Tan Kin Lian shifts campaign strategy, continues to hold largest share of voice

Singapore’s presidential election is just around the corner and as three of its eligible candidates ramp up their campaign efforts, Tan Kin Lian has cancelled remaining walkabouts to focus on reaching residents with fliers in a new campaign strategy.

The final few days of Tan’s campaign will involve the distribution of fliers at HDB heartlands and MRT stations throughout various parts of Singapore, according to a Facebook post by Tan's media team. 

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“As such the original walkabouts plans have been cancelled in order for us to concentrate our efforts in this final lap,” said Tan’s media team.

The new strategy also aims to leverage on reaching as many voters as possible to thank them for their support personally. Tan’s flier distribution strategy kickstarted on Tuesday morning where about 20 volunteers aimed to distribute about 30,000 fliers to residents in the west, according to The Straits Times.

Tan’s fliers will be meant for prospective voters who are not on social media to complement the existing podcasts for younger audiences and hawker center walkabouts for the older generation, said Allan Yeo, one of Tan’s campaign managers in the report.

The largest share of voice

Tan's strategies seem to be working and according to Meltwater, he continues to hold the largest share of voice online as compared to his competitors. 

Saying that, Meltwater noted that it was seeing 25.3% negative online sentiments and only 12.7% positive ones. 

Adding on, Truescope Singapore's managing director, Kelvin Koh said that the spotlight has shone particularly brightly on Tan. This was evidenced by the dominating share of voice he commanded in comparison to the other two candidates particularly after the Live Forum this week. He added that Tan's discourse on the role of a president has faced much criticism online. 

"Branded 'clueless', netizens derided Tan's anecdotes about his background, language skills, and social media prowess. They opined that such narratives fell flat in the context of the presidency's responsibilities, underscoring the need for a more profound grasp of the role's intricacies," he said.

The negative sentiments come just days after Tan put out a statement accusing some of attacking and creating a smear campaign against him for past social media posts on "pretty girls" he encountered while out and about. These posts were compiled in a TikTok video that went viral last week.

Netizens accused Tan of objectifying women in his posts, a sentiment that was amplified when women's right group AWARE posted a statement expressing concerns about his past social media posts. 

He has since been under fire for comments that have been deemed racist and xenophobic.

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