Singaporean Millennials Can’t Recall SEA Games Sponsors

In a survey of 1,436 respondents between 18 and 24 August, even the 16% who could recall any sponsors could only name one or two, Happi found. Official SEA Games sponsors include Grab, Air Asia, Ajinomoto, Petronas, Prudential and Sony, among others.

Happi also revealed that 39% of Singapore millennials are not following the games while 50% said they are keeping up with the results. This is despite 94% of respondents saying they had heard of the event. Fewer than 14% of those following are watching the games on television.

“Millennials are living their lives on Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat,” said Greg Lipper, founder of Happi. “It’s the organisers, media rights holders, and brands that need to figure out a way to make the Southeast Asian Games more relevant and appealing to this younger generation. Live streams and online highlights are just the beginning. Organisers and broadcasters need to think about how to excite and execute for digital audiences before the 2019 games in the Philippines.”

Ben Heyhoe Flint, CEO of ASN also commented on the research study via his LinkedIn channel saying “Are the #sponsors activating in Singapore? Not that I’ve seen. We rest our case…. Happy to stand corrected”

Sponsor of the Singapore National Olympic Committee, Singtel, has activated the Games by telling the back-stories of Singapore’s athlete heroes competing in KL, in a similar way to 2 years ago when Singapore hosted. Here‘s an example of the content.