The Campaign

Singapore is in the midst of a design revolution and has a wealth of sights, destinations and distractions to inspire creative thoughts. Hotel Jen is here to shake things up, to help its guests leave boring behind; dedicating the newly refurbished Tanglin space to discovering what’s new. The Next Jen platform champions local entrepreneurs, artists, and outliers. For aspiring business leaders and taste-makers, Hotel Jen Tanglin is the new ideas hotel that’s ready to inspire with That Jen Feeling. Next Jen allowed us to unpack all the facilities of the property, engaging travellers and influencers whilst poking fun at business-as-usual hotel tropes. Initiatives included: Next Jen Start-ups, enjoying a barista coffee pick me up; Next Jen Mobility, renting a bike to spin around Singapore; Next Jen Networks, relaxing on a net hammock; and Next Jen Meetings, brunch with resident DJs– all of these entice people to discover Next Jen Tanglin.

Creative Execution

We took a Next Jen approach to partnerships, seeking a new breed of influencer; people spanning eclectic backgrounds, talents and interests. We deliberately avoided the standard approach; paying for KOLs with huge social followings. Instead identifying niche influencers with a deeply engaged fanbase who would be more open to co-creation. We reached into Singapore’s creative community, inviting influencers to come play in the refurbished Tanglin space. This formed the backbone of a programme of intimate events hosted by the hotel. Anything from coffee-making work-shops, to live art experiences and blogger community staycations, all managed through our social platforms. For instance, we collaborated Brandon Hereux (@boywithhaemoglobin) championing his photography, whilst benefiting from beautifully curated Hotel Jen Tanglin imagery. He now has over 50,000 Instagram followers and still continues to partner with us as a brand ambassador. Content created by influencers used to create social adverts targeting our traveller profile and interests.

Hotel Jen Tanglin hosted 145 influencers during the campaign, reaching 12.25 million people, 4.8 million of which being through social and vlogger channels. This equated to SGD $2.01 million in PR value. The Straits Times described Hotel Jen Tanglin as “The most Instagram worthy hotel”. Our Instagram followers grew by 142% in just four months, helped by a 24-hour Instagram Takeover run by our influencers. Co-creation examples include 12.5K likes on Instagram for Misswen’s photoshoot at the hotel and almost 2.5 million YouTube views for films produced by Eden Ang, Night Owl Cinematics and LeendaD Productions. Online visibility of Hotel Jen Tanglin Singapore grew: 100% growth in Search interest versus 2015 and a 46% increase in website traffic. There were 95,880 visits to Next Jen campaign pages. Best of all, Hotel Jen Tanglin jumped 53 places to #24 in TripAdvisor’s ranking, matching more expensive properties like Pan Pacific Singapore.

Hotel Jen Tanglin hosts more business travellers than any property in the group. The client expressed an ambition to target millennial business travellers to re-invigorate the brand. We didn’t want to fall into the hipster cliché, building a target audience profile using social and website data from Hotel Jen and similarly positioned competitors. They belong to a distinctly modern breed of traveller: creative, diverse, connected and entrepreneurial. Most likely to be in their early thirties. They are value-conscious, working in SMEs or start-ups from established and emerging markets. Their hope is being able to escape the dreaded ‘bedroom office’ scenario and are curious travellers. They view the world through the lens of their connected device and are triggered by visual and short-form content on platforms like Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. They are also highly dispersed, gravitating toward shared interests, hence why influencers and vloggers were essential to reaching them.