Island life has been good to Maurice Williams. Sentosa Leisure Group's marketing director obviously relishes his spot outside the hustle and bustle of the agency whirlpool, but it would be unwise to let the surroundings deceive you. Williams is on a mission to turn Sentosa into one of Asia's premier leisure destinations.
Since arriving at the resort island in 2003, Williams has been charged with overseeing the evolution of the Sentosa brand, a task which involves, in his words, "making local people more proud of the brand", while also moving into more premium territory.
"A lot of Singaporeans grew up with a very teenybopper imagery of Sentosa, and it ended up being a school excursion," says Williams of the previous 'Island life, love it' positioning. "The first objective of the branding campaign was to change perceptions of the island, and get people comfortable with paying a slightly premium price."
Working closely with brand agency Tequila/TBWA, Williams is working to shift Sentosa's identity to 'Take a new look', in an bid to entice domestic consumers into making repeat visits. Now well underway, the second phase of the brand campaign involves efforts to zone the island into three distinct areas: beach, activity and nature.
Assisting Williams in this endeavour, of course, is a S$10 million (US$5.9 million) budget, 60 per cent of which goes to branding, and the other 40 per cent to tactical, which is handled by AGI Communications. "We've looked to connect with consumers domestically first, but internationally we also target the trade audiences." Large budgets are nothing new for Williams, who worked on such brands as Tiger Beer and adidas during an agency career that included stints at McCann Erickson, DDB and Lloyd Martin-FCB. A rapid rise saw Williams featured in The Straits Times as an upcoming advertising professional, before he made the leap to MediaCorp in the late '90s. Ironically, Sentosa's gain is the Air Force's loss. Williams harboured a long-standing desire to become a pilot but after nine months as a pilot trainee a fall put paid to those aspirations, and he began a new career in Petromin Publishing in 1985, before shifting to DNC Advertising.
Focus and brand advertising are the two lessons Williams says he learned from his time on the agency side. "It's about courage to say what you want to say. You can only have courage if you have a proper plan in place, but too many people in advertising don't practise what they have learned about broadcast and narrowcast and how they should always use the correct medium approach."
The third stage of Sentosa's brand evolution will be to market the entire 'southern connection', comprising the Harbourfront Mall, Vivo City and the island itself. It is all a far cry from the days when Sentosa Leisure Group operated primarily as a landlord; the news that Forbes will hold its Global CEO Forum for three years on the island from 2006, in conjunction with the Singapore Open golf tournament at Sentosa Golf Club, coming as an apposite illustration of the new approach. "We don't treat them as tenants any more, they are very much a part of all our programmes and it is as much their island as it is ours," explains Williams. "There are vehicles that are going to carry our message ever further. Without taking on a world event such as Forbes, we would have to spend a lot of advertising dollars." Further ahead, of course, is the integrated resort -- complete with a casino -- that will also boost Sentosa's profile to the global audience. "We are very excited about it but it's very important for us to ensure that the Sentosa brand remains at the forefront."