Eighth Wonder:
Running out of magic
The Eighth Wonder consortium is bringing out the big guns in the race to win the Sentosa IR bid and it is coming up with new facets of its proposed plan to develop Sentosa into Harry's Island practically on a daily basis. It's like watching a magician with his bag of tricks. You sit through the whole magic show, waiting for the next rabbit to be pulled out of the hat.
But one wonders if Eighth Wonder has already pulled too many rabbits out of the hat. Yesterday, they announced that they are getting Vera Wang to design a few floors and wedding pavilions, should they win the bid.
On Monday, they brought Pele to town, to sign autographs at the Singapore Sports School and to say that they have his endorsement to open a 5,000 seat Pele stadium and a Pele Sports academy.
They have also announced plans that they would develop an 'Ocean Planet' zone, which will be helmed by Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the famous oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau. This will include the world's largest artificially-created coral reef.
Last week, they have said that they have ear-marked a portion of their budget for the development of technological infrastructure on the IR site, which will be created by Siemens.
Siemens will work with Giuliani Security and Safety, run by the former New York mayor who is famous for bringing down crimes rates there, to create state-of-the-art security systems.
As much as I am impressed with what the Eighth Wonder has come up with so far, I think they have just about run out of magic tricks for this bid. It was just last week that Merrill Lynch released a report, tipping Genting's bid as having a 75% success rate, with the least likely winner to be the Eighth Wonder, stating that it faced 'regulatory challenges in combining its Singapore operations with Macau'. One of its consortium partners is Melco, which runs casinos in Macau.
With this all-out PR campaign, managed by the good people at Ogilvy and Mathers, one wonders what Eighth Wonder is trying to achieve by blanketing the media with details on their IR bid. Whose minds are they looking at changing? Afterall, the Singapore Tourism Board will announce the winner. It's not going to a popular vote. Will the STB be swayed by the mega-campaign?
ArchivesBut one wonders if Eighth Wonder has already pulled too many rabbits out of the hat. Yesterday, they announced that they are getting Vera Wang to design a few floors and wedding pavilions, should they win the bid.
On Monday, they brought Pele to town, to sign autographs at the Singapore Sports School and to say that they have his endorsement to open a 5,000 seat Pele stadium and a Pele Sports academy.
They have also announced plans that they would develop an 'Ocean Planet' zone, which will be helmed by Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the famous oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau. This will include the world's largest artificially-created coral reef.
Last week, they have said that they have ear-marked a portion of their budget for the development of technological infrastructure on the IR site, which will be created by Siemens.
Siemens will work with Giuliani Security and Safety, run by the former New York mayor who is famous for bringing down crimes rates there, to create state-of-the-art security systems.
As much as I am impressed with what the Eighth Wonder has come up with so far, I think they have just about run out of magic tricks for this bid. It was just last week that Merrill Lynch released a report, tipping Genting's bid as having a 75% success rate, with the least likely winner to be the Eighth Wonder, stating that it faced 'regulatory challenges in combining its Singapore operations with Macau'. One of its consortium partners is Melco, which runs casinos in Macau.
With this all-out PR campaign, managed by the good people at Ogilvy and Mathers, one wonders what Eighth Wonder is trying to achieve by blanketing the media with details on their IR bid. Whose minds are they looking at changing? Afterall, the Singapore Tourism Board will announce the winner. It's not going to a popular vote. Will the STB be swayed by the mega-campaign?
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