Marketing Event Awards 2019: Campaigns That Sparked My Interest

Technology has fundamentally changed the advertising landscape and the way brands market to their audience. While power has shifted from Mad Men to Math Men, Event remains one of the essential platforms, and an integral part of the marketing solutions to connect brands directly to their audience. I am thrilled to be invited by Marketing Magazine to judge some of the categories for the 8th Marketing Event Awards - a premier platform for event marketers to showcase their creative excellence, successful strategies and operational precision. The success of an event depends on many factors like venue, technology, partnership, theme, etc. A shout-out to some of the campaigns that have caught my attention. Note that this is super subjective and the events highlighted below may not substantially affect my final judging of the awards as there were many criteria to consider for each award. Also, there were campaigns that I could not mention as the entrants had marked them as strictly confidential.

VENUE & SPACE

Amway India Incentive Movement 2018 by Resorts World Sentosa (RWS)

As an integrated resort, RWS can offer unique function spaces like the Universal Studio, S.E.A Aquarium and Hard Rock Café. To welcome the Amway's delegates, RWS planned for Aikta Tyagi of Amway to make a surprise entrance on a speedboat at Water World, Universal Studios. At the S.E.A Aquarium, divers made a special appearance and unveiled a welcome banner. The delegates were able to further bond and share ideas while graceful manta rays and marine animals swam idly by all around them. Amway India Incentive Movement had clinched the Best Meetings/Incentives Organiser title at 2019 Singapore Tourism Awards. The award recognised the resort's status as a lifestyle destination, with infinite possibilities from business to leisure.

HUONE Events Hotel Singapore

Taking meetings out of the boardrooms, HUONE built trendy meeting themes like Igloo, Cottage, Forest, Theatre and Sandbox. These creative thematic rooms allow attendees to relax and encourage them to engage, collaborate and contribute without boundaries.

Sony Play Everything Lounge by Sunway

Sunway Pyramid aimed to attract men to its mall and entertain them while their families' shop. After much research, Sunway decided to partner Sony Playstation to curate a space where men can happily gather, and discover their common theme "The love of Video Games". However, there were enormous challenges! Sunway had to find a space in the mall that could house a crowd, and yet do not disrupt their current tenants. Atlas, Sunway came up with a brilliant solution of converting an isolated and vacated restroom into a "Sony Play Everything Lounge" – first in Southeast Asia! Sunway has successfully met its goals of attracting men to the mall and converting a vacated area into a highly demanded gaming zone.

UOB Painting of The Year 2019 by UOB and Lumina Live & Mercury Live

The UOB Painting of the Year is a competition to showcase established and emerging artists from across Southeast Asia. To match the artistic theme, Victoria Theatre, one of Singapore's oldest and most prestigious performing arts venues, was selected to host the award ceremony. From registration, pictures taking, an award presentation to dinner, the entire experience was immersive and emotional.

TECHNOLOGY

Asian Innovators Summit (AIS) 2019 by SAP, IDC Events, BlueMango, GERMs, Construct Digital

AIS is the premier platform for family conglomerates, the public sector, and various industry players to network and gain valuable insights on the latest technology and solutions. SAP built an interactive one-stop mobile app on SAP Cloud proprietary solution. The mobile app had enabled customers to network with other attendees and speakers, showcase SAP's solution and collect data for analysis. A useful asset for sales' follow-ups post-event.

Deep Tech Summit by SGInnovate and MCI Group Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Deep Tech Summit is SGInnovate's signature event that covers topics on AI, blockchain, autonomous technologies, quantum technologies and tech for good. Using Holographic Telepresence, SGInnovate featured Don Tapscott who delivered his keynote address real-time from Toronto. The hologram technology gave a wow factor to the event and allowed the speaker to interact LIVE with the audiences.

CASE STUDY AND TESTIMONIAL

Oracle OpenWorld

Oracle OpenWorld Asia is Oracle's flagship event in Asia. One of the key highlights was Tony Fernandes' presentation on how AirAsia has transformed the aerospace industry and how Oracle software has helped to power AirAsia's financial systems. A powerful endorsement from a thought leader!

Google for Indonesia by MCI Group Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Google for Indonesia was created to showcase Google's full spectrum of products and to establish Google's commitment to Indonesia. Samsung gave a strong endorsement to Google by sharing a case study of their partnership with Google. Also, Arief Yahy, Minister of Tourism and Najwa Shiha, Indonesia YouTube personality, were invited to engage with Google's products and to give testimonies.

PARTNERSHIP

BMW Luxury Pavilion Malaysia by PICO

BMW and PICO introduced the BMW Luxury Excellence Pavilion for the inaugural showcase of THE 8 - BMW Concept 8 series. To bring luxury shopping experience under one roof, BMW partnered with 8 Luxury brands; Dior, Hugo Boss, Moet Hennessy Diego, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Wei-Ling Gallery, Leica, illy Coffee, and Space. Also, Masterclasses were conducted by BMW and the luxury brands to offer guests a unique, exclusive and personalised experience.

Mickey Go Local @ Raffles City by Raffles City and CNS Connections Pte Ltd

To promote Raffles City Mall, Raffles City collaborated with The Walt Disney Company, and CapitaLand Hope Foundation (CHF). Influencers, professionals and K.O.L. (i.e. President of Singapore Madam Halimah, singers JJ Lin and Kit Chan, social influencers Little Miss Bento and Alvinology) were approached to paint a 60cm-tall polyresin Mickey Mouse figurine. In addition, CHF pledged to donate $5 for every set of hashtags tagged to photos taken at the exhibition and shared publicly on Instagram. The campaign was a great success for Raffles City Singapore with coverage by all major local news and extensive sharing over social media.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

Airbit Club Singapore 2019 by The Events Artery

AirbitClub, a South American blockchain and bitcoin trading platform, pulled off a very entertaining event by waving elements of motorsports, soccer, Singaporean culture and food and a secret performance – international reggaeton superstar Pitbull.

Changi Airport Terminal 4 Official Opening by BCD Meetings & Events

Changi engaged Dick Lee to perform at the Changi Terminal 4 Opening Ceremony. Dick Lee is a renown Singapore composer and also the creative director behind the Peranakan Love Story, a theatrical performance screened on the Heritage Zone fa?ade at Terminal 4. Having Dick Lee showcased Singapore's heritage and also provided entertainment to the business-like environment.

Xerocon Brisbane by Xero and INVNT

Xerocon Brisbane is Australasia's largest technology conference for accounting professionals. Xero and INVNT created a unique live brand experience by including non-traditional conference activations. A 24-metre pink pool filled with balls, a basketball court, ping pong tables, a putt golf course, a pink DJ booth where DJ Clariti entertain the audiences across the two days.

SUSTAINABILITY

DBS Marina Regatta 2019 by DBS and Modellscape (S) Pte Ltd

DBS leveraged the DBS Marina Regatta 2019 - a mass-engagement platform to attract, educate, and activate the public about the urgency surrounding sustainability issues. A robust program was developed to address sustainability at every touchpoint; using recycled materials, supplementing event energy needs with solar power, showing the work of Social Enterprises and conducting workshops.

Schneider Electric Global Innovation Summit by Marina Bay Sands (MBS)

Schneider Electric operates with sustainability at the core of their business. Event partners have to meet Schneider's "Green Meetings Initiative" - a set of guidelines for planning a sustainable event. The 2018 edition of the Summit was the most significant green event that Marina Bay Sands has ever hosted. The entire event was executed with sustainability in mind; from planning, sourcing, set up, designing of food and beverage menus, waste disposable to post-event furniture disposal. MBS has pushed the green boundaries and executed many 'firsts', including putting together the most sustainable menu for the client. This has successfully showcased MBS as a leader in organising sustainable meetings.

i Light Singapore – Bicentennial Edition by Urban Redevelopment Authority and Pico Art

i Light is an annual sustainable light art festival held in Singapore. As Asia's leading sustainable light art festival, i Light worked with partners and artists to ensure that the sustainability theme was addressed in all areas of the event from programmes, art installations to the signature "Switch Off Turn Up" (SOTU) campaign. SOTU saw a total of 75 buildings participate from in and around Marina Bay, and other areas of the island as well, a significant increase from 42 properties in 2018. In addition, PICO ran the inaugural "Straw Free @ i Light Singapore" campaign in collaboration with Straw Free Singapore. A total of 22 organisations participated in "Straw Free @ i Light Singapore" from in and around Marina Bay, and other areas of the island as well. The Festival has achieved its aim to bridge people, culture, and opportunity through art and sustainability!

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

Events are not a matter of chance" Gamal Abdel Nasser

Winning awards is part of post-event and should not be left to chance. Winning awards help to boost brand recognition, gain morale, enable post-event engagement and contribute to overall credibility as an industry leader. Judges would not have a chance to attend all the events, so it's only fair that we access the awards based on the entries' submission. Hence, it is crucial to get a good copywriter who can articulate the event's context, strategy, execution, and results well in the submission.