Building Community and Connection Through Experiential Placemaking

THE CLIENT

Marina Central Business Improvement District

WHAT WE DID

Stakeholder consultation & engagement
Shopper research & engagement
Placemaking & storytelling strategy
Experience & interpretive design
Implementation & data collection

Season of Dreams
Experiential Placemaking Campaign

Marina Central Business Improvement District (BID) plays a pivotal role as the strategic place manager for Marina Central, a vibrant district where business meets leisure. The BID aims to enhance the attractiveness and distinctiveness of the area by supporting businesses, enlivening public spaces, and fostering a sense of community through curated experiences and events.

To attract higher footfall and engage shoppers meaningfully during its year-end festive campaign, BID partnered with HOL to develop an experiential placemaking campaign titled “Season of Dreams”. HOL proposed this campaign to create a unified, engaging experience that would resonate with families and individuals alike.

IMPACT

Footfall

Increase

Dwell Time

Increase

Sales & Leads

Increase

The Season of Dreams campaign successfully transformed the shopping district into a lively and joyful environment, reinforcing its identity as “A Happy District”. Through novel activations, gamification, and the sharing of real human stories, the campaign encouraged visitors to celebrate the festive season while also promoting acts of kindness. The campaign united the district’s malls under a common theme, increasing footfall, dwell time, and sales. Moreover, the initiative allowed shoppers to contribute to uplifting the hopes and dreams of children at CampusImpact, a social service agency, reinforcing BID’s commitment to both community building and creating meaningful visitor experiences.

SUMMARY

Our ability to dream or share our dreams is not limited by our social economic background. This belief inspired us to use Seasons of Dreams as the concept for this placemaking campaign. We were able to provide a cohesive identity for the Marina Central Business Improvement District and create activations that successfully turned the area into “A Happy District”.

ABOUT THE CLIENT

Marina Central Business Improvement District

Marina Central Business Improvement District (BID) is a non-profit organisation that is committed to support businesses in the district to thrive, enliven common spaces through public events and build a community for common good. BID is a collaboration between four commercial stakeholders – Marina Square, Millenia Singapore, South Beach and Suntec City; with Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay as a community partner.

CHALLENGE

Decreasing footfall

Shopping malls were facing decreasing footfall, decreased dwell time, and fewer engaged shoppers. There were two main reasons for this. First, the rapid rise of e-commerce meant that more consumers were shopping online. Second, the rise of a digital lifestyle resulted in more people turning to the internet as a source of social interaction, educational content, and entertainment.

AUDIENCE INSIGHTS

Opportunities for unique experiences

Singapore was in a period of transition as pandemic restrictions were gradually being lifted. More Singaporeans were returning to pre-pandemic social activities. In addition, more tourists were returning. When given a choice, consumers preferred to spend on experiences instead of material goods. To leverage these opportunities, malls would have to provide shoppers with unique and engaging experiences that could not be purchased or experienced digitally.

Solution

Novel, experiential and gamified activations

A community doing good together

Giveaway for lead generation

We created interactive elements centred around themed feature walls to encourage higher footfall, dwell times, and increased sales. Shoppers were able to engage with various novel activations such as blind boxes, robot Santas, and vending machines at the malls. We integrated real-life human stories in the activities in order to create greater awareness about the less fortunate in the community.

The campaign gave shoppers the opportunity to pay it forward amid the festivities. We made it easy for them to contribute their donations to CI’s beneficiaries onsite.

Shoppers scanned a QR code to receive a surprise message to take part in a giveaway. They would then be able to opt in to be informed about future special events organised by the malls.