In October of 2016, Singapore Airlines launched their new non-stop flight from San Francisco to Singapore, making Singapore more accessible than ever to the coming generation of world travelers. California residents could travel to the Lion City aboard the new A380 aircraft in record time and comfort.
The Singapore Tourism Board challenged 1000heads to produce a social-lead campaign to raise awareness, travel consideration and bookings with millennials on the West Coast. In addition, the activation must bring consumers to Singapore Airlines' non-stop flight from San Francisco to Singapore.
The identity problem: Among U.S. millennials, travelers sensed that getting to Asia requires weeks of planning. They were unaware of the rich culture experience Singapore had to offer, and mischaracterized it as a, "stopover" city.
What we learned: 42% of millennials traveled internationally in 2015. 75% of millennials book their travel themselves, and 87% take their inspiration from Facebook. The average millennial spends 90 hours a month on their mobile device, with an attention span measured in seconds.
Our goal became to provocatively demonstrate that Singapore is a spontaneous destination, with rich rewards for culture-seeking travelers.
How could we present Singapore in a way that breaks through a 7 second attention span? How do we bring Singapore's diversity to the doorstep of our audience? How do we effectively permeate the social channels of our audience?
And how do we seamlessly fit this into our audience's daily pattern?
Our solution: Bring Singapore directly to California millennials doorstep … curb step, by replacing their mundane cab with a one-of-a-kind moving quiz show where everyday riders became contestants. What was at stake? How about a quick trip to Singapore to learn more?
The key concept was to find our target audience and interrupt their normal routine. We considered how millennials use mobile for all aspects of their lives. In San Francisco, the proliferation of ride-share and ride-on-demand services gave us our angle in.
We found that Lyft had a majority share of millennial users in San Francisco. We contacted Lyft to test their appetite for bringing new experiences and spontaneity to their riders. This lead to a partnership aimed at replacing a normal commute across town with a disruptive experience. This became the Lyft Ride of a Lifetime.
When San Francisco residents called for a Lyft in September, there was a chance that they would be picked up in our Lion City Lyft – a specialty wrapped Lyft car driven by a gameshow host driver with a surprise quiz. The game didn't just test their knowledge of Singapore, but challenged their willingness to learn about food, language, and the unique culture of Singapore.
Not just about right answers: We warmed riders up with easy multiple choice questions to get them familiar with Singapore facts. Then, we moved on to questions and challenges designed to test their affinity to take risks and try out new things.
All the while, the cameras in the car were capturing riders' experiences. We broadcast our participants taking the challenge to the rest of San Francisco, letting them know that the Lyft of a Lifetime was in operation.
For those that aced our challenges, a final question was asked:
How quickly can you pack your bags? Cos you're going to Singapore!
Our riders then had days to pack before we picked them up for their journey to Singapore via Singapore Airlines. There, we brought the quiz to life. Just a short while ago, our Lyft driver asked them what a Singapore Sling was. Now, they were being treated to cocktail hour in Singapore's Raffles Hotel, the birthplace of the famous drink.
Our travelers were encouraged to eat, drink, luxuriate, selfie & blog their way through every experience we provided, letting them see and share the best of Singapore with their social communities. Their content was also highlighted across Singapore's social channels taking it to a larger audience still.
On return to the U.S., we produced a final story video that shows the Singapore adventure from the eyes of the California millennial. Our story was publishedacross all Singapore's channels, and shared out through Mashable, The Drum, and other media outlets. A carefully planned media plan accompanied our content to get our message out to STB's perfect audience and ask them: Are you ready to go to Singapore?
Our campaign launched with the San Francisco quiz near the end of September, covering the participant's journey through October, and promoting the resulting story through December of 2016. We told the story of how easy and reachable a trip to Singapore is, and a glimpse inside the food, culture and nightlife that awaits our millennial traveler in an activation that far exceeded our campaign goals:
