Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

COVID-19 crushed Singapore’s Events Industry, throwing plans for Glow Festival 2020 into disarray. With strict safe distancing measures in place, ever-changing regulations and a limited budget, Exceed Sports and Entertainment faced a major challenge—how to stand out in the sea of virtual events up against established giants like HydeOut, BurningMan and WonderFruit. Our answer involved a paradigm shift away from large scale, in-person events to shared online experiences, leveraging the power of Social and a stellar lineup of KOLs to continue our ethos of making health & wellness accessible to the masses.

Background

Operating in one of the worst-hit industries, Glow Festival 2020 was postponed in May with no new date announced. Originally conceived as a weekend-long health and wellness festival for thousands of Glowgetters, the event had to be radically rethought when COVID-19 restrictions came into force. So we asked ourselves: where do we glow from here? Our new strategy had to work around safe distancing measures while still being engaging enough to maintain momentum and grow brand love. Singapore Tourism Board (STB) also came to us with the challenge of positioning Singapore as a key wellness destination regionally during a time when travel came to a standstill. Working within a limited budget and going head to head with other festival superstars, we had to find a clever way to set ourselves apart.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

We transformed Glow Festival 2020 from a two-day full-fledged event attracting thousands of Glowgetters into Glow On—a first-of-its-kind series of modular mini-events amplified on Social to touch the lives of millions. Developed in partnership with Singapore Tourism Board and leading lifestyle brands, each Glow On event was held as an exclusive, invite-only experience for leading health & wellness KOLs. To glow brighter than all the other virtual events happening worldwide, we held our events in some of Singapore's most ‘Instagrammable’ locations. We also partnered with well-known local and international wellness brands. These efforts helped extend Glow's ethos and position Singapore as a wellness destination on the world stage.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Due to safe distancing measures, Glow On was designed as an invite-only event. Bringing the festival experience to the public through the eyes of their favourite KOLs was a smart way for us to build brand love and reach a much wider audience. Our chosen influencers had international reach not only to appeal to a wider audience locally and internationally but to also reinforce Singapore as a wellness destination. This was in line with the longer-term plan of establishing Glow Festival as a key wellness festival in the region—a key tourism driver when borders open up. We also handpicked a diverse mix of local and international brands for the three events. This helped us to tap into the reach of reputable brands and influencers in the wellness industry to further increase our reach to new audiences, as well as spotlight local brands on the international stage.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We handpicked well-known KOLs who embodied Glow’s belief that wellness is for everyone and should be all-encompassing. In total, we secured 28 KOLs for a limited budget, many of which had good international reach to anchor Glow as a key wellness festival in the region. Some notable names we worked with for were: ● Bebe Ding, CRU’s co-founder, who led a SCULPT yoga class ● Christabel Chua, who debuted Face Yoga after her certification with Face Yoga Method’s founder Fumiko Takatsu ● PURE and COMO Shambhala, two key international brands, curated meaningful experiences Video tutorials were also filmed for fans worldwide to enjoy safely from their homes. To top it off, we held the three events in some of the best spots across Singapore to increase the “instagrammable” factor. This ensured maximum coverage and engagement from our influencers, wowing fans all over the world.

List the results (30% of vote)

Throughout the three events, Glow On received almost 200 posts on social media platforms with over 17 million impressions from influencers and partner posts. Glow’s owned social accounts reached over 38,000 people organically and recorded 322 profile visits on Instagram. Glow’s Instagram also recorded reaching over 35% of new users. The event series also attracted impressive coverage from the media, with 43 editorial articles across print, online, and social media, totalling over 4,330,000,000* impressions across the various publications (*numbers based on average monthly impressions provided by various publications).

Please tell us about how the work challenged / was different from the brands competitors

Wellness and music festivals in Singapore would have continued normally without the pandemic. But with ever-changing safety regulations due to COVID-19's unpredictability, Glow had to evolve or risk fading into irrelevance and potential bankruptcy. While the inaugural Glow Festival in 2019 was wildly successful, its big-ticket competitor events already had years of success and deep budgets under their belts. Meanwhile, Glow had to work within a tight budget. Glow Festival 2020 was intended to be a two-day event covering good food, international music, yoga sessions and multiple fringe activities. Shifting to Glow On, the challenge was to maintain its ethos of all-encompassing holistic wellness while effectively programming with restrictions, limited budgets and under a brand-new modular-based events format. The inaugural Glow On series allowed us to test out programming options for modular events. These learnings will be applied to a wider scale event open to the public in 2022.