The Campaign

Surging computer, tablet and smartphone usage has changed media consumption habits and drastically reshaped the media landscape in Singapore. Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Asia’s media powerhouse, has over the years reinvented to remain relevant. While it has evolved, SPH has to showcase the efficacy of its multimedia platform solutions to both agencies and advertisers. They have also lost affinity with Singaporeans due to its perceived pro-government editorial. How do we reconnect Singaporeans with SPH as well as demonstrate the power of its integrated multimedia to advertisers? Leveraging on SPH’s 30th anniversary, a unique and proprietary event was created to support an integrated campaign to put SPH in pole position as the nation’s leading news and information provider. Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic savant and a world-renowned architectural artist, was invited to draw the Singapore skyline from memory in full view of a LIVE audience in a weeklong drawing event.

Success of the Campaign

Almost 150,000 people visited the 5-day event – an unprecedented turnout. Ministers, dignitaries and even the President of Singapore graced the occasion. The campaign generated 80 million media impressions, 4.5 million Facebook impressions and 99% positive comments on the campaign and the brand. The largest Live Drawing event in the history of Singapore, it created a world’s first with our President Tony Tan being the first ever to ink on a Stephen Wiltshire panorama. Beyond the key objectives, the campaign benchmarked SPH as an inclusive responsible corporation, demonstrating its ethos to foster community spirit by rallying Singaporeans to participate and support this phenomenal gift to the nation for Singapore’s 50th anniversary celebration next year. Pathlight (first autism-focused school) was appointed as curator for prints and merchandise of the event for fund raising purposes. The campaign reconnected Singaporeans with SPH and showcased the power of SPH’s multimedia platforms to advertisers.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

Using only SPH owned multimedia platforms, the integrated campaign was launched in 3 phases: Teaser, Reveal and Countdown. Paragon, a property under SPH Reit, provided the venue for the Live drawing while SPHRazor, the production arm, covered the event. This presented a rare opportunity for a case study to showcase the power of SPH’s multimedia platforms to advertisers. One week prior to launch, we rolled out the Teaser phase through press, outdoor, online and mobile media platforms to lead consumers to the campaign microsite housed under AsiaOne (another SPH digital portal). Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were used to seed information and facilitate conversations. At the Reveal and Countdown, a clever mix of SPH owned media channels were employed along with radio spots and Live roving reports via SPH owned radio stations (HotFM 91.3, UFM 100.3FM and Kiss 92). SPH Buzz Kiosks, the newsstands, were deployed to raise awareness.