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Winnie Pua, Director, Brand Management Division, Singapore Tourism Board.
Q: Why did you enter the tourism industry?
I felt I should get a piece of the tourism pie. It's an exciting industry, and a growing one. I had been in telco for seven years and marketing for the last 10. After so long in the telco industry - and I am not such a tech girl - I wondered if I could bring all the learning into a lifestyle environment.
Q: What have your first seven weeks been like?
Busy.
Q: Like baptism by fire?
You could call it that. I came in when the Uniquely Singapore Weekends campaign was being launched and we had three weeks to come up with the marketing communications plan. There's a lot to do. See, everything is in some way related to tourism - film, branded entertainment. Everything can be related to the destination and the brand.
It's fun and it's exciting. But I always tell my team, we need to focus otherwise our efforts will be too diluted and results delayed.
Q: What will you be focusing on?
Building the brand strategy. The Uniquely Singapore brand was launched in May 2004 and in 2006, a new dimension was added where we talk about Unique Personal Experiences. What does Singapore mean to you? We have variety, there's plenty of choice, you can have it your way. No two people can experience it the same way - that's also true in life. So we will be deepening the Unique Personal Experiences messages.
We will also beef up our efforts in understanding our customers and build in a strong CRM model as a support mechanism to understanding the customers.
At a local level, we want to say if you are a family, here's what you can do. And if you are a hip, mobile individual, here's what you can do. We are prepared to go to that depth of communication.
Q: You do not think this might lead to splintering of messages in some markets where it might lead to confusion?
No. What we have is the main brand and we will then look at its relevance to specific markets and customer segments. We will look at drilling down more relevant messages in markets where awareness of Singapore is already deep - and that means markets that are nearby as well as our two core source markets, India and China.
In Western markets, building awareness is still key.
Q: I understand developing a new online destination marketing strategy is within your portfolio?
Yes, we will be doing some revamping and will be hiring a new online agency to assist us with our digital strategy.
One, we will look at adding value to our stakeholders. How can what we do benefit them? We're not a fulfillment portal but what we can be is a portal that's credible and one click away from transaction.
Two, what kind of experience do we want customers to have? We will look at how customers get information, play around within the site and interact with others so that there is a "community" feel. We will build a CRM model within it.
Q: One of the challenges in the online environment is the fragmented media landscape and where the consumers want you to be when and how they want you to be, and not the other way round.
That landscape is great for us and our message of Unique Personal Experiences. It is not about us anymore, it's about the customers. We don't promote Night Safari to everyone.
In our marketing plan, we try and encourage specific, targeted, below the line activities. For example, with BTMICE, we will look at buying databases. We will look at alternative media - for example, advertising on airport conveyor belts in China.
Q: With your experience in telco, do you see mobile technology playing a role in destination marketing?
We need to go into it, but we must remember it hasn't taken off everywhere. For example, it is not such a favoured channel in Korea but in Japan, it is vastly popular. So it depends on the market.
Q: In the era of blogging and user generated content, how can tourism boards, which have always relied more on positive spin than "the real story", respond? It is also known that travellers today would rather trust other travel websites than tourism boards.
Firstly, our site traffic is really high. We have a highly successful SEM (Search Engine Marketing) campaign. In Singapore, if you search "Dempsey" or "curry", we are usually among the top three sites.
Yes, it's true that with user generated content, everyone wants to have their say but out of all that content, 70-80% of it is just noise. We can work with the 20% that's relevant and find a way of engaging those bloggers and reviewers.
We are always grateful for authentic and reliable websites, and we would like to work with them.
Q: So www.visitsingapore.com will be in for a revamp?
Yes, in the second phase. Now we want to get all the different modules in place first.
The site must bring out the essence of the brand. It's not so much about what we have on it as how we do it.
Q: So you're enjoying your new life?
The stretch is nice. I've been looking at campaigns for investments, Formula 1 and we haven't even started with the Integrated Resorts yet. Each campaign has a different marketing tactic. I like the diversity. It feels like I have different jobs in one role.
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