5 integrated marketing campaigns in SG that left an impression in 2022

Marketing executives are always looking for an edge to set their company apart from the competition and attract the right leads, all while gaining a significant return on marketing investment. Integrated marketing is a concept coined in the late 1980s that has evolved alongside modern marketing trends to provide today’s professionals with the very marketing engine they see.

Companies that engage in a comprehensive approach to integrated marketing see an impact on the bottom line, as McKinsey research found. I revealed that customers want — and expect — to engage seamlessly across 10 or more channels. The businesses that have been quick to meet that demand have profited with 72% of B2B companies selling via seven or more channels growing their market share,” said DemandGen's State of Integrated Marketing 2022 report.

Integrated marketing campaigns are no longer aspirational. They are the norm. Marketers are driving this trend, equipping their teams with the right technology and strategy to maximise results. These types of campaigns require careful consideration and coordination and so, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE turned to its 2022 Singapore Marketing Excellence awards for five of the best-integrated marketing campaigns in the business. All of these campaigns were judged by senior client side marketers. 

Here is the list in alphabetical order:

1. Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network has been creating well-loved, iconic stories for children the world over for 30 years. With its last brand refresh six years ago, Cartoon Network launched globally its “Redraw Your World” campaign to reenergise its brand promise. It was a simple message that aimed to empower kids to be confident in who they are, embrace their uniqueness and believe in their own ability to impact change.

The franchise marketing team was tasked to bring this tagline to life in a way that was meaningful to audiences in Southeast Asia, with Singapore as a primary market focus. With the global launch assets in hand, it was important to make the campaign relatable for families and children in Asia to fully embrace the new brand promise.

The knock-on effects of COVID-19 played a big role in how Cartoon Network crafted its campaign strategy. Kids reported being depressed because they were isolated from their peer groups and struggling with home-based learning. They also felt like they had fewer outlets for physical activity, which would help them to manage stress. It was clear that they needed something positive to focus on. Cartoon Network formulated a funnelled multi-platform strategy, launching the campaign with mass awareness promotion, and then drilled down efforts to focus on localised storytelling and tactical in-market engagement. 

The campaign started with a creative light switch across all owned and operated platforms supported by global brand assets. It was also frontlined by Cartoon Network shows – We Baby Bears, Harry Potter and Tom & Jerry in New York – using original social engagement content fronted by these well-known and loved IPs and how they were redrawing their world.  It introduced a social-first brand sizzle which featured real kids from Asia who embodied the traits of Redraw Your World. The sizzle was made up of user-generated content mixed with Cartoon Network’s characters. Cartoon Network then took it a step further and commissioned a series of short stories interviewing kids from Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines who were "Redrawing Your World" in their everyday lives. This content was used to encourage audiences to also share their stories on social. They aired on Cartoon Network channel, social pages – YouTube, Facebook and the newly launched Cartoon Network Instagram account.

Localisation was key to the success of its campaign achieving this was done through collaborating with influencers who shared their own stories of how their kids 'redraw their world' through creativity. The influencers also hosted contest giveaways encouraging their fans to also share how they were redrawing their world. The most inspiring stories were given a Redraw Your World gift packs. "Redraw Your World" gift drops were also distributed to a wider list of parenting influencers. The box contained art supplies, activity sheets, and pillow covers inspiring them to unlock their imagination and creativity.

Cartoon Network partnered with Crayola as the campaign’s official creativity partner to launch a series of videos centered around DIY activities. The “Craft Your World” videos helped to inspire kids to use everyday items to create crafts themed around Cartoon Network’s key shows and franchises. These clips were amplified on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Redraw Your World was also brought to life through Crayola’s retail touchpoints which included in-store visuals and activity booklets.

NTUC Group was the official family engagement partner for the campaign to amplify the campaign. The partnership included a gamified redraw your world AR filter launched with Plus!. This acted as an engagement tool where participants had to draw the different Redraw Your World icons with their nose. Families were invited to redraw their world at a pop-up experience at one of NTUC Group’s family malls and kids got to doodle to their heart’s content in an unrestrained space in addition to meeting their favourite Cartoon Network stars that saw over 3,000 people participate in the event over two weekends.

Digital media buys were activated across Facebook, YouTube and Instagram throughout the campaign and selected assets also ran on high rotation across owned and operated channels including Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Oh!K and Warner TV. Affiliate partners in the region also supported by cross-promoting the campaign on their linear channels and social media pages. The campaign garnered over 12% engagement rate with audiences, and investment into localised launch assets paid off with the local brand sizzle outperforming the US brand sizzle by 3.5 times in completed views, and two times in engagement rate. Cartoon network also saw a knock-on effect on programme ratings, with a spike in timeslot viewing for key shows that led the Redraw Your World campaign. 

2. GIC

GIC is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, managing well over US$100 billion worth of assets with 1,800 employees across 10 global offices. Established in 1981, it invests Singapore’s reserves to ensure long-term financial returns for Singapore’s future. While GIC holds a vital role, most Singaporeans remain unaware of and indifferent to GIC. This is compounded by GIC’s nature as a silent fund manager, flying under the radar and up until GIC has never launched any brand campaigns targeting Singaporeans. For its 40th anniversary, GIC decided to step into the spotlight to engage Singaporeans in its purpose and vision. 

Rather than just sell a snappy brand line or 60-second manifesto film, GIC wanted Singaporeans to deeply engage with and truly understand its history and purpose by reading a published book, listening to a podcast and engaging in an immersive site. For a distracted TikTok generation, this was a high bar.

GIC had to find a way to take investment from cold and calculated to warm and motivating. Moreover, to tell its history not as a look backward but a fierce vision forward.

As with the best and truest brand platforms, GIC started by digging deep into its origins, founders and unique DNA. There, it found the biggest untold story behind Singapore’s investment giant. Behind GIC’s quiet corporate façade, was a company built from brave buccaneers, radical disruption and bold twists and turns – worthy of the most swashbuckling Hollywood blockbuster.

GIC was and is a bold innovator – a spirit that continues today where it continues to take bold initiatives for a more sustainable future. This idea subverts the conventional story of Singapore’s vulnerability with reserves as a defence against "rainy days" and introduces a new language of confidence and strength. GIC's first-ever 360 campaign was not just a snappy brand line, but an open invitation signposted by different intriguing objects that unlocked each chapter of GIC’s bold history. It wanted to focus on the substance and authenticity of its engagement. GIC started inside-out, engaging GIC-ians to celebrate and re-engage with their brand spirit.

Externally, it teased Singaporeans with bold objects and headlines hero-ed on select out-of-home buys for visibility, balanced with digital and social buys and owned channels. More than ads about history, it delivered a bold act for the future. To highlight GIC’s commitment to food sustainability, GIC built the world’s first urban farm bus stop farms, where vegetables were grown and harvested for community meals. All touchpoints drove Singaporeans to an interactive site, book and podcast for deeper immersion.

This carefully curated ecosystem worked with GIC across departments to ensure that every piece of messaging and activation amplified the "bold" platform cohesively. GIC’s book Bold Vision topped the bestseller list and its podcast trended weeks after the campaign launched. The urban farm bus stops made the national news across four languages and grew over 100 kg of vegetables which were donated to the community.

Campaign communications generated more than 100 million ad impressions across touchpoints. GIC’s bold prototype of possibility – the urban farm bus shelters made the national news across all four languages, garnering 5.5 million eyeballs in earned coverage, confidently positioning GIC as a future-facing innovator.

3. Google

When COVID-19 hit disruption was endless to businesses and communities. Schools and the education sector were especially affected with 14 million learners in Asia, looking for ways to be connected to keep learning. With almost everyone caught off guard to keep schools running, governments around the region initiated state and nationwide deployments of ed-tech and pushed stakeholders to adapt quickly.

Google, which has an extensive portfolio of products, felt it was poised to enter the space with Google classroom, workspaces as well as a hardware solution in the Google Chromebook. Its ambition is to make Google solutions the preferred choice among decision-makers in 11 Asia markets, all of which were legacy competitor territories. 

Its campaign had a monumental task - to run across 11 markets that were structurally, culturally, and linguistically very different, each with its own language and nuance. How could Google deploy a multi-market-multilingual campaign that unifies the Google vision into a singular message that cuts across geographical boundaries and teaching ideologies?

Extensive research lay at the heart of this campaign, first by studying policy across 10 Asian markets and figuring out what unified decision makers and educators. From that three core messages lay at the heart of its campaign that kept the message focused throughout the region. Firstly, Google for Education (GfE) was simple to deploy, easy to train educators, and easy to use. Users could also learn from anywhere that you could teach and learn from remote locations, work offline, and at low bandwidth. The final message was that the campaign was accessible, inclusive, affordable, and a comprehensive ecosystem that leaves no student behind.

In a deliberate pivot away from the usual pandemic survival messaging, Google then encouraged its audience to look beyond how to survive in the pandemic, to how they could harness GfE to thrive in a hybrid world of education.

To help decision-makers and educators reimagine school, it launched “School in a new light” — showcasing how Google transforms schools beyond existing and traditional teaching. Classrooms are no longer four walls, but wherever you receive education. Curriculum is no longer a one-size-fits-all information channel from teachers to students but can be personalised and self-taught online. Educators are no longer limited to physical textbooks but can now supplement their classes with more audio and visual resources than ever before.

All this requires a new form of education, one that is more accessible, self-taught, and interactive — one that allows everyone to see schools in a new light. With the simple provocation of “What is school?”, it invited its audiences to rethink their pre-defined notions of school and inspired them to see how much more school can be with the help of GfE.

The campaign comprised of paid assets that drove awareness, social media content that engaged customers, and a parallel stream of assets that supported on-ground sales teams with partner and field-marketing kits. It split the customer journey into three stages: Feel-Think-Do. 

The first phase "Feel" entailed crafting video assets that decision-makers and educators could feel connected to — encouraging them to see schools in a new light and championing how schools can be so much more than what it used to be, pre-pandemic. In the second phase "Think", Google retargeted with paid media assets and in-depth case studies that established the benefits of Google, anchored on its three message pillars: Simple and Easy, Learn Anywhere, and For Everyone.

In the last stage, "Do", its audience engaged with Google sales teams. Google also created personalised experiences through direct mail kits, bringing all Google products to life and encouraging them to take the next step to purchase.

Google for Education’s first regional campaign went live simultaneously across 11 markets in November 2021. In total, it crafted hundreds of localised assets comprising manifesto films, written and video case studies, social and partner toolkits, field-activation kits, product brochures, display banners, and social assets to deliver highly personalised experiences and engage its customers at every stage in the customer journey. Google's teams from 11 regions worked seamlessly to pull together insights, translations, shoots and more. More than 50 people from over a dozen nationalities in eight different markets worked on this campaign in one of its most scalable, multi-regional team efforts.

As the pandemic has worn on and hybrid work and school become ever more universal Google's marketing drive paid off with year-to-year growth in Google Education awareness for GfE, favorability for GfE products and consideration. So successful was Google's marketing campaign that Asia is one of Google for Education's key growth regions globally.

4. National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre

“The best way to take care of yourself is to take care of others” - this was the key message National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre's (NVPC) Singapore Cares Giving Week campaign. By giving your time, talent, treasure or voice to meaningful causes, you not only enrich lives but also uplift your own spirits and make your life more fulfilling. This message not only transcends the barriers of age but appeals to the commonality that all Singaporeans experienced - the stress and difficult times of the pandemic. The campaign carried the theme of “Giving Gives Life”, which supports the message of how giving benefits both the giver and receiver, showcasing giving as the perfect remedy to overcome negativity.

NVPC wanted to reframe the conversation around giving. The goal was to convince Singaporeans that giving is still as important, if not more important in challenging times, by showing how giving could benefit them personally.

Through giving, we expose ourselves to new purposes, experience, people and relationships that make our lives more abundant. Giving can therefore be an antidote to one’s negativity and feelings of languish. It has also been proven that acts of altruism are connected to positive physical and mental effects.

The main campaign video featured Singaporean rapper Tosh Zhang – driving the key message that giving back, be it through time, talent, treasure or your voice, is the best way to get through the tough times of the pandemic.

A 360-surround, multi-faceted media strategy targeting all Singaporeans aged 18 to 45 was implemented through social, programmatic, TV, OOH, print and content partnerships. Designed to engage audiences across multiple highly-engaged touchpoints throughout various high-attention periods of the day, connecting them with its campaign messaging when they are the most receptive. Giving is also a personal decision dependent on individual awareness and unique values. For maximum effectiveness, messaging, mediums, and even timings were personalised for audiences to be the most receptive. 

To cater to each platform’s strengths, ads were varied based on audience makeup and best-performing creative types. DOOH ads were chosen for maximum flexibility and quick turnarounds, while high-potential affinity and first-party data audiences were hyper-targeted across multiple touchpoints, from social and programmatic, to audio and content partnerships – focussing on platforms with high scale and impact – while also being able to track engagement signals the whole way to retarget highly engaged audiences. OOH print (LTA street banners), ATL (Singapore Power bill inserts), and TV ads extended NVPC's reach.

Cost-efficient, high-usage social platforms – such as Facebook, Instagram and Youtube – kicked off the campaign, spreading awareness effectively at a large scale. Its effectiveness makes it a perfect fit for an always-on approach, ensuring top-of-mind recall amongst NVPC's target audiences. A testing framework was utilised to identify best-performing messaging and creatives, while constantly optimising along the way.

Real-time insights from these platforms were then analysed and translated into actionable insights and implemented across TikTok, MiQ, Adludio and Mediacorp as NVPC continued on its quest for maximum reach and awareness. 

DOOH video ads were launched island-wide across 11 high-footfall malls and heartland residential areas, covering all north, south, east and west areas of Singapore. TV commercials on Channel 8 and Channel 5 along with print ads on The Straits Times were launched in tandem as well to target users while they were offline, varying touchpoints and increasing exposure to its key messages.

During SG Cares Giving Week itself, high-impact buys – Grab (Masthead) and TikTok (TopView & One-Day Max) – ensured that its ads received maximum exposure during this key period, further increasing awareness of the SCGW and its initiatives.

In the last phase, NVPC partnered content partners with substantial followings – SethLui, The Smart Local, MustShareNews and SGAG – to further boost the reach and credibility of its key messages amongst Singaporeans. 

Its campaign resulted in the most successful SG Cares Giving Week in its history, raising a total of SG$2,148,797 worth of donations. With a relatable ad, helmed by a familiar face for Singaporeans, the campaign also greatly boosted the brand awareness of SG Cares Giving Week.

5. Singtel

Singaporeans can be both pragmatic and sceptical when it comes to adopting new technology. The majority of Singaporeans and businesses struggle to relate to the imagined and futuristic existing applications of 5G, and are unaware of the transformational implications of 5G in their everyday lives. Coupled with 5G being in the nascent stage, there were few tangible user cases, making it harder to convince people to adopt Singtel 5G for their daily use. People are simply content with living their 4G life.

Singtel's task was a simple but challenging one - Accelerate the adoption of Singtel 5G by convincing Singaporeans and businesses that Singtel 5G is for everyday use and to choose them over growing competition in the business.

Its campaign, "Power Up Your Everyday with Singtel 5G", was born. Instead of just communicating a technical expression of what 5G can do, it went beyond and launched a powerful immersive experience across multiple channels and touchpoints, where both Singaporeans and enterprises could feel the power of Singtel 5G for themselves and share and remember that transformative experience.

To bring to life how Singtel powers up your everyday life, Singtel's integrated campaign was crafted into three key tenets. Each tenet was targeted at addressing different audience segment needs and concerns, and featured multiple touchpoints and channels.

Firstly to educate and inspire the sceptical Singaporean about the applications of Singtel 5G, it kicked off its Singtel 5G relaunch campaign by partnering with Sentosa to give their attractions a new Singtel 5G powered spin. It collaborated with Formula Square to deliver an on-ground immersive, lag-free experience racing remote-controlled cars powered by 5G. Plus its 4K Live Streaming of S.E.A. Aquarium where visitors could immerse themselves in the aquatic wonders of the aquarium in vivid 4K resolution via Singtel 5G livestream at UNBOXED, Singtel’s unmanned popup retail store.

It then used social media content to educate Singaporeans about the benefits of Singtel 5G by pairing its easy-to-understand benefits of 5G with popular attractions in Sentosa that got Singaporeans playing and learning about Singtel 5G.

For enterprise customers, it launched via a virtual press event that was entirely powered by Singtel 5G to showcase the tangible benefits of Singtel 5G, allowing them to experience and witness the possible applications for businesses.

Before the event, it curated power up themed press kits to give its media and enterprise partners everything they needed to experience the 5G-powered virtual event and try Singtel 5G for themselves. The event itself featured Josephine Teo, Minister of Communications and Information and IMDA’s chief executive Lew Chuen Hong being "teleported" into the venue via Singtel’s 5G network, in which their high-resolution likenesses were beamed from a separate location, and they could "interact" seamlessly with each other. The idea was to allow all of the participants to witness and experience the network’s ultra-low latency and large bandwidth for themselves.

Beyond just speaking to the masses, it activated a network of niche communities to showcase more applications of Singtel 5G. It powered up the E-Cities Championships and showed how the Singtel 5G’s ultra-fast and ultrasecure network can help gamers take their entertainment to new levels.

Finally to drive home the message it extended its reach to other communities with KOLs ranging from content creators, 5G subject matter experts, and Singtel fans, to get them to educate their followers about the possible everyday use cases, and drive them to experience Singtel 5G at any of its activations. It also, collaborated with National Gallery Singapore to deliver immersive AR art experiences to the heartlands, allowing Singaporeans to experience art through augmented reality.

Singtel drove high engagement and memorability of Singtel 5G in both the consumer segment and enterprise segment. For example, over five million people were reached from all its different experiential events. 

Moreover, its efforts led to a significant shift in brand uplift and an increase in the share of voice that shifted perceptions of Singtel 5G. Beyond just education, Singtel successfully convinced Singaporeans and enterprises that there are applicable use cases, as seen from the uptick in the adoption of Singtel 5G.