Allison Lim, BM’s managing director in Singapore, was quick to point out that the appointment had no connection to Selamat’s escape, which has proved a national embarrassment for the city’s highly regarded prison service.
Lim said: “I must qualify that the Mas Selamat situation affects the whole of Singapore. It is not a prisons issue per sé.”
The tender for the statutory board’s PR bi-yearly review was raised in January 2008 while the account was awarded to BM following a seven-way pitch against Crush, Edelman, Fleishman-Hillard, Hill & Knowlton, OgilvyPR and Resonance.
BM has been briefed to oversee Singapore Prisons’ communications in “new media, issues management and brand guardianship”, and also to boost recruitment for officers.
“It was very important to win as it offers us the chance to continue our work with a very unique client,” explained Lim.
The agency will be extending its work on Prisons’ ‘Captains of lives’ programme that looks at rehabilitating and counseling inmates for a second chance in life when they are released.
BM has held the account since 2000.