These families were reunited by Scoot as part of its new heartwarming travel campaign

Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, recently launched a heartwarming initiative to reunite families separated by geographical distance. Called the “Scoot with Heart” campaign, the initiative was conceived in response to the rise of social isolation due to distance and the increasing prevalence of digital media reducing the need for face-to-face interactions.

The campaign was done in partnership with The Smart Local, Lions Befrienders, and the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (FAST).

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With the campaign, which will run through January 2024, Scoot aimed to empower positive change in the community across its network by enabling connections between people and encouraging meaningful conversations. One such example was the reunion between Wee Chin Choon, a centenarian living alone in Singapore away from his family in Indonesia, and his grandnieces.

Wee migrated to Singapore over 80 years ago for work. Scoot heard that he had not seen his family since the pandemic, following a video on The Smart Local's Instagram page, in which the video host strikes a conversation with Wee at Meiling Street Hawker Centre. 

The conversation revealed how much Wee missed his family and his wish to relax and have a meal with them in person. The video generated a lot of attention on social media, including that of Scoot. 

This led to Scoot's initiative to fly Wee's grandnieces to Singapore for an in-person reunion. As part of the experience, the family was given a chance to spend quality time together during a visit to Gardens by the Bay, with a professional photographer in tow to take family photos.

Another family that benefitted from the campaign was Myrnamie Pelandas, a domestic worker from the Philippines. Pelandas came to work in Singapore six years ago with her sister-in-law, Jessa Catoto, leaving behind her husband and two daughters. To surprise Pelandas and Catoto, Scoot flew the former’s husband and daughters to Singapore, complete with a family day out at Universal Studios Singapore.

The reunions were captured on camera and shared on The Smart Local's and Scoot's social media channels, which have garnered nearly 800,000 views at the time of writing. Along with that, the campaign has also called for the public to share their stories of connection by 14 January 2024. This initiative seeks to encourage people to reflect on their relationships and inspire others to do so as well. A dedicated Scoot microsite has also been set up to document these stories.

In a statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Agatha Yap, Scoot director of marketing, communications, marketing partnerships and loyalty, shared that Scoot will be selecting the story that most resonates with it to make another meaningful reunion happen.

Yap also shared that Scoot worked with local social service agencies, Lions Befrienders and Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (FAST), to find and reunite these families for the campaign. She further expressed the intention for this to be a recurring campaign annually.

“Travel is more than just getting to a destination; it is about connecting cultures and people we love. ‘Scoot With Heart’ is also more than just a marketing campaign; it is our way of encouraging the community to treasure the human connections they have in their lives,” said Yap.

She added that the campaign hopes to spark of meaningful conversations by encouraging people to engage in genuine chats, check in with each other and reconnect with their loved ones.

“At Scoot, we believe in building genuine connections and facilitating meaningful conversations. As an airline, every flight that we operate helps facilitate these face-to-face connections between loved ones, enabling them to create new and precious memories,” she said.

“Going forward, we will continue to look out for opportunities to foster human connections and empower positive change in communities across our network,” she added.

As borders open up following the pandemic, travel campaigns have really kicked off. Recently, Alipay+, a cross-border mobile payment digital platform under Ant International, unveiled a year-end campaign to promote sustainable cross-border travel with a series of incentives offered to users by global partners of five e-wallets in Asia.

The e-wallets include Alipay (mainland China), AlipayHK (Hong Kong), Touch ’n Go eWallet by TNG Digital (Malaysia), GCash (Philippines) and TrueMoney (Thailand) and was launched in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

As part of the campaign, travellers enjoyed an array of special offers curated in collaboration with brands, including ComfortDelGro Taxi, Daimaru Matsuzakaya, Galaxy Macau, King Power, and Lotte Duty Free, as well as local small and micro-sized enterprises (SMEs), including Durian BB in Malaysia and IJOOZ in Singapore, aiming to create a diverse and inclusive selection for travellers.

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