2023Raffles Place Alliance Experience Design + Creative Co-Lead Turning a crowd into a community that could recognise itself
How a personality quiz, a park lawn and a single QR code gave people a reason to leave their mark on a business district.
In 2023, Raffles Place Alliance asked us to bring energy to Raffles Place. The surrounding businesses were hoping for footfall. But the district is one most people know on the way to somewhere else: busy, efficient, built around work. Looking closer, the question in front of us became clearer. What would it take for the people here to feel that this place is also theirs?
Visit the microsite. Campaign ended March 2024
Starting from something people already enjoy
Rather than asking people to pick up a new habit, we looked at one they already had. Personality quizzes and year-in-review formats were everywhere, and people enjoyed two things about them: learning something about themselves, and sharing it.
So we asked three short questions, and let the answers become an artwork. A Buzzmark, unique to each person, works a little like a fingerprint. Together, the marks would form a portrait of the people who make up the district.
A system, not a template
The visual language came from the Raffles Place brand mark: a simplified asterisk, a flexible grid, and ten pattern glyphs. We designed the logic that ties them together, so each trait a participant chooses adds a layer to their artwork. Six personas and ten traits open up more than 4,000 possible Buzzmarks. Each feels personal, and all of them clearly belong to the same place.
Moving between the screen and the street
We designed the campaign as a journey, not a single moment. People created their Buzzmark on the microsite or at a pop-up in the district, and took home a personalised keychain. With Lopelab bringing local businesses on board, people could then show their Buzzmark at partner outlets for rewards, giving them a reason to walk into shops they might usually pass.
After the pop-up, the same structures and layout became the site for Buzz Spot, an on-site game. The set-up was planned for that change from the start, so the space could keep drawing people in without an additional build. Twenty artworks were placed around the park lawn. Players scanned a site marker and had five minutes to find three matches. The pattern changed with every play, so answers couldn't be passed around, and a wrong guess simply let the player keep looking.
Leaving a mark
Over the campaign, 1,352 Buzzmarks were created and 300 keychains went home with people from the pop-up. Partners' reward allocations were fully claimed. At the end, 150 Buzzmarks were turned into a public installation around the seating areas of Raffles Place, so the marks people made became part of where others now sit and pause.
A note on what's next The campaign showed that people give a place their attention when they can see something of themselves in it. It also left a larger question open: what gives meaning to a place, and how might the culture of Raffles Place be shaped over time, beyond a single campaign?
The people behind those 1,352 Buzzmarks would be the right place to start.