SINGAPORE, 11 JUNE 2009—Almost a year down the road, and the excitement of Formula One (F1) is due back in town. On the upside, that also means—by virtue of sponsorship arrangements—the return of regional telco powerhouse Singapore Telecommunications's (SingTel's) Grid Girls campaign is nigh. At 9 p.m., Thursday, June 19, 2009, what SingTel marketing executives refer to as "the hunt for the bevy of ladies who will flag off this year's [F1] race begn in April and almost 300 girls signed up to vie for one of 43 spots on the starting grid on the Singapore track."
And out of the 43, only 21 were picked to appear on Mediacorp TV (Channel 5, 9 p.m.slot) of a 16-episode weekly show starting tonight (Thursday, June 11, 2009). "The girls come from varied backgrounds—there's a nurse, a teacher at a childcare centre, a medical student a flight attendant, making for an interesting mix of characters," stated a press release issued by SingTel in a statement earlier this month. It also said that the show would see guest appearances by Singapore model Junita Simon and Denise Keller, a regional TV personality who talks funny.
The winners of the Grid Girls competition are determined by the number of viewer votes cast in their favour. "Viewers can vote for the featured SingTel Grid Girls from Thursday 9.30 p.m. till midnight on Sunday following the telecast of each episode," the release said. "Online votes contribute five per cent of the final vote."
Central to the campaign is the website specifically devoted to the task of promoting the Grid Girls and building a community of active viewers (at www.singtelrace.com). SingTel execs would have us know that the site features not only the personal blogs of the Grid Girls, but also what they call "an innovative" points system that rewards surfers for every visit they make, and for participation in activities onsite. Even registering with the site, logging in and recommending friends to the site can earn points. And these points can be used to redeem Singapore F1 tickets and other items from the online SingTel Garage virtual shop.
As for the winners of the competition, the top three Grid Girls in this year's campaign will get S$20,000 (US$13,796), S$7,000 and S$3,000, respectively; and each Top 21 Grid Girl gets an LG Crystal mobile phone.
