How STB is grabbing attention in the age of endless scrolling

As consumers increasingly live their lives through screens, their ability to focus is disappearing. In fact, the average attention span has dropped to just 8.25 seconds - shorter than that of a goldfish. For brands, especially in travel and tourism where discovery and emotion drive decisions, cutting through the noise has never been harder.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is meeting this challenge head-on by reshaping its marketing approach. Instead of pushing traditional ads, it is focusing on authentic pop culture partnerships, social-first branded content, and even gaming platforms to meet audiences where they are, according to Kenneth Lim, assistant chief executive, marketing group at STB, in a fireside chat at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Content360 conference in Singapore last week. 

He said: 

It is no longer just about reaching audiences. It is about capturing and maintaining their attention in those crucial first few seconds.

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Lim said STB is evolving its strategies to recognise that brands today are not only competing with other destinations, but with an endless stream of entertainment, memes and viral content. "To address this, we’ve reimagined how we tell Singapore’s story in this age of constant scrolling. This means moving beyond traditional marketing approaches to create content that not only stops the scroll, but also resonate authentically with our target audiences,” said Lim, adding the approaches include embracing pop culture partnerships, creating social-first branded content and exploring new platforms to engage audiences where they are most active.

Harnessing pop culture and creators to stay relevant

One way STB is cutting through is by tapping into pop culture. Rather than inserting itself forcefully into celebrity narratives, it seeks authentic collaborations that align naturally with the brand and personality.

A prime example is its partnership with global music sensation Coldplay. The band filmed its Man in The Moon music video in Singapore, in collaboration with Warner Music Singapore.

“We categorise this as native branded entertainment content where the content aligns with the celebrity’s usual body of work and is native to their platforms while enabling more authentic and organic engagement,” explained Lim.

The partnership with Coldplay enabled us to reach a large audience across age groups and cover many of our key source markets such as the US, UK, Indonesia, Philippines, India and China.

Beyond the music video, a destination sizzle reel was distributed across VisitSingapore’s and Coldplay’s social channels, supported by paid media. The collaboration reached over 200 million unique users, and STB achieved far higher social media engagements as compared to its usual branded marketing assets.

STB also partnered with former F1 champion Jenson Button during the Singapore Grand Prix. Instead of focusing solely on the race, STB showed that Singapore offers unexpected thrills beyond the F1 track.

Button’s adventurous spirit and strong media presence made him the ideal partner to bring this narrative to life, successfully tapping into the Grand Prix buzz and reaching motorsport fans across key markets such as the US, UK and Australia, said Lim.

“Most importantly, his penchant for speed and passion for adventures are a perfect match to Singapore’s vibrancy and energy. This natural alignment made him an ideal partner to showcase our destination’s dynamic spirit and unexpected thrills,” said Lim.

Alongside celebrity tie-ups, branded content and creator collaborations remain core to STB’s strategy. As part of its “Culinary capital” campaign under the broader "Made in Singapore" master brand platform, STB launched a 30-second music video titled What do I eat first?, fronted by Paddy Ong from indie-pop band Club Mild.

The campaign took a social-first distribution approach and worked with creators from key source markets to produce user-generated content (UGC) using the same CapCut templates from the master video. Early results showed that creator-led content significantly boosted engagement rates, reinforcing the importance of involving creators in marketing efforts.

STB also piloted its Friends of Singapore (FOSG) creator programme, engaging a network of international influencers who were already planning trips to Singapore, offering a more organic form of brand advocacy.

Exploring gaming and immersive platforms

Looking beyond traditional social platforms, STB has made a move into gaming with the launch of Singapore Wanderland on Roblox. The branded experience allows players to explore stylised versions of iconic Singapore locations such as Gardens by the Bay and Jewel Changi Airport, through a series of mini-games and challenges.

“Singapore Wanderland is part of our broader objectives to drive destination awareness, discover new and immersive ways for audiences to interact with Singapore product and engage new audiences and build communities,” said Lim.

“With a distinctly younger audience base, we had assessed Roblox to be a key platform that we can leverage to reach out to the future generation of consumers - Gen Z and Gen Alphas,” added Lim.

To bring the experience full circle, STB partnered with CapitaLand malls to offer offline rewards. Players who completed challenges in Singapore Wanderland could redeem prizes from more than 30 brands across CapitaLand malls. Since launch, Singapore Wanderland has clocked over eight million plays and reached more than four million unique users.

“While there are limitations to the level of analytics and brand lift studies that are available on Roblox, results have suggested that Roblox is a platform capable of allowing us to drive quality engagement as compared to traditional social media,” said Lim.

As consumer behaviours continue to shift, Lim said STB knows it must remain agile. "Our focus is not just on creating content that captures attention, but on building meaningful connections with audiences," he added.

By combining pop culture collaborations, creator partnerships, branded content and new platforms such as gaming, STB hopes to keep Singapore top of mind among a new generation of global travellers.

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