Singapore is possibly the only country in the world where the government aggressively promotes Engineering as a course of study.

Engineering is mission-critical to Singapore’s economic success, but students here are plagued with the unfortunate misconception that engineering is boring and unrewarding.

To make Engineering relevant to them, we went into the spaces where they live and love: the web and the cinema.

We asked prominent local filmmakers to create the region’s 1st short films about engineering, based on topics that resonate with the students. These films were then screened in Asia’s 1st social cinema.

Before they chose their courses of study, we sent every student in Singapore movie tickets to the online première of the 3 films.In the social cinema, they can choose seats and book tickets for friends, just like in the movies. There’s no one to shush them in the theatre, instead we encourage them to chat as they watch the films.To change the perception that Engineering is boring and unrewarding, we let the 3 films do the talking: Students were given a sneak peek into the life of a local engineer who plays computer games for a living, the ever-contentious topic of parental expectations were explored, and misconceptions about Engineering were debunked.Despite launching the films during their break period when it’s notoriously hard to engage students, the campaign exceeded the client’s target by over 1,000%, garnering more than 160,000 hits in 3 months, reaching 1 in every 3 of our target audience.

To let students in Singapore understand that engineering isn’t boring/unrewarding, we went into spaces they live and love: the web and the cinema.

Prominent local filmmakers created 3 films based on topics that resonate with students, which addressed misconceptions about engineering, and showed how aspirational engineering really is.These films were screened in Asia’s first online social cinema, where students can choose seats & book tickets – just like when they head out to the movies.

Timed to reach students after their gruelling exams, we sent a every student a movie ticket, inviting them to the social cinema experience just before their term break. The campaign leveraged on digital channels e.g. Facebook, Yahoo, GushCloud and bloggers popular with our audience.An open dialogue session-cum-film preview screening was organised between selected students, bloggers, and practising engineers and academics to talk about careers in engineering.

The campaign exceeded the client’s target by 1,164%, reaching 1 in every 3 of our audience. We garnered 161,892 views of the films, amounting to a total media value of US$844,908.97 within 2 months.

Our Facebook fans increased from 1,467 to 3,466 (35% increment), resulting in a total value of US$471,948.72.Students' perception that engineering is boring reduced by 19.2% compared to 2010’s results. We sowed the seeds for a sustainable local engineering culture – a distinct direction which will shape future strategy.A month after the launch, videos were extended to platforms e.g. YouTube and ClickNetwork.TV. This widened the conversation around engineering amongst students and involved the international community of practising engineers who gave their opinions about the misconceptions around engineering, many of which came forward with stories of why they love what they do.

The 3 films were also featured on popular local paper, Lian He Zao Bao.