The design of The Thoughtful Bunch | By Design
How was The Thoughtful Bunch conceptualised? Agnes, Director of Marketing and Communications at LTA, tells us the origins of these characters, their impact on commuter behaviour, and how they’ve evolved to remain relevant and engaging over the years.
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00:00Do you recognise this voice?
00:01Hello, my name is Giveway Glenda
00:03and I love shopping and love K-pop dramas.
00:06Is that you?
00:07Yeah, it was me.
00:09Not sure why they asked me to be the auntie.
00:16Hi Agnes, thank you so much for talking to me today.
00:20How long have you been marketing the Land Transport Authority?
00:24Specifically for the thoughtful bunch we're talking about today,
00:28it's been 10 years.
00:29Wow, I have to say Hush Hush Hannah doesn't look that old.
00:34So can you tell me about the inception of this idea?
00:36Like how did it come about?
00:38Why create characters to encourage thoughtful behaviour?
00:41So this brings us back to 2013,
00:43when we started thinking about how to improve travel experience.
00:48So we had a study with 1,000 commuters
00:51to find out what influences their travel experiences.
00:55So one of the significant findings was that
00:57the behaviour of other commuters
00:59would actually affect everyone's travel experience.
01:02With these insights,
01:04and putting ourselves in the shoes of our commuters,
01:07using design thinking,
01:09we came up with the thoughtful bunch.
01:12So these characters actually were born from the public's involvement.
01:15And when we launched the first three characters in 2014,
01:19we actually did a contest to get the public involved.
01:22So this contest attracted 800 entries
01:26and gave birth to two more new characters,
01:28which is the Back Down Benny and Hush Hush Hannah.
01:32I see.
01:32So Agnes, why the use of characters
01:35to try and impact this thoughtful behaviour?
01:37I think the way we approach the campaign,
01:39it's different from the usual approach where it's the government speak,
01:43and I'm telling you to do this and not to do that.
01:46So the way we have designed the campaign,
01:49it's really to have the thoughtful characters convey the messages
01:53in a very personal way.
01:55It's non-preachy.
01:56It's like a friendly nudge.
01:58For sure.
01:58Ever since the launch of the campaign,
02:00have you seen public behaviours affected positively?
02:03Yes, definitely.
02:04Every year, we run a survey
02:06to assess the effectiveness of our campaign,
02:08and we can see that the Graciousness Behaviour Index, we call it,
02:12has been improving over the years.
02:13Before we started the campaign,
02:15there were no queue lines,
02:16and people were just rushing to get into the trains.
02:19But these days, we see people queuing at almost all the stations.
02:23Hardly ever do we see people rushing in.
02:26So I would say that there has been tremendous success.
02:30And how do you feel that the Thoughtful Bunch campaign
02:33has to continue to evolve to stay relevant to the public?
02:36Every year, we have a challenge in trying to make the campaign
02:39meaningful, engaging, and resonating with the public.
02:43Therefore, we have worked very closely with the community
02:46to tap into the creativity of the community
02:49in coming up with collaborative ideas with us.
02:52For instance, when we launched the campaign back in 2014,
02:56we had primary school students performing as mini Thoughtful Bunch,
03:00so they were all dressed up as the characters
03:02and performing to the theme song.
03:04Wow!
03:05And then, we had NAFA students
03:07design trendy new looks for the Thoughtful Bunch,
03:10and they were catwalking with the new outfits that they have designed.
03:14And this is all organic and coming from the heart.
03:16It's so authentic.
03:18So when we see that, it really warms our heart.
03:20Does it ever motivate you to think,
03:22I'm going to cosplay as Hush Hush Hannah?
03:24Maybe Glenda.
03:25With the big hair and...
03:26I'll do it and you do it.
03:28Thank you so much, Agnes.
03:29It's been such a privilege talking to you.
03:31Can I high-five your Hush Hush Hannah?
03:32Come on.
03:33Yay!
03:35Thank you so much.
03:36So seeing as each character reflects different types of good behaviour,
03:39who is the most successful one?
03:41Maybe the Giveaway Glenda
03:43has been seeing very good results.
03:46Do you think that it's because the voiceover artist for Giveaway Glenda
03:48was so good?
03:49You were doing so well.