Sentosa adopts a Moana vibe for holiday campaign

A charming child in tropical garb jaunts around singing about the pleasures of a sun-drenched, idyllic island. And there's a talking crab. But this isn't a certain 2016 Disney musical featuring Dwayne Johnson. It's a new campaign from Sentosa Development Corp by BBH Singapore.

To be clear for any lawyers who may be reading this, neither the client nor the agency has mentioned Moana in any way whatsoever, though they do admit the campaign "borrows the style of classic musicals and children's films".

Ad Nut doesn't mind, and you won't either. First of all, Moana is a great film and Ad Nut welcomes any opportunity to think about it. More to the point, it's an apt match for the feeling the client wishes to invoke among potential visitors. And secondly, the 'Island boy' film has enough silly moments to come across as a lovingly wink-wink tribute. The song is not up to the level of greatness in Moana, but it's got the right feeling, and seriously, who can compete with Lin Manuel Miranda?

The campaign launches today and will carry on for six months on social, digital and OOH channels. The brand did a survey that found that 56% of Singaporeans have not used their annual leave, and it has launched this campaign alongside some special offers meant to encourage locals to 'Make Time for a Holiday'.

This is BBH's second launch of an Ad Nut-approved campaign in as many days. Nice work, folks!

CREDITS

Client: Sentosa Development Corporation
Chief Marketing Officer: Lynette Ang
Director, Brand, Marketing and Communications: Mira Bharin
Senior Assistant Director, Brand & Marketing: Elaine Quek

Agency: BBH Singapore
Chief Creative Officer: Sascha Kuntze
Group Creative Directors: Janson Choo & Khairul Mondzi
Creative Director: Omar Sotomayor
Senior Art Director: Kenneth Foo
Senior Copywriter: Adeline Siow
Business Director: Ross Henderson
Account Director: Manavi Sharma
Account Manager: Shu Li Tan
Head of Strategy: Rebecca Ash
Senior Strategist: Zoe Chen
Agency Producers: Joshua Tan & Shawn Chew
Director: Martin Hong
Production Company: Abundant Productions
Music & Audio Production: Fuse Adventures in Audio

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