Results and Effectiveness

“Are You Being Served” gained 35,740 visitors. 68,017 pageviews generated, with high dwell time (average 3mins 10sec) on homepage. Site analytics showed that traffic was clearly influenced by the use of paid digital media, which accounted for 83% of all visits. SEM drove huge traffic to the blog with 200,387 clicks. Search ads (1.04% CTR) proved to be very effective at reaching people who were searching for related service information. The campaign was very cost effective with low CPT of S$0.52. Bloggers sent about ¼ of non-paid media visits to the site, thus reflected the positive use of blogger engagement.

Creative Execution

As “Are You Being Served” was only a 30-day campaign, it was critical to rapidly drive awareness and build up traction to create user participation. An integrated approach – with online as key driver, and offline to extend reach to bring the service debate beyond the blog site: 1) Drive traffic to the blog and encourage sharing/debate through SEM/banners/text ads targeting users consuming related content. 2) Create credible media communities to share their point of views and experiences through blog marketing and high-reach media: • Content seeding - seeding URL of blog site in forums and blogs • Social media - blogger engagement programme with well-known bloggers sharing experiences and participating in the “Service Squad” missions • Journalists from TODAY newspapers explored service quality from different industries and wrote about her/his experience • DJs from top 3 radio stations discussed about service quality and listeners called in to share experiences

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

STB implemented a Service Excellence Strategic Plan in 2009 aimed at driving improvement in service quality standards in Singapore. Key takeout needed from communication: Everyone (businesses and consumers) has a role to play in the drive for service excellence, which will strengthen Singapore’s attractiveness as a hospitable nation, and give us a competitive edge over other tourism destinations. Are You Being Served blog site (www.areyoubeingserved.com.sg) was created to generate talk and spark debate among Singaporeans about service to convey the importance of providing/raising quality service standards: • Service Squad members (made up of everyday Singaporeans) were assigned to different locations to enact real-life scenarios to test the service staff on their response to the needs of customers. • The positive and negative service aspects from these “missions” were posted on the blog. • Users may take part in the discussions, share personal experiences, or suggest “missions”.