Singapore’s Economic Miracle exhibition

SG50 Economic and International Committee

Singapore’s Economic Miracle exhibition

Creating emotional resonance for a memorable experience

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s independence, the SG50 Economic and International Committee commissioned a large-scale exhibition spanning over 5,000 sqft to tell the story of the nation’s economic development. The committee was chaired by Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies.

The exhibition, supported by both the public and private sectors, saw the participation of over 50 Singapore and international companies. Its opening ceremony was attended by the many CEOs of these companies.

With our experience and content strategy expertise, we shaped and executed the vision for the exhibition.

What we did

Stakeholder research
Experience strategy
Content strategy
Interpretive strategy
Project management
Design direction
Content curation and creative copy
Experiential marketing

Challenges

If we were to talk about Singapore’s economic development the expected way – think cold facts, dry statistics, unstimulating timelines and boastful achievements – the exhibition would need some hard sell.

How could we get Singaporeans to see Singapore’s economic success as theirs and feel proud of it too? If the exhibition wasn’t done well, Singaporeans would find it propagandist and tune out. We would need to find a balance and achieve a win-win for both the client and Singaporeans.

Hoping to reach as many Singaporeans as possible, the client planned to hold the exhibition at 2 busy shopping malls and the Changi Airport. How could we stop preoccupied shoppers in their tracks and turn them into a captivated audience?

Insights and strategy

By consciously not attributing Singapore’s success solely to the government and instead to ordinary Singaporeans as well, we could bridge the divide between the client’s brief and the desired visitor experience.

And if we needed to mention the government, we could humanise its efforts by featuring the struggles and successes of public officers, who were ordinary Singaporeans like you and me.

Emotions drive attention, leading to higher interest, more dwell time and a memorable experience. So we needed to strategise an experience that would evoke emotional responses.

Solutions

Emotional hooks

We started by identifying the emotions we wanted to evoke in our audience. Beyond nostalgia, we also wanted curiosity, amusement, joy, surprise and anticipation.

The most critical emotion was pride. We wanted Singaporeans to feel proud of the nation and their contributions to its economic success. We wanted them to feel confident about Singapore’s future, so they would dare to dream, aspire and strive towards possibilities.

So we used emotional hooks strategically – in both visuals and stories – throughout the experience to grab and keep our audience’s attention, prompting deeper engagement.

Visual grabs

We used captivating visuals in the form of images of human faces and quirky Instagrammable structures to grab shoppers’ attention at the exhibition venues, which had high foot traffic.

Storytelling

Once shoppers were drawn in by the physical elements, they were ready to engage with the emotive stories, copy, videos and photos. The content was intentionally short to match their limited attention span.

Rather than featuring Singapore companies and their achievements flatly, we curated them into 3 zones that would be meaningful to Singaporeans:

Zone 1: 50 Events That Shaped Our Economy
Zone 2: Hands That Built Our Nation
Zone 3: 50 Brands That Made a Difference

Zone 3 was divided into 5 sections:

Brands That We Grew Up With
Brands That Marked Us on the Map
Brands That Moved the Economy
Brands That Dared to Dream
Brands to Shape the Future

Within all these zones, we used emotion-led people stories and brand anecdotes, highlighting that Singaporeans’ can-do spirit, overcoming all odds, was what made the brands successful.

By telling stories that shed light on the sacrifices and contributions of ordinary Singaporeans, whether within or outside the government, and adopting a grassroots and aspirational tone, we made the exhibition highly relatable to the Singaporeans in the street.

Audience-generated content

We made it easy and fun for our audience to tell their social networks about the experience. For example, many took Insta-worthy pictures with the larger-than-life-sized Khong Guan biscuit tins, a fixture of their childhoods. Evoking nostalgia and amusement, these tins were a novelty the audience could tell others about. By spreading the word about the experience, the audience could remember it for a longer time and even be proud advocates of the Singapore brand.

Impact

Using emotional hooks in the content, photographs and artefacts, we not only held the audience’s attention and prompted more dwell time. But we also drew out the emotions that helped them understand and remember the messages.

Through personal stories and features on iconic brands, we made it clear that Singapore’s economic success was not only a miracle but also no accident. The success arose from Singaporeans’ foresight, determination and courage to dream.

Over 200,000 people visited this travelling exhibition. Their emotions stirred, many shared that they felt proud to be Singaporean. And the key takeaway? Singaporeans are in this together, and the miracle was, and always will be, ours to create.

“Thanks to you and your team for the great support in working tirelessly with the team towards the successful launch of the SG50 exhibition.”

Ted Tan
Deputy CEO
Enterprise Singapore

“I had a very pleasant working relationship with your team throughout this engagement and would like to commend the effort your team put into this project and the professionalism shown. All the best for your future endeavours.”

Mr Liang Qiao
Deputy Director, Technology & Adoption
Enterprise Singapore