Another "parking summons" marketing stunt hits Singaporean motorists

Nearly half a million motorists woke this morning to discover they'd been slapped with "parking summons". This time round, the summon came from Budget Direct Insurance.The insurer’s stunt was part of a large-scale marketing campaign, light-heartedly entitled "Operation National Summons". A nearly 300-strong team was deployed at 2,000 car parks across the island to work throughout the night and issue the summons. The campaign was created with the help of Co:hort Communications.The campaign is intended to promote Budget Direct Insurance’s ‘Pay Less or Get $100’ initiative.In a press statement, Simon Birch, CEO of Budget Direct Insurance, said, "We wanted to do something that hadn't been attempted in Singapore before. A stunt that had humour, was cost-effective and would get people's attention. So we brought our message directly to our target customer."He continued, "It couldn't be a flyer; we wanted to make sure people read it. It looks like a summons, so you're going to take notice. Your heart is going to skip a beat when you think you've got a fine but all ends well."Luke Tay, creative partner of Co:hort Communications, added that the scale of the project was unprecedented and took many months of planning.While it captured the attention of motorists, this is not the first time a stunt like this has been pulled. The campaign bears resemblance to stunts conducted earlier this year, such as the one by Get Hilikus.sg in early June and Volkswagen Singapore in April.