With 171 shopping malls in Singapore’s tiny 728 sq km footprint, the opening of a new venue doesn’t often spark the attention of shoppers or the media. However when details of Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ) were released by Lendlease – a mixed-use development in the East contributing vital resources to an important urban regeneration plan – we had the opportunity to deliver a place-making launch strategy and generate buzz that would cultivate a loyal and engaged community.
In the pre-opening phase, our team of 50 Guest Experience experts gathered feedback from 1500+ shoppers and ran intricate testing over several weeks to fully understand the potential risks with navigation, wayfinding, accessibility, and customer service, allowing us to identify and address pain points of the guest experience.
For the grand opening, we hosted 200 guests at an exclusive launch event in PLQ’s main Plaza including VIPs from Lendlease Australia, Singapore’s Transport Minister Lawrence Wong, and many members of regional media. Footage of our customised vertical domino structure was broadcast on Channel News Asia as our guests of honour activated the launch mechanism and brought the dominos cascading down to officially declare the mall open.
In the 4 days that followed the grand opening, our team on-site managed entertainment for over 10,000 shoppers who danced the night away with a silent disco every evening, performances by 15 unique acrobatic acts from across Asia, free gigs by the hottest Singaporean bands, and tons of ways to redeem shopping receipts for our ultra Instagrammable personalised cookies and unicorn candy floss.