What happens when surprise concerts start popping on your mobile phones

And KPop group 2NE1 blasts off your earphones.

SingTel recently kicked off their new brand campaign with a surprise concert by popular KPop group 2NE1. With this campaign, SingTel aims to reach out to the core target group of under 30s who are the new digital natives today.

According to ad agency BBDO, the ambition is to shift perceptions and mindset of SingTel being a monolithic cold brand to a warmer inclusive brand that is part of their customer's lives.

To do so, the brand aims to deliver meaningful multimedia innovations that amplify consumers’ experiences into something truly amazing, so they can feel more "joy."

When BBDO began conceptualising the campaign, the goal was to create something that wasn’t just another piece of advertising. The agency didn’t want to tell Singapore Singtel could do amazing things, but rather they wanted to show them.

"This is why instead of an ad, we decided to create an experience in the form of a surprise concert. The event, featuring Kpop sensation 2NE1 showcased SingTel’s ability to turn the everyday into something Amazing when we hijacked Clarke Quay’s Read Bridge for the impromptu performance," David Tay, Business Director of BBDO Singapore, said. 

The concert was then broadcasted live through AmazApp, SingTel website and on digital screens in several key locations across Singapore. The goal was to create an experience for the public that was both surprising and delightful in a way that only SingTel can.

The audience reactions showed how SingTel managed to pull off an Amazing event tying back into their brand belief – "Amazing things happen when we dream big." 

Tay also shared that the SingTel Amazing microsite garnered over 16,000 visits on the night of the event itself. 6 key K-pop influencers put out close to 300 Tweets and 75 SingTel Facebook posts garnering a total of over 2,000 Facebook likes and close to 5,000 reTweets, reaching over 58,000 Facebook fans and 45,000 Twitter users.

Within hours, hashtag #SingTel2NE1 started trending and the total reach was at over 1.1 million impressions, reaching an audience of over 500,000 followers within 24 hours of the concert.

"Through partnership with The Noose where popular character, Barbarella, podcast during the surprise performance, we saw podcast views of over 216,000 hits. The SingTel Amazapp experienced a frequency use of 2.1sessions/day," Tay added.

The FaceBook contest app which lasted 21 days to date received over 19,000 visits and approximately 28,000 views on all entries, while the main FaceBook page made 29,000 impressions. The online chatter also generated second phase conversations which kept SingTel on top of mind.