Singapore Tourism Board aims at breaking misconceptions of solo female travel through web series

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB), in collaboration with social travel platform - Tripoto, has launched a six-episode web series- ‘On My Own in Singapore’.

The web series showcases a young female traveller’s journey in Singapore. The branded content piece is primarily aimed at breaking the misconceptions of solo female travel.

The series launch of ‘On My Own in Singapore’ was held on March 24, 2023 in Delhi. The event was attended by its lead actor Vidushi Kaul, the protagonist- Marzia, who shared anecdotes from her experience filming in Singapore and her own personal discoveries on the city-state. 

GB Srithar

In an interaction with BuzzInContent.com on the launch of the same, GB Srithar, Regional Director for India, Middle East, South Asia and Africa, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), stated that STB’s view of India is that the country is a very important source market for Singapore albeit in terms of family travel, cruise, lifestyle destination for young Indian audiences, etc.

“For us the key strategy is going and engaging the early careers, i.e- the young Indian audiences, as 67% of India is under the age of 35 years which makes it a very important segment for us to engage with and present Singapore’s lifestyle, events, entertainment offerings,” he added.

Srithar stated that when it comes to collaborations, STB is on the lookout of like-minded partners for branded content, travel-trade partners, working in an event to engage the consumers.

During the course of the interaction, he also shared that STB had earlier collaborated with Tripoto in the past for a seven-episode web series- ‘Trails 2 Passion’ and stated, “This is because Tripoto has got a huge travel community and there is a lot of ‘authenticity’ to their stories because it is the travellers who are telling the stories for fellow travellers, or even fellow potential travellers. Therefore, Tripoto is a huge platform for us to bring across messages that will be useful for the travel communities sitting within Tripoto.”

Furthermore, Srithar also went on to point out that the key platforms for the showcasing of the webseries would be Tripoto and Singapore Tourism Board’s individual handles on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as of now. 

“Singapore Tourism Board is very calibrated in picking the right partner to work with and one of the key things is strategic alignment of thinking of how to engage the audiences that one wants to engage and in that aspect, Tripoto is very aligned with our thoughts as it represents unknown or less known sites of Singapore, which are very important as part of promoting different experiences of a destination like Singapore. Secondly, Tripoto also aligns with us in content presentation i.e- presenting useful information in a very fun and entertaining way,” he added.

Raymond Lim

Additionally, Raymond Lim, Area Director- New Delhi Office, Singapore Tourism Board, also pointed out that the other reason behind collaborating with Tripoto for the launch of the webseries was that Tripoto is a leading partner for the travel community as a lot of its content is UGC and the audience who follow Tripoto also fall in line with what STB chases after, in terms of young millennials who have a different psyche for travel.

“When it comes to Tripoto, there is already a very organic traffic to the platform and therefore the web series launch will be on the official handles of both our platforms initially and then we are looking at finding ways we can amplify our asset on other platforms over the next three-five months,” he added.

Anirudh Gupta, Founder and CEO, Tripoto, added, “At Tripoto, our endeavour has been to curate custom made travel plans for people based on their passions. When it comes to women travelling solo, they typically opt for destinations that offer a blend of relaxation, adventure, shopping and party. This entertainment format of the web-series is our innovative way of reaching out to this segment of female travellers, and Singapore serves as the perfect setting to tell the story of empowerment in everyday heroines like Marzia.”

Taking on the short-and-crisp format, ‘On My Own in Singapore’ is a light story that takes a peek into the mind of Marzia, a 29-year-old who undertakes her solo bachelorette trip in Singapore. Spoofed by her friends into making the solo trip, she discovers many surprises in Singapore on her own that reconnect with her inner self. 

The show is directed by Shreeya Tiwari, who has been associated with other projects such as Josef in Exile and An Anarchy of Existence. 

Upon being questioned as to how is the branded content piece subtly integrating STB and Tripoto in its storyline rather than putting the brands behind the content right at the audience’s face, Srithar replied, “The central focus is on the character- Marzia who is telling all the women in India that a character like herself who is looking for self discovery and exploring what her passions are and in doing so Singapore has become an integral part of the story as it is the destination where she discovers herself and that is what precisely calls for an engaging viewing for the audiences.”

Similarly, Lim also went on to add that in the current times, marketing has evolved and that it is no more about putting the product on the face and rather about what is the story that one is trying to tell. 

“Therefore, our main idea in this fictional series was to tell the story of a young woman in India who is on a solo trip. If one were to ask their nearest and dearest ones of going on a solo trip, a decade back, the response would have been very different from what it is today and that difference has mainly been brought by empowerment and that is what we also want to push forward,” he said.

Furthermore, he also went on to add that there is brand placement that does take place in the web series and shared that in one of the instances, Marzia is drinking water from a water bottle which has Tripoto written on it.

During the interaction, the STB Team also highlighted that prior to going through with the web series, both STB and Tripoto had done a survey to find out the pulse of Indian travellers. They found out that Singapore had emerged as a favoured destination for Indian travellers interested in nightlife and cruises and that more than two-fifths (41%) responded stating that the range of activities was pivotal to them choosing their next destination for a holiday.

Throwing light on the challenges that came across during the making of the branded content piece, the STB team emphasised that the most difficult thing to do was to pick up on the experiences that needed to be showcased in the webseries.

As per Lim, the one challenge that overrode the rest of the challenges was how to make the story ‘real’ because even though it is fiction, it must address a ‘real situation’ and that the experiences showcased in the webseries live up to what Singapore has to offer to women solo travellers.

“Engaging creativity was a challenge as we didn’t want to have a story that seemed to be very forced and un-entertaining as the working millennials are exposed to very creative content therefore coming up with the right story and keeping them engaged in the creative content was a challenge. Also, STB didn’t want to be in a position where we are overselling Singapore and that is why authenticity was a major role player,” added Srithar.