NTUC Income believes that every Singaporean deserves a chance at a better future. We identified that the struggles that disadvantaged youths have to go through when it comes to their education are often invisible to the eye. Hence, the best way to shine the light on this unnoticed issue and bring NTUC Income’s values to life in a way that would get shared and generate publicity, seemed to be telling their untold story. We created “Last Day of School”, an emotional, short film over 5 minutes in length, based on the true story of an OrangeAid beneficiary. It follows Siew Fang, a girl with big dreams but with even bigger responsibilities towards her family. She is faced with the ultimate test when she has to choose between her studies and her family.

We first devised a plan to create buzz around the film online, that would in turn earn traditional news coverage, which could fuel further amplification. We identified news media, influencers and alternative media platforms, shared the film and information about OrangeAid with them and asked them to lend their voice to the cause. We worked with online communities – SGAG, 9GAG and Viddsee – the platform that hand-pick Asia’s best short films – to propagate “Last Day of School” to their audience of avid content-sharers. We held an event for NTUC Income employees, the morning of its launch and reached out to OrangeAid partners, policyholders and prior OrangeAid donors – asking them to get involved. We used Facebook, YouTube and Unruly advertising to boost initial viewership. Success online sprung an additional opportunity to propagate the film on mass media, where the film was granted 4 television spots on cable TV.

1.Get aware of the issue (Source: Q3, 2015 brand tracker).

KPI:Exceed 25% campaign awareness

Result:Achieved a campaign awareness of 27%, slightly above expectations.

2.Share the issue (Source: NTUC Income).

KPI:Create mainstream media press coverage

Result:Coverage of “Last Day of School” and OrangeAid in leading national daily newspapers, like The Straits Times, Shin Min Daily, Lianhe Zaobao and The New Paper.

3.Donations

More than SGD100,000 donated to the OrangeAid fund between July and December 2016, compared to SGD3,500 between January and June 2016 – a 29-fold increase (Source: NTUC Income).

As a cooperative, owned by the labor unions, NTUC Income has been giving back to Singapore since it was founded in the 1970s. However, NTUC Income has not previously told this side of its story. Working closely with NTUC Income, we were exposed to many stories of young Singaporeans who worked hard, studied hard, and had to make sacrifices for their family they shouldn’t have to make. The best way to bring OrangeAid and NTUC Income’s values to life in a way that would get shared and generate publicity, seemed to be telling their untold story in a short film.

With the ambition to raise the issue of inequality in Singapore, our target was set broadly as the “general public”. This simply meant that we needed to be populist in speaking to Singaporeans, young and old. However, OrangeAid was also an opportunity to engage the new generation of Singaporeans, age 30 and below. They had grown up in a different Singapore than their parents and didn’t know NTUC Income as a cooperative that was doing good. They were also the most hardly fought about target group. NTUC Income had seen a decline in brand equity with them in Q4, 2014. Having grown up in the post “Lee Kuan Yew” era, young Singaporeans are comparatively more socially engaged and outspoken. Ahead of Singapore's SG50 celebrations, we noticed more debates of issues around Singaporean identity on Facebook and independent news platforms.

As part of its ongoing mission to positively impact the lives of Singaporeans, NTUC Income has been giving 1% of its annual insurance operating profits to its CSR initiative, OrangeAid. This initiative is focused on helping underprivileged children and youth stay in school. But there was low awareness of OrangeAid and of NTUC Income as a brand positively impacting the lives of Singaporeans. Given Singapore’s rapid economic progress and news that Singapore was the 3rd richest country in the world in 2015 (Source: The Straits Times), it is easy to overlook and wave away the fact that there are Singaporeans still struggling to afford a tertiary education. In a year where the whole nation was preoccupied with celebrating Singapore’s successes throughout 50 years of independence, SG50, we had to make people reflect on the unnoticed issue of inequality and to see the difference NTUC Income was making to it.