The Campaign

The World is now a more dangerous place than ever. New threats to national security have emerged. With a 42% global increase in cyber attacks, 154% increase in global terrorism attacks and two new viruses that have claimed 282 lives worldwide, Singapore needed to widen its protection net by getting ordinary citizens involved in national security. The problem was Singaporeans aged 16-35 were more complacent than ever about Singapore’s security. For a generation that had never experienced a major national crisis in their lives, how could we get them to become awakened to their vulnerability and take action for something as distant as national security? We designed a holistic campaign with three core engagement mechanisms – one for each national security issue - that allowed a generation known for its short attention span to see, feel, decide, discuss and experiment their course of action with regard to matters of Cyber Security, Pandemics and Terrorism. Through crisis simulation, engaging discussions online and gamification, we managed to draw the relevance of national security issues to the individual through a fun & engaging learning journey, thereby moving an apathetic populace from complacency to responsibility. The campaign also made Singaporeans realize what disasters in a new world look like, what they need to do to counter them and in turn created a second army for Singapore - an army of citizens ready to safeguard itself against security threats in the future, rallied under one collective cause – Let’s Stand Together.

The Brief

In our pre-campaign research , we realized that: “WHAT DANGER?” Our target audience had a low awareness of the threats “IT WON’T HAPPEN TO ME” They assumed their government took care of security rather successfully. “NOT MY PROBLEM” Previous government efforts have never given them a personally relevant reason to be vigilant. Evidently, we needed real attitude and behavior change to secure Singapore’s future. We set out to become the most effective public education in Singapore by: 1. Awakening Singaporeans to their vulnerability 2. Creating understanding of how to defend themselves 3. Fostering advocates of individual action against threats

Results

“Let’s Stand Together” beat the effectiveness of government campaigns from 2012-2013, achieving double-digit increases in awareness, understanding and claimed behaviour change: 11% more realised every individual has to play his part 17% more understood national security is of current, real and critical importance. 16% more claimed to practice good cyber security habits 13% more will read and learn more about terrorism threats in Singapore 15% more would investigate or report suspicious activity 11% more would practice social distancing when sick 17% more would become advocates for national security issues The campaign had an influence footprint of approximately 4.5 million impressions and media interest worth $333,700. There were 5,542 CyberShock gameplays over a 6-day period; 6,872 Terror Watch gameplays; 46,883 views, 10,938 comments, likes, and shares of The Viral Effect. The campaign Facebook page achieved a PTAT engagement rate of 4.6 times per fan (v.s. 0.019 average of other FB pages).

Execution

We brought to life real crisis involving Cyber Security, Pandemics and Terrorism through three core engagement mechanisms: Held at Suntec City West Atrium on 5-7 October 2013, a cyber-attack was simulated on a 160,000-block LEGO City called THE NATION. Singaporeans were invited to become cyber security experts in the 5-part digital game CyberShock, where they learnt how to prevent a cyber-attack. Viral effect: An interactive video series - The Viral Effect – allowed viewers to influence the spread of a pandemic by voting on Facebook in the ‘Become an Influenzer’ contest. A ‘Take a Stand’ Readers Challenge, saw social media influencers advocate pandemic preparedness based on the videos. Terror Watch: Creative ambient and lenticular installations across the country alerted Singaporeans to the fact that terrorist threats can come in unpredictable forms. We challenged them to spot terror signs at everyday locations through a month-long Facebook game, Terror Watch.

The Situation

Threats to national security have evolved to include complex and omni-directional threats like Cyber Security, Terrorism and Pandemics. We were tasked by the National Security Coordination Secretariat to speak to Singaporeans aged 16-35 and raise their vigilance to the threats in order to counter them more effectively. They would be the ones who are most likely to be exposed to the threats but would also be the most capable of guarding against them. However, threats to national security only become tangible when a crisis happens. How could we educate people on something that had to be experienced to be understood?

The Strategy

We now knew that people needed to experience a crisis in order to understand their role in National Security. Our strategy was two-fold. 1. Change attitudes by collapsing the distance between the individual and security threats 2. Change behavior through simulating & gamifying crises, instead of just telling them This would be followed by one key message that turned what had been previously been an instruction into a collective responsibility, rallying Singaporeans around one collective cause – LET’S STAND TOGETHER. We designed three engagement activities that allowed people to see, feel, decide, discuss and experiment around the topics through games, videos and live events. Fun, engaging and competitive, our ideas managed to move an apathetic populace from complacency to responsibility. By reinforcing the value of their opinions through reflective discussions on social media, we made National Security personally relevant and brought the topic of National Security into Singaporeans’ daily conversations.