Despite the fact I [and Fred] passionately hate/disagree with Singapore’s underwhelming tourism campaign positioning UNIQUELY SINGAPORE …
[which was justified to me with the brilliant, “What’s unique about Singapore is that there is nothing unique about it”]
I do …
1 Love the place
2 Think it has an unfair negative perception
3 Believe there are some unique elements to the place
OK, to represent a whole country in a few words is incredibly difficult [especially if you need to put a positive slant on it, haha!] however my 75 year old Mother could come out with more interesting propositions than most countries churn out.
Incredible India
Uniquely Singapore
Amazing Thailand
Discover Hong Kong
For fucks sake, what do those ‘lines’ mean????
And then there’s the ads.
OH
MY
GOD
Imagine vignette style advertising that tries to cram in every possible tourism activity over 30 seconds.
Apart from the fact it leaves you with no impression as regards the values/soul of the place, in most cases it could be for any destination in the World.
[Why don’t countries who spend all their money talking about the ‘ masses of activities’ they have to offer, stop trying to put it all into one ad and start a cable television network [think Discovery Travel & Living] that each day talks in depth about a different element of the country [including activities]. Not only would this give undeniable evidence there’s alot to do [because you need at least a year to talk about them all] but it also allows the culture and values of the place to come through. In essence, advertising would focus on selling the channel rather than the country – which might sound mad, but not as mad as trying to encapsulate a nation into a pithy slogan and 30 seconds of visuals]
Infact, there’s only 3.5 ‘tourism’ campaigns that come to mind that have a real idea behind them – an idea that is powerful enough to motivate people to actually want to find out more and they are …
Malaysia: Truly Asia
The ad’s are appalling, but the idea that Malaysia represents all of Asia is lovely and nicely sidelines their core competition.
Singapore should be kicking themselves because this ‘thought’ could easily of been used for them given the CityState offers a truly multicultural experience.
Infact I think there’s a decent idea in positioning Singapore as the ‘sample shop’ for Asian destinations – because not only would it still attract people who specifically want to come to the Island, but it would also encourage other tourists to ‘pop by’ so they can get a brief sample of what other Asian countries are like so they can make a more informed decision of where they want to spend the majority of their holiday rather than wasting it on a place they don’t like.
Yes I know people like to ‘discover’ so this sort of idea could undermine an element of that holiday experience – however [1] people don’t like wasting their hard earned cash and [2] Singapore only offers a ‘flavour’ of what the experience in other countries is like so there’ll still be lots for people to uncover for themselves.
Of course it’ll never happen because apart from ‘travel ageny booking issues’ there’s also nationalistic ego to contend with, but I still think there’s something in it.
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NZ: 100% Pure
The ads are still quite vignette but at least there is a real idea at the heart of it – an idea that isn’t just about ‘facilities’ but life and the Kiwi’s attitude towards it.
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Victoria [Australia]: You’ll Love Every Piece Of Victoria
One of the best tourism campaigns I’ve ever seen.
Incredibly consistent tone, manner and idea that perfectly represents the style, sophistication and culture [finally an ad that talks about that!] of Victoria.
Hell, even when they do ads which show various activities, they execute them as part of a bigger idea rather than being the core focus.
Absolutely wonderful work from M&C and based on a lovely [albeit generic] insight that states when you are about to go leave from a short-stay holiday, you feel a real pang of anguish that you might not have experienced all the things you could/should have which often manifests itself in you going for one last ‘mad walk around the city’ or trying to delay the ‘inevitable’ for as long as possible.
Here’s a couple of examples of how they do it – Walkabout and Hide ‘n’ Seek.
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Wales: 2 Hours And A Million Miles Away [this is the .5]
Not so much a brand message as a tactical campaign – focused on encouraging people in urban areas to get away from ‘normality’ and experience the best of Mother Nature.
If it wasn’t so full of Welsh people, it’d be perfect! 🙂
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Anyway, as is the case with most of the posts I write, I’ve gone off track as this isn’t what I wanted to write about at all.
What I wanted to say was that one of the things that IS unique about Singapore [see, there’s the link to the beginning of the post, ha] is the Airport.
Yes, the airport.
Now that might not seem exciting to you, but they have the most god-damn amazing airport in the World.
I can get from plane to taxi – which naturally includes going through immigration and collecting my suitcase – in 7 minutes.
Have a look at the pic below …
That is the immigration counter at the new Terminal 3.
Nice eh!
And guess what, that photo wasn’t taken at 2am on a rainy night – oh no – it was taken at 6pm on a Sunday after planes from Tokyo, NYC and London had got in.
Now compare that to the queues you normally experience in other cities! It’s freakin’ brilliant!
There’s alot of things that bother the crap out about Singapore [but then I am a miserable ol’ bastard] but when I come back having endured another fuck up fairy adventure, I can honestly say the airport almost makes me feel proud to be a Singaporean PR!
I did say ‘almost’ – I still can’t get past the Government bods who did this! 🙂