Ogilvy 'still life' a hit for Raffles City mall

The Australian theatre company Urban Dream Capsule spent 15 days cooking, eating, sleeping and showering in a shop window in Raffles City mall as part of the Singapore Arts Festival.

The four men were sealed in the shop window and were on display for 24 hours each day. They would also interact with passer-bys and the audience through sign language and movement.

The unusual performance garnered considerable publicity in the local press. So when client Raffles City wanted to do an advertorial to promote the performance in its last week, Ogilvy Action challenged the brief.

Said Laura Gordon, senior account director at Ogilvy Action: "We felt that it wasn't the best use of the client's budget, so we counter-proposed with the idea of the mannequins as a piece of guerilla advertising instead. It's a more cost-effective use of the client's money."

Ogilvy Action placed three mannequins strategically around MRT stations near the Raffles City shopping mall. The dummies were made to look like they were begging, complete with missing body parts. One, without missing limbs, was made to look like a busker armed with an electric guitar. All three were accompanied by a sign written on cardboard saying: 'Real people. Now featured in a Raffles City shop window.'

According to Gordon, the idea came about because the team didn't want to focus on the act itself.

The team started thinking about how the mannequins would be thrown out of work once the actors took over the shop window. That is how they got the idea of the mannequins begging in the street.

In the last week of the performance, the Ogilvy Action team would take each of the three mannequins and situate them strategically outside Raffles Place, Bugis and Dhoby Ghaut MRT stations just before lunchtime.

In addition to being just a stop away from the performance venue, these stations also have high foot traffic. The aim was to remind people of Urban Dream Capsule and to get people to jump on the train to have a look at the performance, said Gordon.

In addition, Ogilvy Action also put out print ads in the local dailies using a visual of the mannequin begging with the same tagline. While Ogilvy did not track the response rate of their guerilla campaign, the mannequins certainly caught the attention of passers-by.