Telum sat down with Stellar Lifestyle's Senior Marketing Manager, Juliana Jauw, to discuss the important role of strategic partnerships in corporate branding.

Stellar Lifestyle is one of the largest managing agents of retail and advertising space in Singapore’s rail network. Walk us through the sorts of campaigns your communications and marketing teams work on.
Stellar Lifestyle lives by our vision of “Moving People, Enhancing Lifestyles”. Launched in August 2021, we create vibrant transit destinations through innovation and a desire to make our everyday touchpoints better through branding campaigns and partnerships.

Our 800 retail units in the transit retail network are mostly small and medium businesses. We have helped them emerge stronger from the pandemic by building an innovative ecosystem that has the right resources and solutions to address their challenges, and to scale up their businesses. By partnering with NUS Enterprise and Enterprise Singapore, we tap on their start-up ecosystem to bridge the digital gap for our retailers while accelerating the connection between retailers and commuters. For the high potential start-ups, we can also help bring their solutions to market and expand their businesses overseas.

We have created a living hub within the transit network - Hive by Stellar Lifestyle, at Esplanade MRT Station. The space provides practical and market-ready solutions for SMEs that involve new consumer technologies and training studios, along with unique pop-up stores.

We also manage Singapore's largest and most connected Out-of-Home (OOH) media network, Stellar Ace.The team weaves online and offline platforms into a powerful omnichannel ecosystem of Home-Travel-Eat-Shop-Play to connect brands with consumers at different touchpoints over the course of their day, creating brand affinity and memorable engagement opportunities.

Stellar Lifestyle regularly partners with major brands including TikTok, NUS Enterprise and Singtel Media. What is the key to a successful strategic partnership in this space?
As the transit landscape evolves and new technologies and trends emerge, the team at Stellar Lifestyle realised the need to focus on partnerships. The strategy will either meet emerging social needs or provide innovative new solutions to meet the changing needs of commuters and retailers.

It is crucial to leverage the strengths and resources of both brands in any partnership. By focusing on these key elements and prioritising partnerships that align with Stellar Lifestyle’s mission and values, the company can create vibrant and engaging transit destinations that benefit all stakeholders within the network.

What level of planning and research happens behind the scenes before your team proposes or accepts a partnership at Stellar Lifestyle?
An extensive amount of research about the collaboration details and opportunity for business growth is reviewed before establishing a partnership. The partnership must align with Stellar Lifestyle’s core mission of creating vibrant transit destinations and it must offer value to our commuters and retail partners.

Your team regularly collaborates on exciting and innovative projects across Singapore - what are some of your recent favourites?
Stellar Lifestyle has started its first corporate venture - Staytion.

Staytion is a co-working concept at MRT stations to promote the “Work-Live-Play” idea by providing a space for working on-the-go and a platform for cultural activities and events. With an aim to provide a convenient workspace close to homes, the community benefits by having a conducive destination for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners etc, encouraging networking opportunities and fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

We believe that the introduction of Staytion will contribute to the economic and social development of an area - making it an ideal place to work, live and play.

What new partnerships or campaigns are you looking forward to in 2023?
There are a series of partnerships and campaigns in the pipeline, but keep your eyes peeled for an exciting anchor retailer at Orchard MRT station soon. Join us on this journey by following Stellar Lifestyle on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram.