Background

Every year, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) participates in key leisure and MICE trade shows around the world involving over 10,000 exhibitors such as airlines, hotels, travel agents, online travel platforms and other national tourism organsations. This is done with the aim of helping to connect and foster collaborations between Singapore tourism stakeholders and overseas potential partners as well as raise Singapore’s profile as a choice leisure and business destination. Against this context, we were challenged to find a way to stand out in the hyper-distracting context of trade shows and attract people to actively engage with us, within a 3m by 3m space. Our key objectives were as defined: 1. Drive engagement at trade shows with an experience that brings Singapore to life 2. Strengthen the positive perception of STB’s brand positioning - “Passion Made 3. Position STB at the forefront of bold and creative storytelling

Describe the creative idea

Singapore is innovative, modern, progressive, artistic. So when it came to showcasing it to the world, it had to be well, innovative, modern, progressive, artistic. So we created the City Of Possibilities (CoP)—an entire country packed into a suitcase, and shipped around the world. How? By harnessing the world of tactile and technology. We reimagined the Singapore map. Distorting its scale to pack the entire city into a 1.8m by 1m table, and reinterpreting its landscape to create a whimsical representation of the city. With a physical avatar, you could navigate and explore around the city through immersive 360 location spheres. Hop around, hang out with locals, catch a concert, chill on the beach, marvel at the Supertrees or wander through an aquarium—over 40 mixed-media content showcased the sights, sounds and stories of Singapore.

Describe the strategy

Technology is enabling new ways in which we tell the Singapore story and delight potential visitors. With City of Possibilities, we created an interactive showcase which allows users to experience Singapore without being there — through the use of tactile and technology. To create an experience that was true to this brand essence of Singapore, we had to find a way to make our event presence punch above its weight, like all the amazing that happens on our tiny red dot. More critically, we had to find a way of bringing to life the richness of travelling and experiencing a place in a sterile environment of trade shows, miles away from the destination we had to talk about, without resorting to the tried and tested formula of blockbuster visual displays.

Describe the execution

We begin by crafting a city model that's big enough to have presence, small enough to experience an entire city an arm's reach. Buildings, trees, roads and even the river were carefully designed and constructed to be sturdy but playful and approachable. To arrest the attention of delegates mindlessly grazing through hundreds of event stands, we introduced users to their personal avatar, enticing them to discover the many surprises hidden in the CoP. Upon placing their RFID avatar on various landmarks, users were served up a 360 visual feast of the location that they could control and navigate freely. To encourage deeper exploration, we featured various hotspots in each landmark to enrich each explorer’s journey in Singapore. Over 40 mixed-media content were built into a multi-layered cross-platform world, all engineered with binaural sound technology that reacted to the avatar's movements.

List the results

Across 4 trade shows, we achieved an average of 1min 41s per player session. 95% agreed or strongly agreed that CoP provided greater appreciation of our brand purpose and how it can be relevant to travellers with different interests. Qualitative data obtained from the various shows indicated that Partners and clients were particularly impressed with COP saying it helped to position Singapore as a “cutting edge” and “innovative” destination. The deliberate combination of technologies, visual audio content and the mash up with the physical act of exploration to simulate a first person’s experience, enabled event attendees’ miles away from Singapore to feel the richness of travelling and experiencing Singapore. This helped Singapore stand out from a sea of beautiful, albeit wallpaper, floor-to-ceiling visual displays. All of these led overseas viewers to enjoy an immersive and true Singapore experience, without needing to be there physically.