Supporting the President’s Challenge With an Out-of-the-Box Public Relations Campaign

Two hundred runners, two hundred hours, two hundred years of Singapore. That was the theme for the 2019 inaugural Relay Majulah –  a ground-up initiative in support of the President’s Challenge. The event aimed to gather people from all walks of life to contribute and transform the lives of many while celebrating Singapore’s bicentennial year.

There was an urgent need for an out-of-the-box public relations campaign to create awareness and raise S$1 million for organisations under the umbrella of the President Star Charity. Beyond fundraising, Relay Majulah endeavoured to inspire Singaporeans by sharing the determination and grit of local individuals who have persevered in their adversaries.

However, since there are a multitude of charity events in Singapore, this equated to low media interest and thus minimal coverage from the media. Hence, the challenge was to entice the media to pick up stories and narratives relating to the event and the charity itself.

PRecious Communications worked with the Relay Majulah team to meet the event’s communication objectives within a short timeline of three months.

To draw significant interest and awareness for the event and its causes, PRecious Communications identified two campaign objectives:

• Increase the visibility of the event through traditional and online coverage.
• Showcase authentic and relevant Singaporean stories via the campaign and thus hit the intended target fund of S$1 Million.

Creating Compelling People-Centric Narratives

To drive media interest for the event, PRecious Communications featured key stories from participants, highlight their background and their motivations in participating in the event.

PRecious Communications looked to feature key stories from participants to highlight their background and motivations in participating in the event, to drive media interest for the event.

With media coverage identified as being the most optimal and efficient method in achieving Relay Majulah’s goal of increasing their event presence, PRecious Communications supported the event through press release development and dissemination. The agency pitched, secured, and facilitated media interviews and press events both during the pre-event phase and on the event day itself.

Noting the lack of media interest in charity-related events, PRecious Communications proactively pitched and followed up with the media to ensure that the event stays at the “top of mind” of these media outlets and publications. Additionally, PRecious Communications worked together with the event organisers in shortlisting a few personalities with compelling background narratives from the pool of participants and profiled them to the media.

Some of these profiles include hotel manager Raymond Howe’s and his battle with cancer, and organ donor brothers Lin Hanwei and Lin Dilun.

Beyond Creative and Proactive Media Pitching

PRecious Communications also profiled well-known personalities to garner media attention for the event. These included the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin and Group Executive Chairman at Ong & Ong along with the Co-Chair of Relay Majulah, Mr Ong Tze Boon to share about the event and its causes.

Beyond creative and proactive pitching, PRecious Communications also managed the administrative and logistical preparation of the media campaign. This included the drafting of media briefing documents and media kits to ensure a coherent and consistent brand messaging by the media.

PRecious Communications secured and facilitated 14 interviews with the media during the period. This resulted in 67 pieces of coverage about the relay, interviews with runners, and spokespersons. Some of the significant coverage includes the following publications: The Straits Times, The Business Times, CNA, Channel 5, Channel 8, Capital 95.8FM, Love 972, Lianhe Zaobao, and Shin Min Daily News.

The culmination of these activities saw more than $1.6 Million raised in support of the 67 charities under the President’s Challenge, exceeding its initial target of $1 Million.