Singapore motorists slapped with ad masquerading as 'parking summon'

Did you wake up this morning only to find your car or motorbike slapped with a 'parking summon'? Don't worry, you are not the only one.

Almost half a million motorists would have received the dreaded parking ticket today (June 20).

You'll be relieved to know however, that the slip is merely just an advertising stunt by insurance company Budget Direct Insurance.

According to marketing site Marketing Interactive, the prank on motorists is part of a large-scale marketing campaign, light-heartedly entitled 'Operation National Summons', intended to promote the insurance company's 'Pay Less or Get $100' initiative.

The initiative boasts a compensation of $100 by Budget Direct Insurance to motorists who are able to get a cheaper quote elsewhere for their car insurance renewal, even if they don't buy any, according to PR Newswire.

A team of about 300 people were 'summoned' to work tirelessly through the night across 2,000 carparks, just so they could pull off the marketing stunt.

"We wanted to do something that hadn't been attempted in Singapore before, said Mr Simon Birch, CEO of Budget Direct Insurance, in a press statement.

Said Mr Birch: "A stunt that had humour, was cost-effective and would get people's attention. So we brought our message directly to our target customer."

Mr Luke Tay, the creative partner of Co:hort Communications which helped execute the campaign, added that the scale of the project was novel and its planning took many months.

In the end, the 'lucky' motorists were compensated for their early morning trauma with a free breakfast, if they redeem their 'parking ticket'.

While it was an obvious marketing stunt not to get worked up over, some netizens certainly didn't find it funny.

Even so, you've got to admit they've cleverly gotten your attention anyway.

ongymm@sph.com.sg