Happy 2023! It has been a fantastic run this Christmas from early November to December 2022 for the Orchard Road location in Singapore for retailers as both tourists and local Singaporeans came back to Orchard Road to enjoy the Christmas lighting after 2 years away!
There have been many upgrades happening along Orchard Road from hotels to mall upgrading. One of the best Out of Home digital in the vicinity is the Heeren Orchard LED screen at the corner of Orchard Road and Cairnhill Road. Perhaps this building is now better known as Courts Nojima Orchard Road. This is an L-shaped outdoor advertising screen that has been upgraded for 3D anamorphic possibilities thanks to the corner design, screen quality and most importantly, its strategic location. Its total size is 82 sqm, operates between 8am and 11pm daily, audio-enabled. One of the anchor clients on this LED screen is Samsung Mobile, but it is also open to all types of advertisers. Industries such as automobiles, cars, tourism, airlines, insurance and youth targeting clients may find this location suitable to reach their target audience.
Orchard Road is a 2.2km one-way street that stretches from Tanglin Road / Grange Road to Dhoby Ghaut. Its underground infrastructure includes underground pedestrian walkways connecting different malls, both beneath Orchard Road as well as other streets in the vicinity. The MRT stations there are many including the Orchard station, Somerset, Dhoby Ghaut and now with the new TEL line that connects from Orchard Boulevard as well. Much of the OOH options here will include the MRT station domination, buses and bus shelter, street furniture, as well as in-mall options such as along the public linkways inside 313 Orchard. The key static outdoor advertising options in Orchard Road are limited to Tang Orchard, Orchard Shopping Centre, Orchard Plaza, Scotts Square while LED screens dominate key cross junctions such as the one at Ion Orchard, Courts Orchard as well as the one at H&M Orchard Singapore, SCAPE and Lido Isetan Shaw Orchard.
Orchard Road has certainly been through its ups and downs with the emergence of new non-CBD shopping areas such as the Westgate, Vivo City and Waterway Point as early as 2016, well before the Covid period. Back in 2016, the vacancy rate in Orchard Road was a five-year high in 2016’s first quarter at 8.8% which was higher than the average vacancy rate in malls islandwide at 7.7%. Orchard Road has also been marketed for decades as a tourist hotspot and even before Covid, it has increasingly disconnected from the local Singaporeans. Singaporean youths say that there are “cooler” places for them to hang out where the retail mix is targeted at them, and Singaporean families preferred to go to more accessible suburban malls that are more family-friendly with parking options or go online for their retail fix including for branded options. Yet as a tourist hotspot, the shopping centres in Orchard Road had little or no baggage storage facilities and nor is there an airport express bus service from Orchard Road. Thanks to the strong Singapore dollar and the lack of differences in terms of the variety of brands and the prices in Orchard Road compared with tourists can get back home in China, Indonesia or other countries. During the peak of the Covid crisis, it was also questioned if Orchard Road could make a comeback at all.
With this 2022 successful effort by the Orchard Road Business Association (ORBA) for the “Christmas on a Great Street” it is hopeful to see this reconnection of Orchard Road to both local Singaporeans as well as the influx of tourists coming back in 2023.
As much as Singapore is highly controlled in terms of Outdoor Advertising locations in Singapore, according to the URA Guidelines For Outdoor Signs Within and the URA Guidelines for Outdoor Signs Outside The Central Area, the number of locations that are designated for Outdoor Advertising is usually limited and within the following areas; size and height within 100 Sq m or 50% of a building façade and kept within a 30 m height from the ground. So, while Orchard Road is regulated within the guidelines within the Central Area, other areas that are designated for Outdoor Advertising include the Chinatown, Little India (Serangoon Road, Bras Basah), Little India, Singapore River, Marina Centre as well as the Raffles Place. The advertising locations here also reach out to different target audiences at Chinatown as well as other tourism in the Little India areas too. CBD areas for outdoor advertising are limited but prominent such as the Suntec City LED screens and the Raffles Place LED screens.
Want to advertise your brand in these attractive areas? Contact The Perfect Media right now for the best advertising strategy and create an outdoor advertisement that appeals to a large audience. So, let’s get started and drive business to your brand!
