Interview: Speech Academy director says clown act wasn't a PR stunt, but a simple roadshow

Educational institute Speech Academy Asia has clarified that the recent furore over its promoter dressed as a clown outside a primary school was not a publicity stunt. In a Facebook post, the institute explained that the initiative's sole intention was to spread positivity and awareness on the importance of communication and leadership skills to children and parents.

"This is not a publicity stunt, and it is definitely not our intention to incite fear," it said. At the same time, Speech Academy also clarified the "false news" reports from media outlets such as Channel NewsAsia and The Straits Times, explaining that its promoter did not offer money to children to follow them nor kidnap children. The promoter was also not outside Tao Nan School.

Instead, the promoter was distributing flyers outside Angsana Primary School last Wednesday and the police later received a report that an individual donning a costume was seen outside the school gate, according to Speech Academy's Facebook post. Angsana Primary School also received a warning from the police and this was communicated to parents. However, before a police investigation was launched, Speech Academy explained in its statement on Facebook that various social media and parental group chats began circulating this news "out of fear".

"We are saddened by how the media took advantage of the situation by reporting without first obtaining all the facts, and without realising the added fear it could bring to the public, as well as the damages to a small medium enterprise such as us," the institute said.

Despite the backlash, director Kelvin Tan told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that it did not shy away from the media. "We felt we had to let people know that this was neither a foul play nor a PR stunt. We are not here for any malicious acts, neither do we have any ill intentions," he added. The team acted quickly by putting out an apology on Facebook shortly after news reports began circulating on Monday. Aside from engaging the media, Speech Academy also issued a letter to all franchisees as well as partners and parents to inform them of the incident and reassure them. The letter was also posted on its Facebook page. At the same time, the institute also apologised to netizens in its Facebook comments section.

According to Tan, this latest initiative was part of its roadshow outreach to generate more leads which have slowed down as a result of the pandemic. Aside from social media and Google ad buys, Tan said Speech Academy wanted to carry out more face-to-face initiatives.

"We have always believed in face-to-face interactions and guerilla marketing. When the pandemic hit, we knew that we could not depend on our current pool of leads and had to head out to source for more," Tan explained. Speech Academy, which organises public speaking classes for children, adults and even corporate entities, has been doing roadshows for three years. It currently has seven branches including franchisees.

Instead of having usual promoters dress up in a Speech Academy shirt, Tan said the team took a "cute" approach over the years to draw the attention and interest of children. This included wearing bunny and clown outfits.

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"We decided to carry out an initiative that will capture children's attention and draw them to us. When they do that, their parents will naturally follow suit and we can then engage with the parents to promote our courses," he said. So far, Speech Academy has carried out roadshows at exhibition halls, shopping malls and playgrounds. The declining footfall led to the team pivot its focus from shopping malls to primary schools a few weeks ago, where parents will also be present to fetch their children.

We didn't expect it to blow up like this. This was not a PR or marketing stunt, it was a simple roadshow.

Tan explained that the team did not have any hopes of going viral as this was purely an outreach initiative and the team was looking to go beyond merely Facebook marketing. In fact, Speech Academy's promoters have dressed up as clowns over the past three years but did not receive backlash until this week.

"We have been doing this for a number of years and we have worn clown costumes before. If members of the public are afraid of clowns, we would have been notified years ago. However, nobody said that previously and some children even went up to the clowns and said they were cute," he added.

Nonetheless, the institute was apologetic at the commotion it has caused and Tan, who has a son, acknowledged that he too would have also been worried about his child getting kidnapped by clowns lurking outside school.

However, Tan explained that its roadshow initiative was 'blown out of proportion' as a result of fake news which initially said that the clowns were kidnapping children or that children were offered money by the clowns.

Despite the numerous amount of criticism and hate mail, Tan said the roadshow resulted in a few enquiries via its telemarketing team. "When we start calling our old leads now, there is an immediate recall of our brand and they are more willing to listen to what we have to say even though this was merely a roadshow and not a PR stunt on our end. It's now easier for our telemarketers to engage them, which is a positive sign but of course, we still get hate mail," Tan explained.

Additionally, Speech Academy might consider creating its own mascot. "It could be a lion. We are looking at doing something cute," he said, adding that since the brand has now be catapulted into the spotlight due to this incident, its customer service team and teachers, for example, need to offer the best service. Its curriculum and roadshow team also have to be more innovative and creative.

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