Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

“Why should Singapore be celebrating 200 years of colonial subjugation and exploitation?” 2019 marks the 200th year of Stamford Raffles’ founding of Singapore. The commemoration of this milestone came from a deeper desire to reframe Singaporeans’ perceptions of our history, and to paint a more holistic picture that went beyond Raffles. Sadly, the announcement sparked an immediate backlash. We decided to use the uproar as a launchpad, and create an experience Singaporeans would want to be part of – a new attraction where they could learn our story and history. We even made it social media-worthy for our younger audience.

Background

While Singapore has a long and storied history, one that dates all the way back to 1299, and indeed, one that has been shaped by a cast of contributors that goes beyond Raffles, many are unfamiliar with this narrative. The idea was thus to take the Singapore Bicentennial as an opportunity to have a larger conversation about our history in order to strengthen our national identity. However, before we could reframe perceptions about our history, Singaporeans first had to be open to a conversation about it. And yet, we knew from the sentiment on ground that many had already written off the Bicentennial as yet another piece of government propaganda. The job to be done was daunting but clear. Before we could begin to educate Singaporeans about our history, we first had to open their minds to a different perspective, with a bold stance that made clear our intentions.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

On the banks of Singapore River, there stands a statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, a national monument that commemorates the place where he landed on our shores and changed the trajectory of our island forever. What if we sparked a national conversation using this statue, a physical and vivid representation of this controversial figure himself? The Idea: Recasting Singapore’s Colonial History - The Disappearance of Sir Stamford Raffles and His Reappearance with a Wider Cast of Contributors By making the iconic statue ‘disappear’, before bringing him back with other specially-commissioned statues of early contributors, we wanted to send a powerful message about the intentions of the Singapore Bicentennial to go beyond Raffles. The experience led Singaporeans to discover the fuller story of our early days. Plaques on the statues told the stories of these figures, and led passers-by to the Bicentennial website where they could discover an even wider cast.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

In a pre-campaign survey that was conducted, 92% of Singaporeans were aware of Sir Stamford Raffles but only 16% knew about Naraina Pillai, an important leader in the Indian community who also arrived in Singapore in 1819. With the low level of awareness of our early arrivals (outside of Raffles), it was clear that we needed to reach Singaporeans of all ages and walks of life, but especially younger Singaporeans who are the least familiar with the long and storied history of Singapore. In order to cover the masses, we reached out to all the key dailies (The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao etc) and broadcast media (Mediacorp). At the same time, we selected content and citizen journalism platforms like Mothership, SGAG and Rice Media to reach our savvy younger audience. Finally, social influencers such as Preetipls were commissioned to create unique content around the statues.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Phase 1: 28th December 2018 Using an optical illusion technique, we orchestrated the ‘disappearance’ of the iconic Sir Stamford Raffles statue just before 2019, the start of the Singapore Bicentennial. A press release was shared with all the relevant PR outlets to generate buzz and questions about the role that Raffles played were raised. Was Raffles the only person who contributed to our success? Phase 2: 4th January 2019 Raffles ‘reappeared’ together with four other statues: Sang Nila Utama, Munshi Abdullah, Naraina Pillai and Tan Tock Seng to represent the wider cast of contributors in our history. This phase allowed us to bring home the point that the Singapore Bicentennial will look to provide a more holistic picture of our history - one that goes beyond Raffles. This time, the Singapore Bicentennial Office claimed credit for the stunt.

List the results (30% of vote)

The response was massive. A total of 162 media articles were generated, including coverage in international media like The Telegraph, Al Jazeera and Financial Times. This generated PR value of over SGD$2 million for the Singapore Bicentennial Office without a single cent spent. Besides creating a national conversation, the intent was to pique Singaporeans’ interest in our history. Based on Google Search Trends data, the search interest in the keyword “bicentennial” increased by 450% between 28th December 2018 to 5th January 2019. Facebook Page Likes registered a 22% increase, significant because that means the campaign has succeeded in getting people interested and open to finding out more about our history throughout the rest of the Bicentennial year. The average engagement rate for Facebook social posts uploaded by the Singapore Bicentennial covering the stunt was 18%, compared to the Singapore average engagement rate on Facebook of 4%.