As a brand and as an experience Singapore Airlines is synonymous with quality and excellence. More than just the launch of a destination, the new Chicago route was also a major ‘news’ story for Singapore Airlines, as it would reinforce their global network outside of Asia. However, Chicago posed a challenge as a destination for the leisure traveler, for whom the city does not conjure the same image of excitement and glamour as some other North American cities such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Thus the communications objective was to whip up fun, buzz and excitement on the destination that would at same time put ‘bums on seats’. We recommended that the airline adopt a confident approach, to do a ‘show and tell’ of the city itself. We also made sure that our campaign would work in tandem with the airline’s own communication channels (direct mail, PR, airport lounges, in-flight magazines), to surround the traveler with messages about the launch.Print: - the Chicago City Guides with AOL Time Warner helped to underpin Singapore Airlines’ branding and stature and create a confident ‘we know Chicago (and the world)’ message. The guides sought to inform readers about interesting and entertaining aspects of Chicago that would inspire them to visit.TV: - three specially-created/CNN produced Chicago vignettes lent frequency to the TVC, ensuring dominance of the message in consumers’ minds. In addition, a separate 20-second spot promoting an online competition introduced an interactive element to the mix.On-line: - this activity was key to establishing an intimate community area to encourage consumer interaction and to create opportunities for repeated engagement. Using vibrant, eye-catching combinations of rich media audio banners on CNN.com and Time.com, we targeted key route hubs: Chicago, Amsterdam, Southeast Asia (and surrounding areas). The Chicago City Guide microsite gave surfer expanded contents of the printed guides, a map of downtown Chicago and links to hot and hip Chicago sites. Users could also download PDA version of the city guide to their handheld devices.Through the Chicago Contest site, entrants were invited to send ‘Chicago e-cards’ to friends and encourage them to pick them up to enter the contest to win Business Class tickets. Results showed: 360,000 entries.Nearly 3 million e-cards worldwide over 2 months.

1.6 million e-cards were read. Over 350,000 participants from over 150 countries.The route launch was deemed a great success by Singapore Airlines. In the words of Clarence Pong, Advertising and Promotions Manager (Worldwide), Singapore Airlines“While Chicago is a popular US business destination, the launch of the route presented a communications challenge as we needed to create excitement and momentum to encourage leisure, not just business travelers to choose this as their gateway into the US. The strategy devised by Mediaedge:cia surrounded the consumer with multiple messages and information about the new route and through the online elements (PDA, Microsite, viral contest) really engaged the consumers’ attention and interest”. Singapore Airlines briefed Mediaedge:cia to develop a media strategy to promote its new route to Chicago. Instead of recommending just the obvious, formulaic media combination of business and leisure titles, airport posters and in-flight magazines, we went beyond this to create an innovative and integrated media strategy across the Asia-Pacific region, which aimed for stand-out and pushed the promotion beyond a mere announcement of the destination, to a campaign also selling the dream of the City of Chicago itself.We created an ‘impossible to ignore’ message on the destination, using content-driven applications that would excite, engage and inform consumers of the launch through an integrated pan-regional media strategy. We used international media to provide leadership, reach and global status for the campaign, and achieved further pan-regional reach through a targeted online campaign supported by traditional media vehicles, thus ensuring frequency, dominance and high geographical coverage within a short time-span. This entry deserves to be a winner because we recommended that Singapore Airlines adopt a ‘break-through’ approach to communicate a new route; one that extended beyond traditional media and achieved results beyond expectations. For example, our interactive online contest encouraged consumers to send Chicago e-cards to friends and encourage them to pick them up. This generated great momentum via viral marketing, producing 3 million e-cards and extended the campaign message to 150 countries!The other mainstay of the campaign was the Chicago City Guides which we developed with AOL Time Warner, which helped to position Singapore Airlines as the carrier that knows the city. And in addition to this, rather than simply buying TV spots for the airline, we worked with CNN to produce Chicago vignettes, opening with a 10 second ad, further re-enforcing the association in consumers’ minds. The successful launch of the route stood testimony to the high awareness and excitement built through media deployment.

Singapore Airlines briefed Mediaedge:cia to develop a media strategy to promote its new route to Chicago. Instead of recommending just the obvious, formulaic media combination of business and leisure titles, airport posters and in-flight magazines, we went beyond this to create an innovative and integrated media strategy across the Asia-Pacific region, which aimed for stand-out and pushed the promotion beyond a mere announcement of the destination, to a campaign also selling the dream of the City of Chicago itself.We created an ‘impossible to ignore’ message on the destination, using content-driven applications that would excite, engage and inform consumers of the launch through an integrated pan-regional media strategy. We used international media to provide leadership, reach and global status for the campaign, and achieved further pan-regional reach through a targeted online campaign supported by traditional media vehicles, thus ensuring frequency, dominance and high geographical coverage within a short time-span.