Considering that Eye Mo is an over-the-counter product readily on sale and accessible for everyone, and the fact that the entire population was affected by the heat and haze, we were technically talking to the general public. The core message had public service quality: do not forget to protect your eyes. It would have to reach a large part of the city state and ideally even spread to adjacent markets (Malaysia, Indonesia). Without the funds for a broad mass media campaign we identified opinion leaders and journalist of the main news channels as a key mediating audience. Ideally the Eye Mo message would be included in the general conversation about the heat and haze. The ambient stunt would therefore need to be packaged in a way that allowed media to pick it up without being seen as promoting the product.

Early 2014 Singapore was hit by the worst dry spell in decades and affected by harmful haze originating from over 1,000 forest fires in neighbouring countries. The public and press were abuzz. We wanted to quickly react in order to let Singaporeans know about the anti-irritant and moisturizing qualities of Eye Mo drops, which help to protect eyes against heat and haze. The general public felt the problem out there on the streets - so this is where the message needed to hit. However, given the minimal budget (S$7,500), usage of traditional out-of-home to do so was not an option. Hence an ambient stunt idea was needed to create not only impact and involvement at location, but ideally to also trigger sharing and reporting. All this needed to work within the rigid confinements of Singapore regulatory requirements (no promotion of OTC products with samples), as well as the rather strict laws on usage of public space in this “clean” city state (hardly any billboards; graffiti and other forms of public paintings are a crime; littering with flyers and stickers is strictly forbidden).

Direct engagement of the audience at the various sites of the ambient stunt throughout the activation period ranges around 1,000. But more importantly, spending time in finding a way to directly engage opinion leaders and press paid off. It helped turn the ambient stunt into a media topics achieving huge media coverage: national and international features in press, online, and the leading TV stations in their evening news (broadcast and online) lead to an aggregated non-paid reach of 32,402,878 people across 24 APAC territories (2,315,000 in Singapore alone = 45% of the population). With a budget of S$7,500 we achieved an advertising value of S$70,465 and a PR value of S$211,390 - equating to an astonishing return on investment of over 3,000%.

Reverting to the Asian art form of water calligraphy using a local calligraphy artist and having him draw with water in what seemed to be a musical street art performances gave this concept relevance and the cultural depth needed. Obviously, an eye drawn on the pavement with water and drying away fast is a striking demonstration for the need to keep eyes moisturized in the heat and haze - 100% on product and brand. Captivating for the audience on site. But more than that: it made this advertising stunt turn into a culturally relevant experience worth sharing and reporting about. The street stunt had an angle for media to pick up. This is why our product message became a public message reaching a huge part of the designated audience in prime time news.