Building Community, Driving Ticket Sales: Bringing the National Ballet of China Back to Singapore

The Brief

This was Digital Business Lab’s first collaboration with Just Live (ShowPlus) to lead the digital marketing campaign for the National Ballet of China’s Singapore tour, A Dream of Red Mansions. Returning to Singapore after almost a decade, the production required a strategy that would build awareness beyond existing ballet audiences while driving ticket sales for a limited four-day performance at Esplanade Theatre.

Our scope included paid media strategy, organic social media management, content production, website development, influencer and community partnerships, and ongoing campaign optimisation throughout the five-month campaign.

The Objective

Develop an integrated digital marketing campaign that increased awareness of the production and converted interest into ticket sales by reaching both existing ballet enthusiasts and new audiences across Singapore.

The Solution

Integrated Full-Funnel Campaign Strategy

DBL implemented a full-funnel marketing strategy that combined Google Search, Meta, Programmatic, organic social media, community partnerships and content creation to guide audiences from awareness through to ticket purchase.

The campaign evolved throughout the customer journey:

• Early stage: Storytelling-led content and awareness campaigns to introduce the production and the return of the National Ballet of China
• Mid stage: Character stories, audience testimonials and behind-the-scenes content to deepen consideratio
• Final stage: Promotional offers, urgency messaging and retargeting campaigns to maximise ticket sales in the weeks leading up to the performances

Meta: The Primary Driver of Ticket Sales

Meta became the campaign’s strongest conversion channel, delivering:

• 1.3K tracked purchases (48% of all paid conversions)
• 6.4 million impressions
• 1.18 million people reached

Ad optimisation, audience refinement and regular creative refreshes helped Meta consistently deliver the highest sales volume throughout the campaign. Storytelling videos, audience testimonials and performance previews significantly outperformed generic promotional creatives, while urgency-led messaging and promotional offers drove the strongest conversion uplift during the final weeks.

Google Search Captured High-Intent Audiences

Google Search successfully converted audiences actively looking for ballet performances and cultural events in Singapore. The campaign generated:

• Almost 800 purchases tracked
• 61K clicks
• 13.23% CTR
• SGD 0.35 average CPC

Continuous keyword optimisation, search term expansion and promotional messaging ensured Google remained highly effective at capturing high-intent demand throughout the campaign.

Community Partnerships Reached Highly Relevant Audiences

To complement paid media, DBL activated Singapore’s ballet community through partnerships with ballet schools and dance organisations. 8 community partners promoted the performance through their own social media channels and internal networks, generating:

• Nearly 200 tickets sold via communities
• SGD 25.9K in ticket revenue

Despite minimal incentives, these partnerships demonstrated the effectiveness of engaging niche, highly relevant communities with strong affinity for the performing arts.

Continuous Creative & Media Optimisation

Performance was monitored weekly, with ongoing optimisation across creatives, audiences and media allocation. Key optimisations included:

• Refreshing ad creatives every 3-4 weeks to reduce fatigue
• Adjusting audience targeting and keyword strategies based on campaign performance
• Shifting messaging from inspirational storytelling to urgency-driven promotions closer to the event
• Using Programmatic to build high-quality retargeting audiences that strengthened lower-funnel Meta performance