Background

Singapore-based telecommunications company SingTel was looking for a way to increase patronage to its stores and increase sales for its range of products and applications.

In the highly competitive field of telecommunications, SingTel needed a solution that would give it the edge in the Asian market and ultimately increase sales, brand loyalty and awareness.

Enter two Australian companies with the retail marketing experience to transform SingTel’s image.

Brisbane-born digital media company Yeahpoint teamed up with Sydney design group Public Design Group to transform the SingTel Shop-branded telecommunication retail stores into digital media hubs across Singapore in 2009.

As two separate but complementary Australian companies, Yeahpoint and Public Design Group saw the benefits of linking forces when approaching the Asian market. 

Public Design Group director Jason Pollard founded the company in Australia after working in leading design companies in the United Kingdom. Yeahpoint CEO John Anderson established his company in 2003 when he realised there was a market for custom designed retail self-service solutions.

Realising they had similar values, Anderson and Pollard capitalised on the strength that comes from working as a team.

Campaign: SingTel Shop concept
Client: SingTel
Agencies: Yeahpoint, Public Design Group

Objectives

SingTel tasked Yeahpoint and Public Design Group to create a concept store in Singapore that would act as a digital media hub, drawing together all the elements of digital technology with an original and slick interior design. The agencies wanted to bring SingTel Shops into the next generation with digital, interactive 24/7 shopping.

They designed the first new concept store that aimed to create a unique audio visual and multimedia shopping experience for SingTel customers.

The new SingTel Shop design would feature unique interactive digital media to help, turn the sales focus away from hardware and more towards content. It would also allow customers to download anything they wanted instantly in a café style environment, with the aim for the store to become a talking point for shoppers, increasing brand awareness as well as the sales.

Strategy

Yeahpoint and Public Design Group started with one store, transferring the Jurong Bay SingTel Shop into a concept store. Yeahpoint provided the digital screen technology for the store while Public Design Group developed the new store design including product re-categorisation and retail communications design.

A wealth of interactive digital screens were embedded in everything from the store’s counter tops, to create a café style shopping experience, to the store’s glass walls which are accessible from outside the store allowing customers to buy product even after the store has closed.

The overall concept for the store included five separate multi-media zones where customers could purchase anything from a new mobile phone to movies, music or ring tones for their existing phone, all by touching a screen inside or outside of the store at any time of the day.

They also decided to move away from the white, clean, bright style being adopted by many companies and introduced deeper, darker tones to create a unique mood that were more intimate and enveloping.

Execution

After a three-month trial with the first concept store, the success was evidence enough for SingTel to commission a second concept store, which opened in April 2009. 

The subsequent success of this store also has meant SingTel has now commissioned Yeahpoint and Public Design Group to roll out the new-store format in all its SingTel Shop branded stores across Singapore in 2010.

Results

SingTel has experienced increased patronage and profile of its concept stores that in turn have encouraged sales (up 20% per store), and the positive results have seen the company decide to roll out the design across all of its existing stores immediately.

The creation of the concept stores had some encouraging results:

• Customer satisfaction increased by 350%
• Media coverage achieved internationally for the launch of the new concept store in 2009
• SingTel Shop design won ‘Best Retail Concept of the Year’ at the 2009 Singapore Retail Awards
• Design also won at the 2009 POPAI Awards in Sydney
• SingTel will roll out new store formats across a further 11 SingTel Shop, and
• SingTel is encouraging the transformation of the 104 dealer network stores that exist across Asia.

Success has been much quicker for SingTel, with Public Design Group director Jason Pollard saying projects such as this need to be profitable in the first two or three years.

By taking their industries overseas, both Yeahpoint and the Public Design Group have widened their potential markets and experienced growth in a time of recession.

Now the two companies are working to transform all 11 of the existing SingTel Shop branded stores across Singapore, as well as working with other telecommunication retailers across Asia, including Globe in the Philippines and Bharti Airtel in India.