The Campaign

A holographic attraction naturally stimulates hype, though little is known about this optical illusion and even more so as an entertainment alternative. To complement the immersive experience, we took a “you have to see it to believe” approach: • Tapped on the unknown to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the first-of-its-kind digital technologies, backstage production and producing the high-definition virtual concert and holographic contents. • Instead of a run-of-the-mill announcement, we developed a multimedia press release. A highly visual material, videos, pictures and illustrations immediately helped convey our story and explained how the holograms worked to the man on the street. Killing two birds with one stone, the curated visuals were then re-purposed on social media to reach the masses. • With a strong Hallyu community in Singapore and the region, viral word of mouth was key to our success – working closely with regional influencers, we teased exclusive content.

Execution

In two months, we worked to engage with the press, Hallyu influencers and also build our social media community. As a brand new attraction in SEA, we set out to achieve the following: to constantly engage and excite key stakeholders. Building our social media following was top priority to expand K-live Sentosa’s only online presence and to garner the support of both fans and non-fans of K-pop. We launched multiple campaigns, giveaways, and influencer engagements initiatives. Top K-pop artists were also enlisted for exclusive shout-outs in support of the attraction. Two publications with a global reach, Channel NewsAsia and Mashable, were given exclusive look at how a hologram show is produced, and to understand the science behind how the Korean superstars were brought to life. For the official launch, the press and winners of social media contests were invited to a dialogue with hologram creators and K-pop super-group, GOT7.

Overwhelming response was recorded from the PR outreach. Positive sentiments spread quickly from major news networks to social media and vice-versa. Exclusive previews and interviews helped drive engagement. With a potential reach of up to 75 million readers, the behind-the-scenes features were viewed and taken to especially well. Launch Event: 45 media in attendance, resulting in 185 pieces of media coverage – equivalent to approximately S$3,000,000 in PR value, with 90:10 positive-neutral sentiments. K-pop fans were also highly engaged through social media: user engagement rate across Facebook and Instagram averaged out at 18% (average: 6%). #KliveSentosa trended for 48 hours on Twitter, without a Twitter presence; within three months grew from 0 to 5,000 and 7,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook respectively. The synergistic value of an online and offline campaign challenged the boundaries of immersive concert experience, and we successfully had people rethink the entertainment value of realistic substitutes.

The Situation

K-Live Sentosa, a 3D holographic concert theatre and entertainment attraction in Southeast Asia, came at a time where the Hallyu-craze has been well-ingrained, and teenyboppers have been washed over by its allure. It is unsurprising for K-pop fans to shell out top dollar to meet their idols ‘live’. Against this backdrop, a strategic breakthrough of the Hallyu craze was necessary. A synergistic online and offline PR campaign resulted in strong groundswell with the local and regional entertainment (beyond K-pop!) community, and a surge in foot traffic. This was supplemented with sustained hype and a steady footfall to the attraction post-launch.

The Strategy

The Singapore launch pays perfect homage to the best of Korean pop culture and its cutting-edge digital technologies. A multi-pronged approach has to be drawn up to showcase the uniqueness of the attraction and drive conversations. Our core strategy leveraged on the country’s K-wave interest, which helped us tailor an irresistible array of content to entice our three key stakeholders: media, influencers and community. To convey our narrative and create hype, social media was key and its content had to have a high shareability factor to maximise reach and awareness within the K-pop community. Working with Hallyu influencers, added to the hype, exciting the community and lending credibility to the hologram performance. Together with the traditional media (print, broadcast, online), we curated one-of-a-kind tours to cater to their audience and play to the strengths of their respective platforms to illustrate the various aspects that make up the hologram show.