Recently, SingTel has suffered from eroding brand consideration and perception of poor service. A radical campaign breaking away from product publicity was needed to connect with consumers.

Food was identified as a national passion. The idea was to turn Singapore’s humble street food chefs, affectionately known as hawkers, into heroes; to pit their generations-old recipes against Michelin-starred chefs. Enter Gordon Ramsay, selected for his infamous charm to challenge Singapore on its prized and beloved hawker food!

The battle captured the imagination of Singapore, which was eager to see the local chefs prove themselves as culinary champions. It also tied back to a real concern - the nation’s at-risk hawker heritage. SingTel was championing the cause of preserving the nation’s hawker legacy, in an entertaining and grassroots way.

We created a polarising challenge to dial up national interest and pride, and fanned conversations across traditional, social media channels and SingTel’s multimedia content platforms. SingTel partnered with local leading food bloggers to bring credibility and urgency to the issue. The voting aspect of the campaign also allowed consumers to be actively involved and input into the campaign process.

Beyond widespread media coverage, 2.5 million votes were cast for Singapore’s favourite local hawkers to compete against Chef Ramsay, exceeding votes for the 2011 Singapore Presidential Elections. Critically, Brand Consideration for SingTel increased from 23% to 34%, establishing a clear lead over its rival, and returning SingTel back to its historical highs. This increase is sustained until today, eight months after the event.

On 31-May, we worked with HGW to publish an article questioning whether hawkers are Michelin-star worthy and the seven bloggers added to the debate.

Five days in, SingTel and the bloggers issued a challenge to Chef Ramsay to determine if Singapore’s hawker fare can match up to Michelin standards.

An acceptance video of Chef Ramsay was released on 24-June. Immediately, an online poll was built on HGW for Singaporeans to vote for the local contenders.

On 3-July, three finalists with the most votes were announced via a media alert. Chef Ramsay arrived on 5-July and had 48 hours to master the recipes. Media and bloggers met with Chef Ramsay, while he learned from the finalists, prompting headlines and social shares.

The final cook-off was held at Singapore’s most famous food centre and screened on mioTV, HGW and at malls across Singapore. The winners determined by a live public vote.

SingTel’s brand consideration increased from 23% to 34% establishing a clear lead over its rival by 10 points, returning SingTel back to its historical highs. This increase was sustained until present day.

The campaign achieved 80% national branded awareness, and 82% liked the campaign, driving a 26% improvement in net sentiment (ratio of positive to negative posts by netizens) towards SingTel.

Key results include:

• Over 2.5 million votes cast, exceeding participation for 2011 Singapore Presidential Elections

• 4,000 people attended the final cook-off, with queues forming the night before

• SingTel’s YouTube channel had 1 million views – nearly 20% of Singapore’s population

• Almost 4,000 more SingTel Facebook fans and 20,000 likes

• SG$4 million worth of local and international coverage received over the month-long campaign across print, broadcast and online platforms

Singapore’s National Library Archive commemorated the campaign as “an event of national and cultural significance”, the first ever for a marketing campaign.