Meet Cai Yinzhou whose parents kept asking him to get a fulltime job but all he wanted to do was share his Geylang neighbourhood with travellers. He turned his passion into Geylang Adventures, which takes visitors through the back alleys of Singapore’s red light district. (Watch his video here)
Cai Yinzhou: Showing off the back alleys of Geylang, where he grew up.
The fact that he’s featured as one of the brand personalities in the second wave of Singapore Tourism Board’s “Passion Made Possible” campaign, which was unveiled tonight in a series of parties in the city, and that Geylang gets a starring role shows the extent to which the board is prepared to push the envelope with its new brand execution.
Geylang was a hush-hush word when it came to official promotional materials and individuals like Yinzhou who choose to follow their passion over family duty were rarely celebrated in this city better known for placing academic achievements over creative pursuits.
Jahan who went for a year with no income pursuing his love for art
Then there’s contemporary artist Jahan Loh who also chose not to listen to “family or friends” on what he should do with his life, quit his job without a safety net and spent a year without income pursuing his passion of blending eastern and western influences to create his own kind of pop art-meet-street art. (Watch his video here)
Kyra Poh: No classroom for her, just indoor skydiving
Then there’s 16-year-old Kyra Poh who’d rather spend her time indoor skydiving and training in gyms than in the classroom. “When I was younger, I used to draw pictures of myself flying over Singapore. I even wanted to be an astronaut, to float in zero gravity. Humans are not meant to fly, but that has always been my dream.” (Watch her video here)
But the times and the people, they are a-changing and the STB, in this second wave of the campaign, seems to be celebrating a – dare I use the word – “spirit of rebellion”.
It has unearthed stories of up to 80 homegrown talents who have chosen to pursue their passion and they are gathered under three tribes – Culture Shaper, Socialiser and Action Seeker. In Phase 1, four tribes were celebrated – Foodie, Collector, Explorer and Progressor.
The other difference from the first wave is instead of a top-down approach in which STB did the storytelling, this time it is enabling stories to be told by the talent as well as working with local film-makers to produce some of the videos. It has partnered Viddsee, an online video platform for short premium content contributed by creatives, to co-create two films for the Culture Shaper and Socialiser tribes. The films are to be directed by local film makers Wee Li Lin and Jacky Lee.
In the first wave, videos were created by STB and its creative agency TBWA.
Asked what lessons it had learnt from the first phase, Lim Shoo Ling, STB’s brand director, said that “in this second wave, it’s not about us telling the stories, it’s about us working with directors like Wee Li Lin and Jacky Lee to bring the stories across”.
Wee, who is making the Culture Shaper video, spoke about what a great opportunity this platform is for local film makers and that her job was merely “to let them tell their story”. Lee, behind the Socialiser video, said he shot his footage in one night “where we visited 23 or 24 night spots and after a while, it was hard to tell who was acting because everyone had such fun”. Having lived in Australia and Shanghai, he said the beauty of Singapore is its small size where it is possible to hit more than 24 night spots in one night.
Another lesson the STB learnt was translating the promise to actual tours & experiences on the ground that travellers could actually take. Since the launch of the brand in August last year, it said tour operators have seen a 10 to 35 percent increase in total sign-ups for refreshed Passion Tours. There are now 27 different tours offered across the different tribes, with three new ones added this phase – around street art, food as well as hotel experiences.
For example, visitors can choose to stay in a Made-in-Singapore room in Village Hotels by Far East Hospitality, which features designs that showcase Singapore’s multi-racial history and culture. They can learn about Singapore’s colonial history on a tour by the Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa, or find out more about local designers and their works at a fashion showcase at Ascott Orchard Singapore.
It’s also creating “Insider Guides” videos where celebrities like singer-songwriter Nathan Hartono shares his favourite spots in Singapore so that “travellers can be like Nathan”, said Lim.
More than a year after the launch, Lim said the brand has had good international media reception. The first wave reached 555 million consumers worldwide and its videos were watched 300 million times. Wave two, which will run from August 2018 to July 2019, will have a global roll-out in 16 markets.
Marketing activities will include bringing music, art and culture to overseas markets such as sing-offs in the Philippines and South Korea, a pop-up art showcase featuring augmented reality technology in Russia, Myanmar and India, and dance through the night at invite-only parties in markets such as Vietnam and China.
Emphasising that “local is focal”, Lim said, “As we move into the second phase of the Passion Made Possible global campaign, it is important that STB remains focused in telling a great Singapore story by profiling our personalities and talents in ways that best bring across our authenticity.”
My take is beyond sharing local stories with travellers, this brand campaign by STB will unleash a wave of individuality and creativity among Singaporeans and residents. Talking to the local film directors and passion tribes gathered at the launch, there was a palpable sense of pride and honour that they had been chosen for the campaign and that, finally, tourism’s spotlight is on them, the people, and not just the man-made attractions.
And imagine the word-of-mouth potential – for everyone who’s featured, there’s someone who will say, “I know someone just like that” and ultimately, STB’s objective is to create a universe of content. And what’s different is that it is not user-generated content, but curated and professionally-produced storytelling which is where the content needle seems to be heading.
As Lim said, “Already we cannot wait for the next wave because there are so many more stories to be told.”