Singapore partners with fitness and brands to ensure it’s population is active not obese
by Chris Reed
They are obsessed with runs, cycle races and dragon boat racing here in Singapore. All of them sponsored by this bank or that supermarket. All of them happen at 6-10am due to the ferocious yar rund humidity and sun. Singapore knows the value of a healthy population and encourages all citizens to get out and race around Singapore and keep active. It even has special runs and activities for “seniors” and some are just for kids, (they like to encourage participation in fitness activities early here). Singapore knows that a healthy population contributes to society positively and is not costing them millions of dollars in health care. They are also very good at getting the biggest Singapore brands, especially banks, financial brands, the government owned trade union and supermarkets to sponsor these activities to show their links to the community and reinvest in Singapore. Every bank from Standard Chartered, who sponsor the marathon to Cold Storage who sponsor the Kids Run, from Singapore Pools, who sponsor the dragon boat racing to OCBC, who sponsor the main cycle race, market each event with great enthusiasm and creativity. They are constantly linking up with other synergistic brands to ensure that everyone knows about their connection to their sponsored race from media to FMCG brands like re-hydrating drink 100 Plus (the Lucozade of Singapore) to get some differentiation to their rivals’ sponsored races, (there is literally an official run or cycle race of some kind every few weeks and dragon boat racing happens every week!). If it stops obesity, which is on the rise in Singapore, (probably because of the massive numbers of specialist cake, bread and pastry shops everywhere!) then everyone’s a winner.
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