Singapore Tourism Board partners iQIYI to position SG as exclusive destination partner

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Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has partnered with iQIYI to feature Singapore as the exclusive destination partner for the third season of its variety competition Youth with You 3. IQIYI's VP of international business Kuek Yu-Chuang said its multi-year partnership with STB is one of the ways iQIYI has been expanding its global footprint and it is on the lookout for more partners. According to iQIYI's spokesperson, more concrete details about the partnership with STB will be shared in the next few months.

The spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that it is currently conceptualising creative methods that will allow the company to reach out to fans in Southeast Asia, who have shown significant support for Youth with You Season 2 earlier this year. The spokesperson declined to comment further on what the partnership entails and what marketing strategies will be implemented to promote the partnership. STB declined to comment on MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's queries.

After a series of evaluations, group performances, and eliminations, the show will culminate in the last few episodes when the final nine trainees will be crowned as the next up-and-coming idol group in China. Among the list of sponsors that came on board for the previous seasons include Darlie, Kiehl's, Armani Beauty and Mengniu Zhenguoli Huaguoqingru. According to iQIYI, during the two-month broadcast of the second season alone, official Youth with You 2-related videos attracted over 300 million views on YouTube, with 73 video clips reaching more than one million views each. Over 429 related hashtags were trending on Twitter across 15 countries across Asia, Europe, South America and North America.

Besides the partnership, iQIYI is also growing its global footprint by bringing 100 pop idol trainees together and pairing them with celebrity mentors such as BLACKPINK's Lisa, S.H.E's Ella Chen, and Chinese rapper Jonny J from season two. The show will also be made available to international audiences via its app and website in subtitles including Chinese, English, Thai, Malay and Korean. Separately in August this year, iQIYI inked a partnership with South Korean entertainment and merchandising company CJ ENM HK to bring the latter's SVOD service tvN Movies to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. CJ ENM HK said the partnership aims to better satisfy the growing demands for both South Korean movies and quality streaming service in Southeast Asia.

In a previous conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Elaine Tan, head of sales at iQIYI, said the company is very focused on strengthening its content in Southeast Asia with established key genres such as variety shows, period dramas, as well as mystery thrillers. It has already invested in shows that feature Southeast Asian actors from Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. Recently, it also partnered with a Thai production company to bring a Generation Y series outside of Thailand. iQIYI aims to launch all these shows within the next year.

Additionally, Tan said iQIYI's advertising business is expanding alongside its content library. "Our partners recognise that good content will bring a lot of eyeballs, and a large percentage of these partners have extended their campaigns of us or started more campaigns with us. With new shows coming up, we are very excited to value add to our current as well as future ad partners," she added.

Meanwhile in September, iQIYI came under the spotlight after netizens were confused about the logo it used to for is #AnakMalaysia (child of Malaysia) campaign. Several netizens mistook the logo for "Anal Malaysia" instead of "Anak Malaysia" and some even commented that it took them awhile to realise the letter "K" in the design. While iQIYI later removed the poster from its social media channels, images of the promotional poster circulated online. The company then clarified on social media that the logo was meant to read "Anak Malaysia" and nothing else.

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Photo courtesy: 123RF

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