In September, I was offered the incredible opportunity to spend a month in Singapore alongside our very talented Managing Partner Joanna Bogdan. Working with Joanna has been one of the best experiences of my career so far. She is the definition of a “fountain of knowledge” and is so happy to pass on her advice, experience and all round knowledge of the OOH industry. I couldn’t think of a better mentor to have, I love her approach: direct, incredibly hard working and is always there to help. … and here is how it went!
Way of life
Adapting to the lifestyle and climate in Singapore was challenging in more ways than one. Initially the jetlag caused a bit of a problem for the first 3 or 4 days. But, I have to say…the food was beyond delicious, and I thoroughly enjoyed trying all the different cuisines and meals the city had to offer. The Hawker Centers had such a variety of food and everything tasted amazing, it’s where you find a lot of people go for their meals, even the locals, which shows how good it is!
The weather changes so quickly, one moment its 32 degrees and clear skies, the next tropical thunderstorms out of nowhere. I don’t mind the heat, in fact, I enjoy it. It’s the humidity which can be tough at times which, is why the aircon in the offices are constantly on full blast. Sometimes it can be FREEZING!
The city is great, it’s clean and very safe, I spent most of my time in the CBD which is essentially the Canary Wharf of Singapore together with the most spectacular touristic attractions. This is where you want to be if you’re working as its right in the center of everything which makes it easy to get to and great to venture off after work and explore.
In general, I loved it! Life there is different and that can take time to adjust to but I enjoyed the challenge and made the most of everyday, as opportunities like this do not come around very often. By the end of my second week, I had fully adjusted to life there, I knew my way about town and even had a group of friends! I would certainly jump at the chance to return!
Exploring Singapore
Getting around in Singapore is really easy. For starters everything is in English and if not, you can always use Citymapper to help you. The office was only a 30min walk away from my accommodation, but it was far too hot to even consider doing this. When I can, I did try to walk as it is the best way to see the city, but the bus system is easy, frequent and clean – just like all modes of transportation there so that was normally the best way to get around. A few rules that I learnt; no eating or drinking on public transport (yes, even water), must always wear a mask, no chewing gum (it’s illegal) and no taking phone calls.
The OOH landscape
It was great to meet with some media owners while out there and get a feel for the portfolio of sites. I saw some of the most premium sites such as the Twin Facades or Mega Facade on the side of Tang Plaza that are in high demand. It’s a premium location as it’s right at the beginning of Orchard Road which is the equivalent of Oxford Street. There were static posters that are strategically located underneath the shopping mall in the underpass and are located by the stairwell/escalators or the central hallways.
I met with Stellar Ace (SMRT) which is one of the largest media owners in the Singapore market. They have an array of media formats from large digital screens to ticket gateway wraps and in-train hanger designs too alongside the most premium formats right in Raffles Place which is a concentrated area where all the big international banks are located.
Street furniture and the metro have some interesting formats too, with pillar wraps and stickers being surprisingly popular and impactful, along with static posters that can be seen around most of the stations. My favourite OOH site in the city is either the Dhoby Ghaut Wonderwall screen or the Hilton projection and Orchard Takeover as it is only available during the Christmas period, which makes it that extra bit special.
My site tour with Joanna consisted of viewing the formats that were in Raffles place – the central hub within the CBD. Here I witnessed large static banners that run along the wall in the underpass that connected the two Hubs of Marina Bay Sands & Raffles Place, Wall wraps combined with a large digital screen at the top of the most popular entrance to the metro station, The large digital screen in the middle of Raffles place that is located on the One Raffles place building and other key sites within the metro station which consisted of lightboxes and other Digital screens. We then went on to see the main formats along Orchard Road and other key sites that were in the popular shopping centers and metro stations in the area. On our way to Orchard Road, we stopped along Dhoby Ghaut metro station to see the domination that was there – this was incredibly impressive as the escalators overlapped each other from different directions with an endless seam of people making it easy to target all the people there. The second site we saw was Ten Square which is a unique site as it holds approximately 15 cars within the building that are on exhibition and are lit up, immediately grabbing your attention. Other fantastic sites that we saw included the 3D projection on the side of the Hilton Building and JCD’s Dragon Tail which is an escalator wrap with 10 screens on either side and colorful overhead lighting that looks like a dragon’s tail (hence the name).
My 4-week secondment in Singapore surpassed all expectations both in a professional, and personal sense. Getting the opportunity to work closely with Joanna has been incredibly inciteful and an experience I am deeply grateful for. I feel I now have valuable understanding of the APAC market, which will be hugely beneficial moving forward as I continue to expand my OOH knowledge.
Singapore is an all encompassing city and one that is certainly worth a visit; food is incredible and met some amazing people along the way.
Thank you once again to Senior Management at Evolve OOH for this special opportunity!!