Consumer and brand PR agency in Singapore for retail, F&B, beauty and lifestyle brands

Blue Totem Communications is an independent consumer and brand PR agency with offices in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Since 2016 we have run earned media, experiential and creator campaigns for consumer brands across Singapore, Malaysia and Southeast Asia, including 7-Eleven, L'Oréal, Aperol Spritz, Asia Pacific Breweries and Yahoo.

Consumer, retail and experiential brands is one of our four practice areas. We work with global brands running Southeast Asia from Singapore, regional brands defending share in their home markets, and growing brands entering Singapore or Malaysia for the first time.

If you are looking for a consumer PR agency in Singapore or Malaysia, contact our team.

Why Singapore is a base for consumer brand communications

Singapore is the launch market for Southeast Asia. Global consumer brands test products, campaigns and pricing here before rolling them out to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, because the market is small, affluent, English-speaking and heavily covered by regional lifestyle media. A campaign that works in Singapore gives a regional marketing director something to show head office. Many Chinese brands launch here for the same reason in reverse: a Singapore presence gives them credibility as an international brand and a gateway to ASEAN and markets beyond it.

It is also a crowded market for attention. Singapore has a high density of lifestyle, food and beauty media for its size, a large and well-established creator community, and consumers who see a great deal of brand activity every day. Earned media on its own rarely moves a consumer brand here. The campaigns that work combine a story journalists will run, an experience people will attend or share, and creators whose audiences overlap with the brand's buyers.

Consumer communications across Southeast Asia runs inside a patchwork of regulation, and Singapore is often the more open market. Alcohol is the clearest example. Singapore is not a dark market: alcohol brands can run campaigns, events and creator work here within the advertising code, where several neighbouring markets prohibit overt promotion of alcohol brands altogether. Health and beauty claims are governed by the Health Sciences Authority and the advertising code. Influencer disclosure is expected.

Contests and promotions have their own rules. A consumer agency working across the region has to know which lines apply in which market before it proposes an idea, not after.

Who we work with

How we usually fit

Consumer brands come to us with one of three needs.

Some have a regional marketing team in Singapore and a global agency network that does not have the right people in this market. They need an agency that can take a global campaign and make it land locally, with the media relationships, creator network and event capability to execute it.

Some have a strong brand and marketing team in-house and need a PR and creator partner for a specific moment: a launch, a seasonal campaign, a store or venue opening, a sustainability or purpose programme.

Some are growing brands, often in food, beverage or beauty, for whom this is a first agency appointment. They need an agency that will tell them where the budget will work hardest and scope the programme to match.

Where our experience sits

Our consumer communications experience covers several categories:

Retail and convenience, including 7-Eleven and Pet Lovers Centre, where the work spans store campaigns, product launches and partnerships across a large physical footprint.
Beauty and personal care, including L'Oréal, where our campaign work has been recognised by the PRCA APAC Awards in the DEI and CSR categories.
Food, including 7-Eleven's ready-to-eat range, Joo Chiat Kim Choo and Almonds Australia, where the work ranges from launching new products into a crowded convenience market to building awareness for a heritage brand and for an origin category. We have also handled media and creator engagement for industry events including Singapore Coffee Week and Specialty Food and Beverage Asia.
Alcohol and beverages, including Aperol Spritz, Asia Pacific Breweries, Sake Meguri, The Choya Bar and Buffalo Trace, where Singapore's open position on alcohol marketing allows campaigns that are not possible in several neighbouring markets.
Consumer technology and digital platforms, including Yahoo and TrendLife, the consumer arm of cybersecurity company Trend Micro. The Yahoo Mail Forever Memories campaign used nostalgia to bring a legacy product back into conversation, #YahooEarthDay reached 6.7 million people with a digital decluttering story, and for TrendLife we work with creators to explain how scams operate and how people can protect themselves.
Purpose and DEI campaigns, including work for L'Oréal and GudSht that was recognised by the PRCA APAC Awards.
Health and wellness, including Suntory Beverage & Food Asia, where we support its wellness and health products, Eu Yan Sang, where we promote traditional Chinese medicine and wellness to a consumer audience, and True Group, the fitness chain, where we promoted its clubs and trainers through influencer and media activity.

The common thread is a brand that needs to be talked about, not just covered, and a marketing team that has to show a result beyond a clippings count.

What does a consumer and brand PR agency do?

A consumer PR agency earns attention for a brand from the people who buy it. In Singapore and Southeast Asia that means three things working together: media coverage that gives a launch or campaign credibility, experiences and activations that give people something to attend and share, and creator content that carries the story into the feeds where consumers actually spend time.

At Blue Totem, our consumer work covers the following areas.

Brand strategy and consumer communications

We start with the brand narrative: what the brand stands for, how it talks, and which part of that story matters to a Singapore or Malaysian consumer. From there we build the campaign platform and the messaging that has to hold across media, experiential and creator channels. Purpose only works when it is shown rather than stated, which is why our purpose campaigns are built around something people can see or do.

Product launches and consumer media relations

Launches, seasonal campaigns, collaborations, store and venue openings and brand milestones. We write the materials, manage the calendar, brief lifestyle, food, beauty and consumer media, run media previews and tastings, and handle the follow-up. For global brands we localise the launch rather than translate it, which usually means a local angle, a local face or a local partnership.

Experiential and activation campaigns

Pop-ups, launch events, tastings, in-store activations and brand experiences, built with media and creator engagement designed in from the start so a physical event becomes coverage and content rather than a one-night audience. We manage the communications side and work alongside the client's event or experiential agency where one is appointed.

Creator marketing and influencer relations

Creator and influencer programmes are run by our dedicated team, from strategy and shortlisting through briefing, content approval, disclosure compliance and reporting. We use a mix of paid and earned creator engagement, and we are direct about the difference between reach and relevance. Smaller creators with the right audience often outperform larger ones. Our creator work for Yahoo Mail Forever Memories ran on a hybrid model of earned and paid micro- and nano-influencers on a deliberately small budget.

Purpose, sustainability and DEI campaigns

Consumer brands are expected to have a position on sustainability and inclusion, and consumers are quick to spot when a campaign is only a position. We build purpose campaigns around a partnership, a programme or an action the brand is actually taking. Our L'Oréal and GudSht work in this area has been recognised by the PRCA APAC Awards. #YahooEarthDay paired a digital decluttering message with a partnership with Terra SG, a Singapore eco-education social enterprise, and an in-person upcycling workshop.

Issues management for consumer brands

Consumer brands face product complaints, recalls, social media pile-ons, creator controversies and campaign backlash. We prepare holding statements, response protocols and escalation paths before they are needed, monitor during campaigns, and manage the response when something goes wrong. The speed of a consumer issue is set by social media, not by the news cycle.

How we work with consumer brands

A director leads every account and remains on it. Consultants and executives handle day-to-day delivery. The team that presents in the pitch is the team that runs the campaign.

Consumer work is more campaign-led than our corporate practice. Some clients retain us for an always-on programme of media relations and creator engagement with campaign peaks scoped on top. Others appoint us campaign by campaign. Both work.

Singapore and Malaysia are served from our own offices. For Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines we coordinate affiliate partners so the client has one lead agency and one regional report.

We are direct about what will and will not work. If a launch has no story we say so and find one. If a global campaign will read badly here, or fall foul of local advertising rules, we flag it before it goes out.

Measurement follows the objective. Launches are measured on coverage quality, reach and sentiment. Creator programmes on engagement, content quality and, where the client can share it, traffic and sales signals. Purpose campaigns on participation as well as reach.

Why consumer brands choose Blue Totem

Blue Totem is independently owned. Work is not routed through a network office, and our fees are not tied to selling more services than a client needs. We are a member of the PRCA. Our consumer work has been recognised by the PRCA APAC Awards, the Markies and the Marketing Excellence Awards, and shortlisted by The Drum Awards for PR.

We are small enough that senior attention is the default. The people who develop the campaign idea are the people who brief the journalists and the creators, which is why the idea tends to survive contact with execution.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a consumer PR agency different from a corporate PR agency?

The audience and the tempo. Consumer PR is aimed at the people who buy the product, so it works through lifestyle media, creators, events and social channels rather than business media and stakeholders. It moves faster, is more campaign-led, and is judged on whether people talked about the brand rather than on whether the message was controlled.

Do you do influencer marketing as well as PR?

Yes. Creator marketing and influencer relations is one of our five service pillars with its own team. Most of our consumer campaigns combine earned media, experiential and creator engagement in one programme rather than treating them as separate briefs.

Can you run events and activations?

We manage the communications, media and creator side of events and activations and can run smaller activations end to end. For large-scale production we work alongside the client's event or experiential agency.

Do you handle Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia?

Singapore and Malaysia directly from our own offices. Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines through affiliate partners, coordinated by us.

Can you work with our global brand agency?

Yes. Many consumer clients have a global or regional creative agency and appoint us for PR and creator work in Southeast Asia. We work from the global campaign and localise it.

How quickly can you start a consumer PR campaign?

For a launch, four to six weeks from brief to launch day is comfortable, less if materials and product are ready. Creator programmes need three to four weeks for shortlisting, briefing and content approval. For an always-on retainer, the first month covers onboarding and planning with activity from month two.

How much does consumer PR cost in Singapore?

It depends on the number of markets, the campaign calendar, whether events are included and the size of the creator programme. Creator fees are budgeted separately from agency fees. We scope each programme individually and give an indicative range after a first conversation.

Contact the Blue Totem consumer team

If you are a consumer, retail, F&B, beauty or lifestyle brand looking for a PR and communications partner in Singapore, Malaysia or Southeast Asia, speak to the Blue Totem team.

Email reachus@bluetotem.co or use our contact form.