How audiences and media reacted to voucher rollout leading up to Singapore’s national day
Singapore’s 60th National Day celebrations promise nation-building and the conversation around SG60 has majorly contributed to it. We analysed around 6k mentions across X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and online news using Pulsar TRAC between May 1st – 28th July 2025 in Singapore.
What we found was how audiences and the media have stepped up at playing an equal part in achieving what the government has set out to do, even while we can expect a slight disconnect in policy intention and ground reality.
Chinese content creators lead the way in community support
When Zaobao’s TikTok videos explaining voucher usage went viral, they demonstrated something powerful about Singapore’s multilingual strength. Chinese and Malay content creators took the onus on themselves to not just translate but provide logical solutions to counter logistical problems audiences might have. This organic response showed how minority language creators have become essential bridges in Singapore’s digital ecosystem.
The success of these practical guides reveals an opportunity: when communities are empowered to create their own solutions, they often surpass official channels in effectiveness and reach. This grassroots content creation model could inform future government communication strategies, leveraging audiences as stakeholders rather than just recipients.
Hawker centres become testing grounds for digital inclusion
While rejection stories of vouchers at hawker stalls created initial friction, they also sparked important conversations about digital adoption and inclusivity. The challenges faced by elderly stall owners and foreign workers highlighted gaps that, once identified, can be addressed. Some stalls quickly adapted, with younger family members helping older owners navigate the digital systems, showcasing Singapore’s inter-generational support in action.
This real-world stress test of digital payment systems provides valuable data for the future. The hawker centre experience isn’t a failure – it’s a learning opportunity that will make Singapore’s next digital initiative more inclusive and robust.
Platform diversity showcases how audiences overcome roadblocks
TikTok users created comprehensive guides about voucher eligibility, sharing discoveries about unexpected places to use them, from baby spas to leather crafting workshops. This crowd-sourced innovation cleared a lot of the debate online.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s older users provided equally valuable feedback about accessibility challenges. Rather than a generational divide, this represented different perspectives contributing to a fuller picture. Younger users offered solutions while older users identified problems – both supremely essential for future policy-making.
Citizens transform challenges into community action on social
When payment app glitches occurred, users quickly shared workarounds. Stories of Paylah double-charges led to helpful PSAs about checking payment confirmations. Confusion over CDC compatibility sparked explanatory threads. Most of these conversations were happening on Facebook and Reddit with the former highlighting where the roadblocks are and the latter offering solutions to those very roadblocks.
Media adapts to audience needs in real-time
CNA’s pivot to practical how-to guides showed responsive journalism at work, recognising and meeting audience needs. While initial coverage focused on announcements, media outlets quickly adjusted to provide service journalism that citizens actually wanted.
The gap between initial coverage and audience needs created space for citizen journalists and content creators to fill, democratising distribution. This became a complementary relationship that benefited the public at the end of the day.
The conversation about cash versus digital payments opened important dialogues about inclusive design. Users’ suggestions about public transport integration and simplified interfaces were product feedback to shape future iterations. The elderly community’s challenges with digital usage highlighted specific areas where targeted support and education could help.
How did brands show up the most in audience conversation online?
Engagement with brands like DBS/POSB, NTUC FairPrice, and McDonald’s showed how private sector participation amplified the voucher programme’s reach. These partnerships created additional touch-points for citizens to access support and information, with brands becoming part of the solution ecosystem. These were mostly promotional in nature, but also specify how compatible vouchers are at supermarket and banking touch-points.
Nation building together
Singapore’s SG60 voucher rollout revealed something profound about the nation’s character. Language communities became information networks. Social media platforms transformed into help desks. What could have been a story of digital fragmentation became one of collective problem-solving.
For communications professionals and policymakers, the SG60 conversation offers invaluable insights into effective engagement. The most viral content was citizens helping citizens navigate new territory together. This collaborative spirit suggests that Singapore’s Smart Nation journey, while not without challenges, has a powerful asset: a population ready to support each other through digital transformation.
The role of communications professionals is evolving rapidly. AI is now actively shaping how organisations build trust, manage reputation, and engage key audiences, moving beyond theoretical discussions.
Gartner’s latest forecasts for Chief Communications Officers (CCOs) highlight a growing profession under increased scrutiny. Traditional methods such as press releases and media relationships are no longer sufficient. Communication is now central to business, and supporting tools must evolve accordingly.
Isentia’s platform combines AI-driven media intelligence, real-time narrative tracking, and expert human analysis. These capabilities address several urgent needs identified by Gartner. Below, we outline key predictions and how Isentia’s tools help meet these challenges.
AI is transforming how brands are discovered and evaluated
Gartner predicts that, as large language models replace traditional search, PR, and earned media, PR and earned media budgets will double by 2027. Stakeholders will increasingly view organisations through AI-generated summaries. The quality, authority, and timeliness of earned media will directly influence how AI systems represent your organisation.
Gartner emphasises that this is a communications challenge, not a marketing or SEO issue. Search engine optimisation requires PR and communications expertise to build trust, secure media coverage, and maintain consistent messaging across stakeholders.
Isentia’s Lumina AI suite and Narratives AI tools address these needs. Narratives AI identifies, summarises, and ranks stories from billions of news articles and social media posts in real time and historically. It reveals how stories develop and spread, enabling communications teams to understand both the content and its influence on AI-generated perceptions.
Isentia’s upcoming Lumina AI View feature enables organisations to see how their brand appears across AI platforms and understand the information shaping those results. Intelligence is no longer a luxury.
Gartner’s second forecast was that by 2029, 45% of CCOs will use narrative intelligence technologies to monitor reputation amid rising disinformation. Traditional monitoring tools often miss early signs of harmful stories because they focus on keywords rather than story development and spread.
Isentia has addressed this challenge. Our crisis monitoring teams provide 24/7 coverage and real-time alerts via email, mobile app, and WhatsApp, delivering the intelligence-driven support Gartner recommends.
Our Media Impact Score (MIS) supports this approach. It evaluates not only the volume of coverage but also its reception, combining tone, importance, and audience reach into a single human-coded score that reflects true reputational impact.
The growth of AI-powered internal communications
Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75% of employees will use chatbots for internal information instead of intranets, newsletters, or manager updates. This shift from push-based to pull-based, conversational access raises important governance considerations.
Isentia’s GenAI-powered Insights Chatbot addresses this need. It allows users to query past reports and data, providing clear, evidence-based answers from the organisation’s media intelligence archive. Teams can interact with their data, compare trends, identify patterns, and access insights efficiently.
As Dr Nici Sweaney, Founder and Director at Ai Her Way, observed at Isentia's recent webinar on AI as a new stakeholder: "What will set people apart — and what AI cannot replicate — is the human lens. The judgment, the relationships, the institutional knowledge, the strategic read of a room. The organisations that lean into supporting their people to harness these tools, rather than just deploying the tools, will be the ones best placed."
This principle guides Isentia’s approach. Our platform combines AI with over 100 local analysts across Southeast Asia (SEA) who review AI-generated data for cultural context, slang, and sarcasm. This model achieves up to 95% sentiment accuracy, ensuring reliable results through human expertise.
Analytics must move from retrospective to predictive
Gartner’s last key prediction is that analytics must shift from retrospective to predictive, much on data, and Gartner’s final key prediction is that by 2029, communications teams will double their spending on data and analytics to 6% of budgets. This reflects increased pressure to demonstrate business impact. Nearly half of CCOs struggle to prove their value, and a third report their teams are viewed as cost centres.
RepID and interactive dashboards go far beyond simple metrics. For example, RepID measures an organisation’s reputation by analysing stories and posts across areas such as leadership, ethics, and quality. This gives a clear, evidence-based view of how reputation is really changing, not just how much coverage there is.
Our interactive insights reports enable clients to track share of voice, narrative sentiment, and influencer impact in one platform. This real-time, results-focused measurement aligns with Gartner’s recommendations for credibility in communications.
Implications for communications leaders
Communications teams must achieve more, operate with greater precision, move faster, and deliver measurable business results. AI is both the driver and enabler of this change, but success depends on investing in the right intelligence systems.
Isentia’s platform already provides the essential tools Gartner recommends, including Narratives AI, real-time risk alerts, AI-powered chatbots, human-verified insights, and advanced measurement systems. For PR & Comms leaders in Asia-Pacific and beyond, the key question is how quickly they can implement this intelligence.
Join the conversation
We invite you to attend our upcoming webinar, Inside the AI Shift: How Communications Leaders Are Adapting, on Tuesday, 28 April 2026 at 11am SGT / 1pm AEST / 3pm NZST via Zoom.
Isentia’s VP of Revenue and Insights for SEA, Prashant Saxena, and ANZ’s Director of Insights, Ngaire Crawford, will discuss how communications teams are meeting increasing demands for speed, insight, and measurement, while adapting to evolving executive expectations as AI becomes a new stakeholder.
The session will explore how communications leaders discuss AI with executives and boards amid increased pressure on risk, measurement, and strategy. It will also examine how teams are adapting workflows and decision-making, the challenges communicators face, and emerging opportunities.
Register below to secure your place.
Please fill up this form if you're in the ANZ region
Please fill up this form if you're in the SEA region
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Blog
How is Isentia responding to AI reshaping communications leadership?
Taking from the recent PR & Comms predictions for 2026 by Gartner, we observe how Isentia leads in creating a robust AI-powered workspace.
The media landscape is accelerating. In an era where influence is ephemeral and every angle demands instant comprehension, PR and communications professionals require more than generic technology—they need intelligence engineered for their specific challenges.
Isentia is proud to introduce Lumina, a groundbreaking suite of intelligent AI tools. Lumina has been trained from the ground up on the complex workflows and realities of modern communications and public affairs. It is explicitly designed to shift professionals from passive media monitoring back into the role of strategic leaders and pacesetters.
“The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind.” said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group.
“Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.”
Setting a new standard for PR intelligence
Lumina is centered on empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications strategy. This suite is purpose-built to help PR, Comms, and Public Affairs professionals significantly improve productivity, enhance message clarity, and facilitate early risk detection.
Lumina enables communicators to:
Understand & Interpret: Move beyond basic alerts to strategically map the trajectory and spread of narrative evolution.
Focus & Personalise: Achieve the clarity necessary to execute strategic action before critical moments pass.
We are launching the Lumina suite by making our first module immediately available: Stories & Perspectives.
In the current fragmented, multi-channel media environment, communications professionals need to be able to instantly perceive not just how a story is growing, but also how it is being perceived across different stakeholder groups.
Stories & Perspectives organizes raw media mentions into clustered, cohesive Stories, and the Perspectives that exist within each, reflecting distinct media, audience, and public affairs angles. This unique functionality allows users to:
Rise above the noise: Instantly identify which high-level topics are gaining momentum or fading from attention.
Get to the detail, fast: Uncover the influential voices, niche communities, and specific channels actively shaping the narrative.
Catch the pivot point: Precisely identify the moment a story shifts—from a strategic opportunity to a reputation risk—or when a new key opinion former begins guiding the conversation.
"Media isn’t a stream of mentions," said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. "But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that's what an off-the-shelf LLM can't give you."
The Lumina Roadmap: AI tools for the future of comms
The launch of Stories & Perspectives is the first release of many. Over the upcoming months, we will systematically roll out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of AI tools engineered to handle every phase of the communications lifecycle.
The full Lumina suite will soon incorporate:
Curated media summaries: AI-driven daily summaries customized specifically to the priorities of senior leadership, highlighting only the most relevant stories.
Reputation analysis: Advanced measurement tracking how critical themes like ethics, innovation, and leadership are statistically shaping corporate perception.
Press release & media relations assistant: Tools designed to accelerate content creation and craft hyper-focused, personalized pitches that reach the precise contacts faster.
Predictive intelligence layer: Technology engineered to track and anticipate story momentum and strategic change before the window of opportunity closes.
Intelligent agents: Background agents continuously scanning all media channels for emerging key spokespeople and previously undetected reputation risks.
Enhanced audio, broadcast & crisis detection: Complete, real-time oversight of all channels—including audio and broadcast—enabling rapid context building and optimal crisis response delivery.
Want to harness the power of Lumina AI for your PR, Comms, or Public Affairs team? .
Complete the form below to register your interest.
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Blog
Announcing Lumina: The purpose-built AI suite for PR, Comms, and Public Affairs
An intelligent suite of AI tools trained on the language, workflows, and realities of modern public relations and communications.
