Existence soon after marketing with Lynette Ang
8 min readLynette Ang, former CMO of Sentosa, had no quick options to commence up a business enterprise just after leaving company lifetime last 12 months. In truth, she required to seize the option to unwind and get a great break, specifically soon after spending 28 years in the company globe. Even so, what started out as a interest of making candles and system butters finally turned into an formal enterprise with an e-retail outlet. In this most current episode of Lifestyle Right after Marketing, Ang shares how she ended up founding her most current business enterprise venture, The Scent Apothecary, and what it was like advertising a tourist vacation spot for the duration of the pandemic.

Just before leaving Sentosa final year, Ang and the group labored to push footfall to the island with a brand name campaign titled “Make Time for a Holiday getaway”. It also partnered with tenants to roll out over 50 new offerings. Themed all-around Island Life, Heritage Discovery, Wellness Escape, and Character Adventure, the choices are mentioned to element hybrid leisure activities that combine on-site and virtual elements. When social restrictions have been in place through past year’s circuit breaker in Singapore, Ang and her crew also launched its own model of Sentosa Crossing, a digital reimagination of Sentosa island in the well-liked Nintendo Switch recreation, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Listen to the total episode here.

Promoting-INTERACTIVE: Could you explain to us a bit a lot more about what you are carrying out ideal now?

Ang: For me, it is really about the suitable time and there under no circumstances really was a right time [to leave corporate life]. I have counted the a long time I’ve been in company and it has been 28 prolonged decades. So that type of prompted me to choose a stage back again and inquire if I want to continue on on devoid of taking a break. All over the 28 yrs, I have never ever genuinely taken a break. The longest split I’ve taken was a few months in in between two work, but these a few months ended up because my son was undertaking his Primary University Leaving Exams (PSLE) so I was a PSLE mum.

This time all-around I felt that at this position in time it is fantastic to consider a split. And 28 many years is a long time, and I suppose I’ve often been in advertising and advertising, aside from my very first work which was consulting for two a long time appropriate. But immediately after that, it was genuinely advertising, advertising, manufacturer, PR, and afterwards on, I did extra profits and visitor encounter. As you progress in the company environment, your tasks get heavier and a large amount of instances in the advertising circle, there is in no way genuinely a downtime. When you are on a job, it is just higher crucial all the time. Irrespective of whether it is launching a marketing campaign, making ready for the upcoming marketing campaign, undertaking displays, handling stakeholders, taking care of board users, managing a variety of forms of communications, it genuinely is higher important all the time.

So that genuinely prompted me to say “Why not acquire a crack and try a thing different? Why not just just take a split and see what will come along, see what tickles your extravagant and then do that?”. I remaining Sentosa officially on the 31 December 2020 but since I experienced so significantly depart to apparent, I stopped doing work at the stop of November. With Christmas coming up, I decided that why not resurrect my joy of making candles? I started off generating candles a couple of decades back, but that was much more for exciting and for gifting. When I was preparing for what to do in December past yr, I considered: “Christmas is coming up, why not make some candles, set them on Carousell, see what is the uptake, converse to relatives and friends and see if they want them?” Amazingly, the need was really great.

When I began to make the candles, I also then resolved to master a small little bit a lot more about fragrances and aromatherapy. So I went to Udemy and downloaded programs and also learnt how to make body care solutions. So I made a decision to also make system treatment goods and use my loved ones as guinea pigs by gifting people to them. So regardless of whether it was the body butters, overall body balms, or body cleaners, they felt it labored for them. When the products and solutions arrived out, I kind of modelled them immediately after Aesop but I termed it “affordable Aesop”. Subsequently, I started a Shopify keep and a good friend of mine who operates her personal firm, informed me she was not in a position to bake cookies for her clients because of to COVID-19. She then questioned if I could make pineapple tart and mandarin orange candles as items for her purchasers. That was the commence of my company gifting business. When her secretary identified as and asked me to invoice to the company, I realised I did not have a company to do so. Therefore, I resolved to established up a correct business named The Scent Apothecary. I am getting a large amount of pleasurable with it though it is still really hard work, and I joke with quite a few of my close friends that I went from a CMO to an OMO, just one-male procedure.

Marketing-INTERACTIVE: What was it like advertising a tourist place in the course of the pandemic?

Ang: The year 2020 was definitely a at the time in a lifetime style of calendar year for a desired destination the place there had been zero holidaymakers. So of program, related to Singapore Tourism Board, we concentrated a great deal of our notice on the locals. There ended up a few of phases that we went by means of. A single of the significant factors that we had to do for internet marketing, specially throughout the lockdown and a little prior to, was the harmony in between acquiring people today to visit (pre-lockdown) and retain Sentosa top rated of mind so considerably so that when the lockdown was lifted, people today would then come. And then, of class, article-lockdown is how do we continue on to appeal to them to arrive to the island.

So through the interval of pre-lockdown to lockdown, a lot of our aim was best of mind and getting men and women to hold Sentosa at the back again of their minds. One of our campaigns that experienced a major impression was Animal Crossing Sentosa which was carried out together with BBH Singapore. They arrived up with this plan and we resolved to go for it due to the fact Animal Crossing is 1 of the well-liked games globally. Our perception for the campaign was that persons have been emotion cooped up in the course of lockdown and essential an escape. We decided to give people a form of escape via gaming and made a Sentosa island for individuals to go to practically. We experienced so significantly PR protection from lots of overseas travel media and we even had international site visitors this sort of as the US and the Western sections of the planet.

That was appealing due to the fact Sentosa was at first open up in the course of Singapore time on Animal Crossing but we received requests to open up it for other time zones. That’s why, we acquired BBH to keep the island open for a more time period of time of time and it was pretty successful. That was genuinely a vital spotlight during this period of time, exactly where marketing was hard but like I mentioned, as long as we are creative, we will locate a way.

So that genuinely assisted to maintain the recognition heading. Then of class, write-up-lockdown, it was about getting persons back to the island. There were being a whole lot of initiatives and attempts on promotions, bundle bargains, and producing guaranteed locals felt it was superior price for revenue. One of the things that we at Sentosa normally battle with is that men and women felt that we were being pricey, that we are a tourist spot only. So there was a good deal of hard work accomplished jointly with the island companions and tenants to make bundle discounts that have been seriously eye-catching to the locals. And of course, staycations. Wherever else would you do a staycation in Singapore but Sentosa to actually come to feel like a getaway? So we did a lot of the strategies publish-lockdown and centered on driving Singaporeans on to the island. That aspect was hard but it was entertaining and fascinating. Like I reported as extensive as you are imaginative and you have a will to do it, there’s a way to do it.

Also, I to start with took on the responsibility of handling island partners and tenancy last January and shortly immediately after that, Singapore went into lockdown. That was also pretty difficult since we had been helping tenants regulate their expenses in phrases of rentals. We had been definitely their voice symbolizing their troubles and assisting them with staffing and employment. That really went further than my marketing responsibilities. It was genuinely far more of an publicity to the real enterprise troubles that some of these SMEs were being facing.

So I totally can have an understanding of how they struggled with it, presented that I am managing my individual business now, how they struggled with a fixed cost, for instance. That took up a ton of my bandwidth for the duration of very last calendar year, but I learnt a good deal and I’m grateful for the option.

Marketing-INTERACTIVE: Will you ever return to promoting?

Ang: Under no circumstances say under no circumstances because the moment you say never ever, anything takes place. But for me extremely frankly, I am savoring my time now so it would choose practically like a ideal task match for me to go back. When I still left, there were being a few of options but I turned them down. I believed if it truly is not best, I do want to proceed to just take my split and do what I’m content undertaking. So for me, it genuinely is dependent on what the chance is. If the opportunity is enjoyable and the firm is the correct 1, the society is a fantastic in good shape, payment is right, probably I will. But like I mentioned, it can be gotta be shut to ideal.

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