How Alpha Story Secured 6 Tier 1 Media Placements for Vietjet in Singapore

Alpha Story ran a dual consumer and corporate PR campaign for Vietjet's Singapore market expansion, securing 6 media placements across The Straits Times, The Business Times, Berita Harian, and Lianhe Zaobao in 3 languages over 2 months.

Get featured in the media

TLDR Summary

Challenge:

Singapore's aviation media defaults to Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport stories. A foreign low-cost carrier needed a strong local angle to earn Tier 1 editorial attention — and Vietjet's new Phu Quoc route competed directly with Scoot.

Solution:

Alpha Story pitched route expansion as a consumer convenience story (not airline ops), connected Vietjet to Singapore Airshow investment narratives for business press, and distributed across English, Malay, and Chinese desks simultaneously.

Results:

6 media placements across 4 publications in 3 languages, including 4 Tier 1 placements in The Straits Times, The Business Times, and Berita Harian — all within February to March 2025.

Context

Vietjet wanted to raise its profile with Singapore travellers and position Singapore as a key outbound travel market. The airline was expanding direct Singapore-Vietnam links through Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, and Phu Quoc, and needed PR that matched the scale of that expansion in a market already well served by Changi Airport's connectivity.

Challenge

Singapore's aviation and travel media landscape is crowded. Two specific problems made coverage harder:

Coverage defaults to Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport developments, and transport policy stories. A foreign low-cost carrier has to bring a strong local angle to get editorial attention.
Vietjet's new Singapore-Phu Quoc route launched into a corridor where Scoot already operated. The story couldn't just be about price.

What Alpha Story Did

Alpha Story ran the campaign in two phases, each targeting a different audience.

Consumer angle (route expansion): We pitched the increased Ho Chi Minh City flight frequency as a convenience story for Singapore residents, not as an airline operations update. For the Phu Quoc launch, we framed it around easier access to an established island destination. That gave editors a consumer travel story instead of another "cheap flights" announcement, and it differentiated Vietjet from Scoot's existing service on the same route.

Corporate angle (Singapore Airshow): We connected Vietjet to larger aviation and investment narratives during the Singapore Airshow, including US$6.1 billion in agreements and the airline's Asia-Pacific finance positioning. This landed coverage in The Business Times, reaching investors and business readers separately from the consumer travel coverage.

Multilingual distribution: We pitched English, Malay, and Chinese language desks simultaneously. The same stories ran in all three of Singapore's major media language markets.

Results

6 media placements across 4 publications in 3 languages:

The Straits Times (English) — Singapore-Ho Chi Minh City frequency increase
Berita Harian (Malay) — Singapore-Ho Chi Minh City frequency increase
The Straits Times (English) — Direct Singapore-Phu Quoc flights launch
Berita Harian (Malay) — Direct Singapore-Phu Quoc flights launch
Lianhe Zaobao (Chinese) — Direct Singapore-Phu Quoc flights launch
The Business Times (English) — US$6.1B agreements, Asia-Pacific aviation finance hub

About the company

Vietjet is a leading Vietnamese low-cost airline operating domestic and international routes across Asia, with a growing presence in Singapore through direct flights to multiple Vietnamese destinations.