Results and Effectiveness

Ticket sales exceeded the target of 5,000. Tickets to two out of five event dates were sold out even before the event, demonstrating how effective the rumour strategy became. More than 10,000 tickets were sold for the five event dates, doubling the sales target, and tripled the numbers in 2009. The Facebook Fan Page gained 3,200 fans, more than twice that achieved in 2009. The interactive website attracted 45,000 visitors with 200,000 page views. Through the game, e-ticketing and the mailing list, we collected a database of more than 5,000 records to leverage next time.

Creative Execution

We developed a multi-source content strategy to create a socially involving backstory around the Sentosa Spooktacular.Our own Blair Witch style-scary videos and haunted house tales were seeded on website Stomp and hosted on the microsite to be forwarded at the touch of a button. Bloggers invited to a preview created stories, photos and vodcasts to spread virally. Between the hours of dusk and dawn the audience could play a ghost hunting game online.Players sent the game to friends via Facebook where it integrated with their page so that if they failed to beat their friend’s score their profile pic turned ghostly looking. The Sentosa Spooktacular came to life on radio where we created programming with a ghostly twist around midnight – the famed witching hour – and in guerilla stunts on Orchard Road where Zombies pursued frightened passers-by before giving them further information and directing them to the site.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The Sentosa Spooktacular, a Halloween thrill walk, was in competition with more established, more convenient and better supported holiday alternatives. We had to convince our audience that it would deliver the chills and make the effort to get there really worth it. Looking at how and why people enjoy being scared we uncovered two insights. Firstly, ‘fun fear’ is social. Sitting on your own watching a scary movie is no fun. Sitting with your friends laughing nervously in anticipation of the scare is great. Secondly, great ghost stories build organically from rumour. They develop over time with whispers and hearsay being re-interpreted and re-imagined. In order to leverage both these truths the campaign had to first create its own rumours on a low level before bringing them to life more vividly and provide an opportunity for them to be experienced socially.