Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Lynette Pang, Singapore Tourism Board

Lynette Pang

Assistant chief executive (Marketing Group)
Singapore Tourism Board
Singapore
Returning member

As borders have shut and travel has come to a grinding halt, CMOs at travel boards and brands worldwide have had to devise new purpose for their marketing activities. While promoting a destination may appear tone deaf at this time, it is also important for marketers to keep consumers engaged with a different tone of campaigns. 

At Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Lynette Pang, over the past few months has overseen the launch of several marketing programs to encourage creativity across the tourism industry, and to build travel demand for Singapore when the global situation improves. Some examples are a $20 million initiative for attractions, hotels, inbound travel agents and the MICE sector and the $2 million SG Stories Content Fund, which aims to help local and international content creators tell stories of resilience and  solidarity in Singapore.

STB has tried new marketing partnerships to help the industry test new and innovative concepts to keep Singapore top-of-mind as a business and leisure destination. For instance, Pang has led a collaboration with home-grown nightlife brand Zouk to organise Zouk Phuturescapes, a weekend virtual rave which brought entertainment and nightlife to the homes of local and international audiences, and partnered Branded to roll out Music Matters Live From Home, a weekly music show featuring collaborations between Singapore and global music talents.

STB and Pang work closely with industry stakeholders through the STB-led Tourism Recovery Action Task Force to co-create domestic and international recovery campaigns. The focus of these partnerships is to test new ideas, drive demand, co-create campaigns and content and upskill and reskill people.

Until the pandemic struck, STB’s marketing team had been busy burnishing the city state’s reputation as a tourist magnet. Pang has run targeted campaigns to consumers in proximate markets such as China and Vietnam and casting its net further afield to South Korea and The United States.

To promote Singapore as a destination, Pang had previously struck strategic deals with the likes of Alibaba Group (a three-year pact to co-develop marketing campaigns and content, collaborate on in-bound Chinese travellers’ analytics and insights), SIA and Changi Airport (for co-promotions across 19 markets) and brand deals with Tiger Beer.

Pang is a votary of Asia’s ad industry network, both by serving as an executive committee member of the WFA and by running an online portal called STB Marketing College to share learnings across the industry and promotes collaboration between Singaporean talent and brands with in-market talent.  STB’s tie-up with Tiger Beer for the Tiger Roar: YŪKI Edition festival in Tokyo, Japan in October 2019, saw Singaporean chef Aaron Wong and Japanese chef Sakura Akimoto collaborate on four dishes, while local artist Tan Zi Xi or MessyMsxi teamed up with watercolourist Yoshitaka Nishigaki to create an artwork of a tiger and Japanese icons.