Ken, you stood out

It’s been a bleak awful day. There’s a heaviness in my heart. That’s because the night before, Ken Low, the assistant chief executive in charge of branding and marketing at the Singapore Tourism Board, slipped away, too early, from our physical world to the big theatre in the sky.

I have lost not only a friend but also a professional colleague whom I respect and admire.

I first met Ken seven years ago. He was several months into his new job at the STB where he had been appointed to head the marketing team. I sensed a kindred spirit in him.

He didn’t use the usual marketing jargon. In fact, we talked more about music than we did anything else during that first meeting. Ken had come into the STB from a career in Citibank and Warner Music and had juggled his corporate life with his personal passion for musical theatre.

With his Action Theatre partner, founder and producer, Ekachai Uekrongtham, Ken had written the music for Chang & Eng, one of the first original musicals to have been produced in Singapore.

It was an ambitious piece of work for a local theatre company. Telling the story of the famous Siamese twins, the play enjoyed a long run in Singapore and was the first English-language musical to be staged in China, according to the Action Theatre website.

A review in 1997 by Stephen Chen Shengfang said, “Once in a while, there comes a Singapore production that renews my faith in local musical theater. Chang and Eng is one of them,” and he went on to add that “Ken Low deserves an award for his score”.

I never got to see Chang & Eng – it had its run when I was still working in Hong Kong – but I have heard the music many times, mostly in Ken’s car and it never fails to move me when I listen to “Mai Phen Rai”.

When he came into the STB, he brought with him creativity, artistry and his talent for music and he combined it with a sense of professionalism that never wavered right up to his last days when his health was failing.

By blending art and commerce, he stood out among destination marketers in our region and gave STB’s destination branding and marketing in the past seven years a creative, colourful, artistic and theatrical edge.

It wasn’t always an easy balance. Art and commerce do not mix well. Businesses focus more on tangibles, less on intangibles. His passion and professionalism produced a perfectionist that sometimes drove his staff mad and oftentimes made it hard for him to accept the harsh glare of public attention.

And when you work for a tourism board, that’s a very harsh glare indeed. Unlike a bottle of soft drink, everyone feels an attachment to a country and everyone has an opinion on how their country should be branded.

When the “Uniquely Singapore” brand was unveiled, critics took potshots at it. Bad English, they say. It’s not unique, some say, everyone’s unique. Ken stood by it, stuck to it and claimed it for Singapore.

“If we say it often enough, we will own it,” he said. And he and his team executed around and to the theme, creatively and consistently.

With that branding, he wrote a song, “Uniquely You” and that became the theme song of the campaign. Its lyrics haunt me today. The song was sung at a National Day Parade some years ago by Wendi Koh, and that’s one of Ken’s proudest achievements. I was with him in the stadium when it was sung to thousands and thousands of people.

Watch “Uniquely You” video.

This year, his team unveiled a new brand, “YourSingapore”. It was a fresh and bold approach. It surrendered power to the public. Singapore can be whatever you want to make of it, it’s small and compact, it’s easy to mix and match. Embracing digital, it focused on driving traffic to a website that offered a smorgasboard of choices and allowed users to search for products and services on the site.

I liked that it tried to bridge the gap between inspiration and commerce – trying to inspire people with choices but, at the same time, empowering them to make purchasing decisions.

Again, it had its critics. They don’t know what Singapore stands for, so they leave it to you, some said. What is STB trying to be – a tour operator, asked travel intermediaries?

Again, Ken and his team stood by it. He spoke to the media. He went on radio, inviting public feedback and sharing his views.

I think when you are a destination marketer, you have to grow a thick skin – like journalists. Take the good and the bad, and keep the best, I say.

Whether you agree with the branding and whether the website will generate the kind of traffic Ken and his team want, and produce the kind conversion desired, you cannot fault the sense of creativity and the desire for innovation behind it.

Ken brought style, imagination and fun into destination branding in Asia. Look at the visuals in “YourSingapore” – the way they transform and change with each proposition. Look at the colourful Peranakan motifs created in “Uniquely Singapore” that became the brand’s signature. The details make up the big picture and to Ken, both were equally important.