GuocoLand turns Bugis MRT into nature park with OOH sights and sounds

GuocoLand Group has launched a "Nature in the City" OOH campaign in conjunction with the launch of its latest luxury residential development Midtown Modern. Echoing the message of "Arrive home at Midtown Modern", the campaign utilises the linkway between the downtown line (DTL) and East-West line as well as in-carriage window stickers on DTL trains. This was done in collaboration with Moove Media with the OOH creatives by Creativaxia.

The wall mural and floor stickers of the development and extensive greenery along the linkway is supplemented with sounds of nature with running water and bird calls played over the intercom. This provides commuters with the first-hand experience of their emphasis on creating resort-like urban sanctuary amidst common city sights of glass and concrete that is prevalent in Singapore's cityscape and urban spaces, such as an interchange. 

At the same time, the campaign also utilises the media space managed by SMRT Media at the escalators of the East-West line at Bugis station. The station also features a view of Midtown Modern’s twin towers and its grand lawn on its large ambient billboard. The wall mural seeks to provide an immersive garden space experience for commuters and runs until 9 June. GuocoLand declined to share the monetary value of the OOH campaign.

Dora Chng, GM (residential) of GuocoLand, explained that the OOH campaign was vital to capture commuter mindshare and introduce a unique nature in the city living concept, as Midtown Modern is located directly above the Bugis bus interchange.

In addition to the OOH activation at Bugis MRT, the campaign's next phase features a video displayed on the six-metre Wonderwall at Dhoby Ghaut MRT interchange from 3 June to 14 July. The video, done in collaboration with Wavemaker, aims to reach commuters of all three MRT lines – North-East, North-South and Circle Line. 

Besides OOH, GuocoLand also ran a print campaign on publications with double-page spreads in dailies such as The Straits Times and The Business Times, and cover wraps and creative buys in The Edge. There were also advertisements and partnerships in luxury and lifestyle magazines such as Prestige, Portfolio, Robb Report, d+a, Pin and ICON. On the digital side, the campaign can be found on real estate sites such as EdgeProp and PropertyGuru, and homepage takeover ads running on major sites such as straitstimes.com. A social media campaign including short videos was also used to engage audiences.  

Chng told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the launch of Midtown Modern resulted in more than 60% of units sold over one weekend. With more content marketing coming up, the spokesperson said it is confident that Midtown Modern’s sales will continue at a strong pace. In the longer term, GuocoLand hopes to brand the area as Singapore’s new Midtown.