Singtel ushers in the festive season with a Chinese New Year comedy film entitled His Grandfather’s Road
Singtel launched its annual short film for Chinese New Year, celebrating the season’s spirit of making connections and strengthening ties with a big dose of humour.
Titled ‘His Grandfather’s Road’ (a phrase Singaporeans sometimes use to describe drivers who behave as if they own the road), the film centres on a road rage altercation between two families that ends on a buoyant and conciliatory note when they realise that they have a lot more in common than they thought.
It’s the first day of Chinese New Year, and in typical Singaporean fashion, everyone is caught up in a flurry of visitations to relatives and friends. Two families enroute in their cars to make these visits meet headlong on a narrow street and come to a halt, blocking each other. Both refuse to budge, buckling down defiantly by switching off their engines.
They emerge from their vehicles to confront each other, but thanks to a nosy passer-by attempting to capture their spat on camera, they scurry back to their cars, averting a confrontation. They decide to pass the time by hooking up to their respective mobile devices – streaming video, playing online games and listening to music – in an attempt to wait and wear the other party out. Eventually, the standoff resolves in the most unexpected way – watch the film to find out how the two families end up bonding over a raucous feast complete with traditional lo-hei.
Lian Pek, Singtel’s Vice President for Group Strategic Communications and Brand said, “Chinese New Year is the perfect occasion to reinforce Singtel’s long-held values of celebrating connections that count. Hence, this simple tale of two feuding families who discover they need to be more expansive and “make the right connections” with each other – the film’s tagline. Of course, as a company, we’re very much about providing high quality and reliable connectivity services that cater to our customers’ changing lifestyles and expectations. So that gets a playful plug too. You can be stuck anywhere, but thanks to technology, life goes on!”
“His Grandfather’s Road” is part of Singtel’s on-going branded content strategy, centred around short film campaigns that have allowed the Group to bring its brand values to life. Just recently, Singtel’s Christmas film, ‘The Gift’, attracted close to 13 million views over its month-long screening, with numerous news media calling the film “heart-warming”, and US-based Shots.net describing it as “gracious and multi-layered” and “beautifully made.” The film was also ranked amongst the top ‘must-watch’ festive films alongside the likes of global brands such as John Lewis and Pepsi, by local news and regional trade media.
“We’re very encouraged by the traction that our films are getting as they’re really bringing home what Singtel’s brand values are all about. While we’ve changed gears this festive season, moving away from our trademark poignant films with emotive storylines, we believe our light-hearted offering still allows us to affirm our values of family, community and inclusivity, served up with a good dash of humour!” added Pek.
Conceptualised in-house and produced in collaboration with Akanga Film Asia, the film will air on Singtel TV and various social media channels from 3 January, and in cinemas from 16 to 29 January.