Luxury hotel Mandarin Oriental, Singapore has been a hallmark of the city for over 36 years. It is the epitome of Singaporean hospitality and as such, we couldn't simply shut our doors and vanish for six months.

Instead, in an industry first, we made a cheeky, but elegant gesture by inviting competitors to look after our guests, while we were away, sending a message of warmth and confidence.

Using a traditional, but personal media - letters - we honed the sophisticated voice of the brand to connect with guests old and new, braving a new approach to luxury hotel communication.

The Mandarin Oriental, Singapore has been a hallmark of the city for over 36 years. Throughout its existence it's seen the literal transformation of the area through land reclamation into what would become Singapore's landmark sight: the Marina Bay.

It's not just 36 years of history, it's 36 years playing a key role in the lives of travelers and locals alike, as the hotel is a favourite spot for weddings and hosts a renowned Sunday champagne brunch at its Melt Café.

Mandarin Oriental Singapore is the epitome of Singaporean hospitality.

So, shutting down, even if just for the short period of renovation, was a big moment for the landmark hotel. And the MO team felt the iconic hotel, with a 36 year old legacy, deserved not just a grand reopening (once renovation was complete), but a grand send-off before its long hiatus.

We couldn't have agreed more.

On March 8th, 2023, Mandarin Oriental, Singapore closed its doors for the first time in 36 years to embark on a huge, 6 month long renovation. In one way, that's a good thing: updated facilities, modernized design, a more welcoming and comfortable and luxurious establishment for guests.

But closing your doors for 6 months isn't great for any business in the service industry, and even worse for a hotel. Besides the 50% cut in expected revenue for the year, there's also the impact on the brand and overall awareness: it's 6 months the hotel would be away from the media and people's minds.

For a hotel that's renowned for its hospitality and a landmark of the city, with 36 years of legacy, the Mandarin Oriental couldn't simply shut its doors and vanish for six months.

How could we solve this? And minimize the impact on brand and business?

The most important pillar in hospitality is service. And true service is going above and beyond to ensure your guests always have the ultimate experience.

Service is an attribute very dear to Mandarin Oriental, Singapore. So when we closed for renovation, we realized we had a unique opportunity to promote this obsession with service. After all, that’s the ultimate challenge: how do you show exceptional service, even when you’re not around?

To prove we have our guests in mind, always and no matter what, we decided to reach out to the second-best options in town and invite them to take our guests while we were away.

A simple call to action for our competitors, in honour of our most precious assets: our guests. A genuine gesture that proved that to ensure our guests had the best possible service, we’d even go the lengths of asking our competitors to step in.

It is hardly headlines when a hotel is up for renovation. In fact, most hotels hope no one notices until it’s time to reopen. But we felt the iconic hotel deserved not just a grand opening, but a grand send-off before its long hiatus. We wanted to create an earned media moment for the hotel that would mark the occasion in culture in an unforgettable way, while still keeping the brand top of mind as a leader in its category.

True hospitality is not always something that you can sell. It needs to be inherent with the brand or service being offered. By casting the hotel’s GM next to his closest competitors all in the name of hospitality, this campaign speaks to Mandarin Oriental, Singapore’s true DNA of personal, exceptional hospitality.

More than that, it allowed us the possibility to reach an audience far greater than our social fans/followers.

On March 20th, we released 5 letters and a video on the Mandarin Oriental Singapore owned social media channels, followed by a ‘Letter to Editors’ that pitched the story across a broad media audience ranging from local mainstream media to trade media in marketing and travel/hospitality verticals.

The social media buzz escalated within hours, prompting responses from competitors - Fullerton replied on 03/21, followed by Raffles on 03/22. Our cheeky gesture fueled extensive social buzz within the first 48 hours. Shangri-la then shared a full video response on their channels, prompting further articles from media.

The climax to the buzz came in a rare feature in Singapore’s leading mainstream title, Channel News Asia, highlighting the clever strategy and response it ensued on 03/24.

On LinkedIn, the C-suite community shared generous praise for the campaign with some of the world’s top global hotel group leaders applauding the spirit of camaraderie displayed.

The idea cost a total of $0 in production as it was all executed by the agency team and had $0 in media investment. But that didn’t stop it from:

Getting over 20 Million impressions globally, worth US$200,000

Featured in Singapore’s No #1 media publication — Channel News Asia and in the Luxury segment that sees + 2.5 million daily readers

Reaching over 100,000 people on social

90% of which were non-followers (and therefore, considered new potential guests)

852% increase in reach on Instagram alone

8.1% new followers

105,000 views of our video

100% positive sentiment for the campaign on social media it featured (IG + FB + YT)

100% positive response on LinkedIn from Executive C-suite community and competitors from global hotel groups

Garnering great comments from our fans (and other hotels’ fans too) and powerful headlines from publications from the luxury, travel, and ad trade sectors.