Singapore Airlines missed the chance of a lifetime by failing to make it into Crazy Rich Asians
While Changi Airport and Marina Bay Sands were shown in their full glory in the movie, Singapore Airlines failed to make it into what was in effect the big-screen marketing opportunity of a lifetime for the brand – writes Nick Foley of Landor
One of my colleagues in New York recently asked me if I had flown Pacific Asean Airlines and whether I would recommend them. I had to stop and think where I had seen that brand before. My first reaction was to advise my colleague he was mistaken and that the airline in question was actually Asiana Airlines.
Then it hit me as I recalled sitting in my local cinema at I12 Katong watching the hit movie Crazy Rich Asians a couple of weeks before. The recollection was not a positive one due to the adverse reaction I observed from those seated around me to the Pacific Asean Airlines plane pulling up at Changi’s terminal three.
In Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel, the main character Nick Young invites his girlfriend, Rachael Chu, to fly with him from New York to his family home in Singapore. Being a loyal Singaporean, in the book Nick chooses to fly Singapore Airlines.
Due to his family’s dynastic wealth, Nick books Singapore Airlines suites for the trip. Oddly enough, the movie deviates awkwardly from the book with the two leading characters flying on a generic airline that doesn’t actually exist.
The gasp from the audience at my local cinema was palpable, as Nick and Rachael’s arrival at Changi Airport came up on the big screen. While the audience expected to see a white A380 sidling up to gate A5, nobody expected to see anything other than the super jumbo adorned in the familiar blue and gold livery of SIA – with the stately gold Kris emblazoned on its tailfin. ‘Tut-tuts’ and ‘oh nos’ ran through the audience like a veritable tsunami.
It is reasonable to suggest the movie is the best two-hour advertisement Singapore has ever had. Savvy, witty, engaging and stylishly produced. There can be little doubt that Jon M. Chu’s romantic comedy, set in the city state, has it all.
Encouragingly, a number of iconic Singapore brands appear in the movie. As the couple walk through the spacious arrival hall of Changi Airport, it’s clear why it is the best airport in the world. Marina Bay Sands too provides a stunning backdrop as the couple approach the city in Nick’s friend’s open top Land Rover. And, when love takes a wrong turn a gleaming, bright, blue, Comfort Cab is there to swiftly take Rachael back to the airport.
So, if Crazy Rich Asians was good enough for some of Singapore’s most iconic brands, why wasn’t it good enough for Singapore Airlines? We might never know the real story.
But when big name brands refuse a cameo in a movie there are typically only two explanations. Firstly, the producers want a not insubstantial fee to depict the said brand in their production. The producers of James Bond films have this approach down to a fine art.
Alternatively, if the owners of a brand feel that a movie does not align with the values of their brand then the offer to depict their brand is not accepted. A number of different reports have now surfaced implying that the custodians of the Singapore Airlines brand declined the opportunity to feature one of their world-class A380s in the movie.
If the reports are correct and senior management at the airline really did say ‘no’, then one could be excused for thinking the airline just looked the gift horse of the century in the mouth. Worldwide box office revenue for Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson’s delightful production of Kwan’s novel depicting romance in the island nation has just pushed through the US$230 million mark. Most companies would be clambering over one another to get their brand featured in such a hit.
It is the type of free publicity that most marketers can only dream of. Indeed, one of SIA’s key competitors – Qantas – recently worked diligently behind the scenes to ensure Australia’s national carrier secured a brief cameo in the trilogy for the Crocodile Dundee series.
Although, as it turned out, Crocodile Dundee 3 was a witty hoax, with the all the hype being nothing more than a clever decoy for the latest commercial for Tourism Australia. Regardless, Qantas benefitted handsomely from the free significant publicity the spoof generated.
Perhaps the link that can be drawn from the contrasting approaches from Qantas and Singapore Airlines respective marketing teams is this. One team calculated the risk was worth taking while the other defaulted to risk avoidance – although it still remains unclear just where the risk in Crazy Rich Asians lay and whether it was SIA or the producers that eventually said ‘no’.
Evidently, Qantas faced a real risk. A lot of people believed Paul Hogan really was coming back to star as the audacious reptile hunter in the croc-infested waters of Australia’s far north. When it turned out to be nothing more than a hoax aired to millions at the 2018 Super Bowl, the downside for Qantas could have been substantial.
The final intriguing aspect to the absence of a genuine airline in Singapore’s biggest box office hit is that at around the time Crazy Rich Asians was being released, Singapore Airlines was preparing to resume the world’s longest flight between Singapore and – you guessed it – New York.
One doesn’t need to hold a degree in public relations to understand just how much the synergy from these two events could have been leveraged to the airline’s benefit. Since Crazy Rich Asians best-selling novel status, Kevin Kwan has gone on to author two more books. China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems. In the event these books are made into movies and an airline is featured, I truly hope Singapore Airlines reconsiders taking on a support role – again, assuming it was the airline’s decision not to participate in part one of the trilogy.
Helping my colleagues in America understand exactly where the thriving metropolis of Singapore is located on a global map is hard enough, without having to explain that you can’t actually catch a Pacific Asean Airlines A380 there.
Foley: SIA missed a chance to be in the best two-hour ad Singapore has ever witnessed
Nick Foley is president of South East Asia-Pacific and Japan at WPP brand consultancy firm Landor
Hindsight is a lovely thing, isn’t it?
ReplyRisk aversion, while essential in the day to day operations of an airline, is a deep malaise running through the psyche of Singapore. From medicine to art to news to marketing it holds the country back in real and damaging ways.
ReplyI’m pretty sure SIA doesn’t need the advertisement. Having said that, I seriously doubt the audience reaction Nick claims to have experienced really happened. In my screening and in that of most of my friends’ it was largely filled with chuckles and snickering at the ham-fisted and inaccurate portrayal on screen. The movie barely resembles Singapore. SIA did the right thing in not associating themselves with the film. Free exposure shouldn’t come at the cost of your brand alienating its wider customer base.
ReplyAgreed – total missed opportunity. Such an obvious gap not filled and so much marketing value lost.
ReplyThe marketing director at SQ and anyone involved with this decision should be shown the door. It is difficult to even comprehend how bad a decision this is from a marketing point of view. The books were already hugely popular and the movie (about rich people) was definitely going to be appealing.
It is not just risk aversion it is [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] on the part of SQ’s marketing department and shows once again that most [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] brands continue to be followers and not leaders in marketing.
Fedex agreed to be in a movie (Castaway) when their plane was actually shown crashing and the brand still did brilliantly from being involved.
Reply“The gasp from the audience at my local cinema was palpable, as Nick and Rachael’s arrival at Changi Airport came up on the big screen…….. ‘Tut-tuts’ and ‘oh no’s’ ran through the audience like a veritable tsunami.”
Wow… that is one annoying ass neighbourhood cinema if that’s the movie experience. Never knew [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
ReplyCan’t beat a nice well-timed article
And one that raises a point that absolutely no-one else has raised before
[sarcasm alert]
ReplyThe pervasiveness of SIA as a brand is undisputed.
ReplyWhich cinema viewer (save for those not its target market) would watch a movie about Singapore and assume the airline shown is any other brand?
Why pay money for product placement when there’s no other competitor to hijack the association?
No harm no foul just because the marketing bozos chose not to be involved.
Anyone who questions the risk for SIA clearly doesn’t know the challenges SIA faces. Or the profitability of commercial aviation.
SIA has a high dependance on business travellers.
Appearing in a movie which celebrates excess and extravagance doesn’t go down well with CFOs who have to approve travel expenses.
That’s why SIA has to reconfigure its first class cabin sky suites on the A380 at great cost as it was utilised.
People [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] are a bane in the industry, lacking perspective to properly judge how and why brands operate the way they do in local and regional markets. In all that fluff there isn’t one objective point raised as to how SIA lost marketing opportunity. Not shown in the movie so opportunity lost? So what? SIA spends millions in global campaigns that actually sell their value to their audience base without making themselves look like they are the poster boys of opulence and decadence.
ReplyAlso, Changi Airport and MBS are locations first, brands second. It’s only inevitable they are going to show up in a movie set in Singapore lol. If you can’t tell the difference in marketing opportunity for different brands, you really shouldn’t be telling others how to run their business.
ReplyThe author of the book is persona non grata in singapore. Were he to land here, he would be whisked away to answer questions about his national service obligations. It is easy to see why there wasn’t a hope in hell that a national jewel like SIA would not want to be associated with him.
ReplyHindsight is 20/20. Easy for you to say. Had it been a flop, would you have written this article? And like someone up in the thread said, Singapore Airlines does not need any further promotion with their world-class service known all over. Taking a risk on a movie adds little value and more permanent damaging consequences if the movie happened to go the other way. One doesn’t need to hold a degree in public relations to know that it’s easy to make judgements fter the fact.
p/s, I don’t think Quantas is Singapore Airlines is a _key_ competitor as you’ve put it in your context, do you even know your Airlines? Competitor perhaps, but definitely not one to define as a _key_ competitor.
ReplyWhat utter drivel. SQ might be a household name in Singapore but the rest of the world couldn’t care less. And that’s the whole point! The movie gives you a red carpet intro all over the world. If you can’t see that I really do despair. If the movie flops, too bad. That’s what’s known as risk. And without risk there’s no glory.
Reply“SIA is ranked as the world’s best airline in 2018, while winning the top spot in three other categories in the same year including “Best First Class”, “Best First Class Airline Seat” and “Best Airline in Asia ”
Yea. First class analysis Nicko. Like someone else commented, this is why brand consultants are laughed out of the room.
ReplySQ CEO is a [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
ReplyThis is a classic example why the KPMGs and Accentures of the world have an audience in front of client CEOs instead of brand consultants.
ReplyBrand consultancies view the environment via narrow lens and selective filters.
Business consultancies take a 360 view of the business, not just a 360 view of media opportunities.
Great article Nick. I totally agree with you Singapore Airlines, our favourite airline, were very myopic in passing up this awesome product placement and marketing opportunity. Like you, I also look forward to seeing them in the next installment of the Crazy Rich movie trilogy.
ReplyPerhaps SIA didn’t think such movie like Crazy Rich Asian would make it to the big screen & become so successful so their usual approach just to be safe & remain conservative was to decline and decide that they have anything to do with the film.
ReplySure they are now kicking themselves in their butts for not making such brave & rewarding decision had they allow the movie production team to showcase SIA’s iconic new A380 Suite class follow by the launch of the world’s longest flight from NY to SIngapore!
Lesson to learn? SIA should reconsider their position again should Kwan gets the opportunity to film Crazy Rich Asian part 2 as the rumors go!
As a fellow in the neighbouring Malaysia I find it really hard to believe that a Singaporean or Singaporean brand to be risk averse. They are the ‘kiasu’ (adventurous) afterall. Are you sure they reject the free ad to avoid risk, or maybe it is because they consider the film not ‘kiasu’ enough?
ReplyJudging by the shit they keep pushing out via National Geographic SIA doesn’t and WILL nevr have the balls to do anything “out of the square”. Having worked with them for many years they are the most risk averse and ‘brand timid’. They will never make any massive strides under the current leadership group…a bunch of [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. The airline is a mirror image of the [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
ReplyI think SIA dodged a bullet. How can our national airline here in Singapore be backing a script that was written by somebody who ran away from serving his national service. This is the story STB isn’t talking about with Crazy Rich Asians. It was an internal disaster. Having SIA featured in the film would not have moved their brand an inch forward. It is sad enough that we have to use some UK-born Henry Golding, a lad who even the [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. This film was only partly shot in Singapore and the wanted [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] writer, Keven Kwan couldn’t step foot in the country to showcase the movies premier. He was hanging out it KL someplace with his boys. So no, with respect, I don’t think STB properly vetted this popcorn romance creative team with enough vigilance. They were all caught by surprise when ST jumped them with the leaked story the very morning after the premier. SIA is such a strong brand, it can keep on doing their Singapore girl forever. Let’s face it, Advertising and branded content is not going to make much of a difference either way.
ReplyHave your say