The bustling city-state located at the tip of the Malay peninsula may be home to just four million citizens but internationally it has a huge influence.

While Hong Kong commands the North Asian advertising markets, clients and agencies congregate in Singapore as a base for south-east Asia from Vietnam to the Indian subcontinent stretching as far as the Middle East. “High English literacy unites us to these markets and even connects us to Australia,” says Gan Boon Guan, managing director at OMD Singapore.

Agencies tend to drive regional campaigns out of Singapore making it “a melting pot of creativity,” according to Guan. But the size of the local consumer base precludes all but a few from creating bespoke solutions.

Home-grown brands such as Tiger Beer, Singapore Airlines and traditional medicine Eu Yan Sang, however, do provide opportunities for agencies to create more domestic work. “These are established brands with a strong regional presence now looking to imprint themselves internationally,” says Denise Lim, group account director at Initiative.

Last year, MindShare and Kinetic claimed a media first for an OOH campaign for Asia Pacific Breweries with the introduction of the region’s first LED panels on public buses. The ads, fitted to 26 double deckers, celebrated Tiger Beer’s 75th anniversary. Some suggest that economically the market is best compared with Switzerland. “It has a lack of natural resources and a small population,” says VR Padmanabhan, who heads up MediaCom’s office. “ Singapore is sealocked; Switzerland is land-locked. The Swiss are famous for secrecy in banking. Singapore is fast becoming a private wealth management hub.”

Both economies are export-oriented “so the cycle in which advertising boosts domestic demand – which in turn increases advertising – is absent”. The key issue for media planners is the concentration of media ownership.

Mediacorp dominates broadcasting – it runs all six terrestrial TV channels, plus 14 radio stations. It recently branched into publishing, acquiring local language magazines as well as licenced titles like FHM, encroaching on the print territory of Singapore Press Holdings.

SPH owns 13 newspapers, including market-leading Straits Times; a magazine portfolio that includes Maxim; two radio stations and a burgeoning outdoor business built on the acquisitions of local LED network MediaBoxOffice and Hong Kong-based TOM OMG.

SPH and Mediacorp control 90% of the market although telecoms group StarHub is expected to grow its cable TV, broadband and mobile reach, having just renewed rights for key property the English Premier League until 2010. The main issue facing these groups is fragmented media consumption. The response has been the creation of cross-platform offerings and since October Mediacorp has begun offering an integrated multi-platform sales approach. SPH has indicated it will follow suit.

Sharon Soh, general manager of MEC Singapore, says that consolidation means that agencies that want to deliver innovative local campaigns require “tenacity”. She adds: “Given the monopolies, there’s no great incentive for the media groups to innovate.”

Her agency used the full gamut of Mediacorp properties to create a six month campaign for Coke Light that helped recruit young adults and expand the drink’s niche. Platforms included speed-dating TV gameshow A Light Affair, sponsorship of radio Blind Dates with promotional magazine support to appeal to the target audience’s love of light-hearted romance and entertainment.

Smaller local brands are also working with the media giants. Skincare company LD Waxson built a successful campaign solely using SPH’s print portfolio, designed by SPH’s creative services teams. “We wanted to prove to the Singapore ad industry that print is not finished,” says senior brand manager Willy Tan.

Matters are compounded by the role of the government. Not only is it the biggest local advertiser but, through its investment arm Temasek Holdings, it is highly influential in media as well as other sectors. Health product advertising and 3D billboards require government approval and red tape can slow down event organisation. However, a recent relaxation in the regulations for out-of-home has contributed to resurgence in the sector.

“Compared to most Asian markets Singapore is restrictive with limits on size and location of large format executions,” says Ashley Stewart, managing director at JCDecaux Singapore. “But licence fees for advertising outside buildings have been abolished and there’s a loosening of bus and bus shelter signage.”

Clear Channel, which manages 2,300 bus shelter sites, launched a campaign for the Singapore Zoo, which included 3D installations of endangered species at select shelters.

In part, because of such factors, Initiative recently adopted an experiential campaign for Samsonite to generate awareness of its Vintage range of travel products. The agency invited business travellers to enjoy a luxury train cruise on the classic Orient Express from Singapore to Bangkok.

The initiative cost the same as a halfpage newspaper ad and saw in-store and online enquiries leap as a result.

As with so many markets a big growth area is online. The government wants all citizens to have broadband by 2015 and media owners are investing.

SPH is building a classified sales platform and portal around Straits Times, for example. Closer integration between online and mobile is also on the way. New technology developed by Singapore and UK-based Affle, which allows advertisers to buy key words in SMS messages to launch hotlinks or targeted ads, will be trialled in 2007.

Like its built environment, it seems Singapore’s media landscape won’t stay the same for long.