As Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC is tasked to keep the nation secure.

In celebration of their 40th anniversary, GIC wanted to inspire Singaporeans with the bold vision of GIC’s founding leaders – a spirit that continues to lead GIC today. So their brief was to not only spread awareness of this bold vision, but to show its relevance to the present day, as well as the future.

In a world of greenwashing and woke-vertising, we did not want to create yet another vanity stunt. We set out to build a genuine initiative – true to GIC’s bold purpose of nurturing Singapore’s long-term future, with true community impact.

Three strategic tenets underscored the bus stops:

1. Community - We collaborated with urban farmers ‘Gardens with Purpose’ to design bus stop farms with the right lighting, irrigation and plant selection to ensure a living ecosystem, with community farmers maintaining the crops over the month.

2. Company Purpose - Riding than riding the ‘green’ wave, the messaging of growing Singapore’s future was true to GIC’s core purpose and sustainability practices.

3. Sustainable Impact - All crops were harvested (approx. 100kg) and donated to Willing Hearts, a charity kitchen that cooks meals for thousands of needy families.

WINNING FAME WITH THE WORLD’S FIRST URBAN FARMING BUS STOPS

Rather than rely on expensive bought media and traditional advertising, we chose to leverage the disruptive creativity of our urban farm bus stops to drive fame and earned media. An approach that was truly in line with GIC’s financial prudence.

We transformed 7 bus stops across Singapore to give us base visibility, then amplified the idea through GIC’s owned media and social – Instagram, YouTube, website and digital ads. This was supercharged by PR outreach to major national press.

By boldly re-imagining the humble bus stop, we got the nation talking and seeing GIC in a fresh new light.

GRABBING EYEBALLS, MAKING THE HEADLINES, AND FILLING BELLIES

As a prudent financial investor, this was the first time GIC had made such a visible statement of its future-facing purpose. And it got the nation watching, talking and eating!

Our KPIs were to drive visibility and buzz around GIC as a bold innovator invested in and growing Singapore’s future.

Reach and engagement: Visibility at the bus stops garnered 1.5 million impressions, but earned news coverage more than tripled that with 5.5 million eyeballs. There were 448,000 visits to the website showing the installation drove Singaporeans to understand more about GIC’s bold vision for Singapore.

Tangible impact: True to the message of sustainability, 100 kg of vegetables were harvested and donated to a community kitchen, so nothing went to waste. More importantly, we inspired possibilities of what’s possible if more everyday spaces were used for food growth.