After more than two years since the mandate was first awarded to them, GOVT Singapore has recently announced that Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) has extended its existing creative and digital mandate with them for three more years. In this extended mandate, part of the agency strategy for the brand as well is working with WE Red Bridge for social and communications consultancy covering the China market.
For our latest Top Story feature, we spoke with Timothy Chan, executive creative director and partner at GOVT Singapore to learn more about this extended mandate, reflections on their past works with SDC, and what this three-year extension means for them as an agency.
Reflecting on past work and the future ahead
One of the key works GOVT Singapore had with Sentosa was its brand refresh, done within a span of six months. In said work, the agency endeavoured to change the tagline from ‘State of Fun’ which has been in use since 2014, to ‘Where discovery never ends’. For GOVT back then, the new brand identity draws inspiration from the island’s many unexpected sights, sounds, and experiences at every turn.
“When we refreshed the Sentosa brand to go from “fun” to “discovery”, it was a pivotal moment. We had one chance to hit the nail on the head, and we’re pretty proud of the end product. More importantly, the brand positioning of ‘Where discovery never ends’ was also a result of intense collaboration between all the agencies and the clients. So it was satisfying to see it come to life,” Chan stated.
Another campaign GOVT Singapore did with Sentosa was ‘SentosaLand’, a fantastical version of the island in the metaverse on Roblox, a popular sandbox game. The experience, launched in part of the brand refresh effort, takes existing elements from its counterpart’s physical attractions and gives them a more fantastical twist.
“One where virtual discoveries led to rewards on the island. Niche as it may seem, we still got 87 million impressions and 5,000 hours of playtime,” he remarked.
When asked why as part of their extended mandate, focus on the Chinese market was taken into consideration, Chan stated, “To be a world-class brand, brand Sentosa needs to be famous globally. So yes, to that end, giving international visitors great experiences is crucial. And of course, this includes visitors from China.”
He further added. “Plus, the time is right to ramp up our efforts too. In February of this year alone, more than 327,000 visitors arrived in Singapore from China. Which is about 96% of pre-COVID levels in 2019. So while other parts of the world are still waiting for Chinese travelers to return, Singapore is well-positioned to capture them.
On learning curves and demands
For Chan, given that SDC’s status as a world-class destination for visitors globally, marketing a destination brand proved to challenging from the get-go–and that there are three over-compassing learning curves and demands that GOVT Singapore has learned: radical collaboration, stakeholder management, and the work being the proof of a successful agency mandate partnership.
“We’ve always practiced this with all our clients, so SDC is no different. And it’s a formula that works. We spend an unreasonable amount of time building relationships with the entire marketing team, and beyond. It helps us prepare sharper briefs and as a result, better work. Like any organisation, SDC has stakeholders from different backgrounds and demands. Helping our clients manage them is another important ingredient to our partnership. It’s how we can feel like an extension of SDC’s marketing team, instead of just a vendor,” Chan explained.
He added, “When we look back, I’d say that the work has been good, but it can be even better. Especially with the foundations we’ve laid. Single-mindedly, that’s what we’re aiming to do.”
Chan also notes that this renewed mandate must give the agency a rejuvenated vigour to be even better for Sentosa.
“The pitch win was important mentally for the agency. It helped us prove to everyone (and even more so, ourselves) that we’re the right long-term partners for the brand. It was a crucial test for us to pass. But it’s definitely not business as usual now. We’re working on ways to strengthen the relationship, refresh the team, plug the gaps and ultimately, make the work even better. A world-class brand like Sentosa deserves world-class work,” he concluded.
