STB dishes out around SG$1m to content creators telling the SG story

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has announced the five winning projects for Fast Forward, its fund for Singapore-based content creators. The projects are Grandparents Talk and The Generations Trilogy by The Creative Room, #livinginSIN by The Hummingbird Co., So Bright 2 by mm2 Entertainment and Sights and Sounds by Rifyal Giffari.The five successful applicants were selected based on their proposals’ alignment with the Passion Made Possible theme, strength of storytelling, robustness of marketing and distribution plans, and overall proposal feasibility. According to the release, they stood out for the way they took real stories, sights, and sounds of Singapore, and turned them into compelling narratives.The successful applicants will each receive up to 50% of qualifying costs (up to SG$300,000 per entry), which includes third party costs for creative development, production, distribution and marketing.Fast Forward was launched in October 2018 to support Singapore-based content creators and produce inspiring Singapore narratives through film, video and animation. STB received more than 100 submissions from Singaporean and Singapore-based content creators, which came in diverse media and formats. They included web series, feature films, animations and mixed media projects with AR and VR components. The submissions followed a month-long fall for proposals conducted in January.In particular, STB sought proposals that could tell stories in line with the Passion Made Possible brand and Passion Tribes. The proposals were then evaluated in a two-stage process that also included a judging round consisting of a panel3 of judges from the film, content and digital media sectors.Terrence Voon, director, digital and content STB, said the Passion Made Possible campaign has always been about telling authentic Singapore stories in creative ways.“The response to Fast Forward from Singapore’s creative community has been very encouraging and it is exciting to see home-grown talents raise the bar and push boundaries with new content formats and bold narratives. We look forward to seeing these winning concepts come to life and reach a global audience,” Voon added.In April this year, STB awarded seven businesses up to SG$1.3 million for marketing proposals under the second edition of the Marketing Innovation Programme. These businesses are Vice Media Asia Pacific, Carousell, Savour Events, Invade Industry, Euro-Asia Holidays, Cocoba and Botani Spirits. STB recently signed a two-year partnership with Tiger Beer to promote Singapore through joint marketing activities, committing a total of SG$3.2 million.The partnership covers three key areas – innovative products such as AR effects for Tiger Beer’s Tiger District Bottles; creative consumer experiences in Singapore at the global experiential concept store Tiger Street Lab, and globally such as an upcoming pop-up in Tokyo which is set to launch in October; as well as global marketing through joint campaigns in international markets.(Photo courtesy: 123RF)