if I should join and he replied ‘Yes’”
Another winner, Rozita Idris, 27, said she would present the cash to her four-month-old son Syafi Dar Wisy as an early Hari Raya Aidilfitri present.
“I feel like I have received two gifts in these five months. I’m glad my husband asked me to join the contest,” she said.
Hafiz said the contest was a campaign not to just to boost sales of Perodua’s products but also to build loyalty among its customers.
“This is not necessarily to maximise our sales but to maximise satisfaction because that is what sales retention is about, by building loyalty on a ‘feelgood’ factor,” he said.
Ngiam said The Star wanted its readers to have fun and also win fabulous prizes in the contests it ran.
“We also want to reward our readers as part of our 38th anniversary on Sept 9,’’ she added.
The contest, which started on July 13, has given out weekly prizes worth up to RM600,000 – one Perodua Viva Elite or Myvi SE, eight cash prizes of RM1,999 and bonus cinema ticket vouchers – to participants who correctly answered five “true or false questions” on each component of the Star Media Group and Perodua (the official partner of the contest), and creatively signed the topic of the week.
The contest ends on Sept 13. Entry forms are published in The Star daily and are also available at www.thestar.com.my/powerof9.
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