'pls share tis with friends n loved ones': Gardens by the Bay targets seniors in new garish campaign

Gardens by the Bay is officially embracing its position as your ah gong's tai chi group's favorite spot with a new campaign that capitalises on the boomer generation's penchant for sending garish chain messages. Targeting seniors, the campaign featured photos of Gardens by the Bay with cliched and fun messages superimposed on them. Phrases such as "Good Morning Have a nice day!" and "It's a wonderful life because everyday is beautiful" were some of the phrases used by the tourist hotspot. 

The illustrators behind the campaign even took the effort to misspell some words such as a "wonderful" to keep with the theme.

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Gardens by the Bay took to every boomer's favorite social media platform, Facebook to share the images from its campaign. The campaign is also running on Instagram. In its caption, it wished the public a good morning using emojis and all four national languages. It then went on to say, "pls share tis with friends n loved ones".

The campaign was done to advertise a new deal the attraction had for seniors where senior memberships were being offered at SG$48 instead of SG$75 which was stated in the Facebook post. It ended by saying, "tks and hv good PM…" alongside emojis and hashtags such as "#goodmorning".

The offer comes alongside other membership discounts in the adult, student and child categories. The post drew many comments with netizens finding the campaign hilarious and asking for the brains behind the operation to get a raise. 

While the campaign is being targetted at seniors, the responses seem to come largely from the millennial group who are praising the efforts rather than the older crowd they are actually targeting. So would this campaign actually work with seniors? And what are some of the areas to keep in mind when targetting them?

Calling the executions hilarious, Edwin Yeo, the general manager at SPRG said the campaign shows how attuned Gardens By The Bay are to certain target audiences. Nonetheless, it would be too simplistic to categorise all seniors into one big target audience or to say that these sorts of creative assets are meant solely for seniors. Moreover, there are bound to be groups that don't quite understand the campaign.

"I've seen family chat groups where such assets are shared by the Gen X children of the family as well, and they tend to be skewed a bit more towards Chinese speaking families," he said. He added that a consideration that advertisers should also bear in mind is that we live in a multi-cultural society. "It would be good if advertisers can look deeper into other communities and what kind of things, they share among themselves to develop assets that cater to them as well."

Meanwhile, Marion Ang, the chief people officer at TriOn & Co is split on the matter. She noted that the designers did an "excellent job" in replicating the good morning’ messages that circulate on WhatsApp, usually amongst the older uncles and aunties. "The use of bright colors, traditional fonts and beautiful images of the Gardens makes it feel familiar and authentic. Some even have a mix of Chinese and English text which looks very similar to the ones I have seen on my family chats," she said. However, she notes that it may not be as effective simply because it is very clear that it is an advertisement at first glance which may cause a level of aversion.

When it comes to advertising to seniors, she added that it is important that marketers think about the message that they want to bring across. "Send a simple and clear message and make sure that it is meaningful. In a world filled with misinformation and fraud messages, seniors don’t need more noise and complication in their lives," she said. She continued by saying that while seniors may "read slower and engage in less social media than we do", they are more knowledgeable and experienced than we are and would likely appreciate advertisements that are creative and intelligent. 

"At the same time, it's a good reminder that not all seniors are the same, so a broad-stroke campaign does not necessarily reach the whole demographic. As with anything, it is important to assess who exactly is the target audience and be respectful of their behavioral nuance," she said. 

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