UOB: Magical Formula for Regional Success

Positioned as Southeast Asia’s top credit card issuer and a major regional bank, UOB pursued a prominent role in the live entertainment industry. This involved creating a distinct brand presence at prestigious regional shows and offering unique experiences and benefits to its cardholders.

Opportunity

With the Ed Sheeran: + – = ÷ × Tour in Asia happening around multiple Southeast Asian venues, Culture Group saw the potential for UOB to establish its ambition across 5 markets quickly and offer cardholders benefits to capitalize on the unique opportunity. 

Solution

Partnership

We developed the opportunity for UOB to establish its regional presence within the live entertainment space as the Official Presenting Partner by enabling cardholder presale access across shows in markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Program

As the Official Presenting Partner, UOB took full control of programs and positioned the brand at the forefront of the Ed Sheeran: + – = ÷ × Tour in Asia across every regional touchpoint.

We activated UOB’s rights across 4 key areas: Ticketing, Stakeholder Management, Creative Assets, and Creators.

We secured and delivered pre-sale access to hundreds of thousands of tickets across the region. This included managing the onboarding, customer journey, and delivery of tickets across the region’s sold-out events.

We devised a communications plan and developed creative assets for all tour phases (pre-, during, and post-show) which centered around it. This culminated with creators whom we discovered and managed to ensure mutual agreement and satisfaction with the tour and brand via a collaborative concept development process.

Production

We undertook a massive effort and produced concepts into delivery with over 400 master and adapted assets generated in weeks, including localized languages, to be used across the region. 

Impact

UOB made waves around the region and sold out all exclusive presale tickets to cardmembers via exclusive pre-sale access to the tour.

This feat was achieved within 100 minutes in Singapore with over 157,000 in the queue, and fully sold out within 24 hours in Thailand. Success also showed elsewhere, with reports stating that the highest sales volumes were from Malaysia while its Singapore customers spent the most for Sheeran’s overseas shows.

BNN Bloomberg:

“Singapore’s third-largest lender is again banking on a blockbuster concert partnership to boost fee income, fresh on the heels of its success with Taylor Swift concert tickets. This time, it’s with a sold-out ticket presale to catch Ed Sheeran sing in Asia.”

“Customers of United Overseas Bank Ltd. have snapped up all presale tickets for the English Grammy award-winning singer’s gigs in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia next year, the bank said Thursday, testament to the region’s concert frenzy.”

“UOB cardholders in Southeast Asia could buy tickets for Sheeran’s gigs a few days before the general public, similar to its tie-up with Taylor Swift that propelled its credit card fees to a record in the third quarter.”