Who’s behind the viral CCB website created for Singaporeans during the circuit breaker period?

It’s Day 10 of the circuit breaker and odds are, you might have come across this fun and quirky website, IAMACCB.sg.

Short for ‘I am a Community Circuit Breaker’, the website contains resources and everything else you will need to tide you through the circuit breaker period.

In six days since its launch on Apr 10 – the fourth day of the circuit breaker period – it has seen over 641,000 unique visitors and served over 474,000 page views.

Done by creative agency Tribal Worldwide Singapore, the entire website was put together in two days with business directors, copywriters, art directors and technologists all involved in the project.

The idea for the site came about during a team video call. The team from Tribal were sharing their own experiences as parents, caregivers, young adults and grandparents and tips that could make life at home better.

“When the Circuit Breaker period kicked in, we saw how many Singaporean were trying to adjust to the new norm. Some struggled with the safe distancing measures while others were not used to working with their children around… Meanwhile, businesses were also trying to find their own footing in a time like this and some came up with new ways to do business,” Tribal copywriter Sim Chun, 30, told Youth.SG via email.

“But all this information was not consolidated – it was all over the web or in chat groups – and you needed to be savvy to know where to go to find this information.

“As a community, we are already exchanging ideas during this Circuit Breaker period. So naturally, we thought of creating a community…and bingo, that was how the community circuit breaker was born.”

But the team had more ideas. They didn’t want the website to look like just any other sites out there, so they injected a Singaporean flavour into it.

“We went for a more local slant, adding in Singlish and colloquial phrases. It was our opportunity to be a little cheeky and give everyone a good laugh. After all, it’s the only time you will want to be a CCB – a community breaker that is!” said Chun.

Ong Hui Yu, an art director at the company who was involved in designing the site, added that the name IAMACCB grabs attention, so they wanted to have a website that matches the bold name.

“We went for a striking orange background, with simple icons housed in black boxes. The website is built to be responsive and when I designed the icons, I also took into consideration the cross-device compatibility. We also made sure that the website is easy to navigate so that users can get straight to what they want,” the 30-year-old added.

The public’s responses to the website is something that has gotten the Tribal team excited, said 26-year-old copywriter Liyana Hidhir, especially with the amount of work they put into it – on top of their daily responsibilities.

“It’s never easy to bring a vision to life, but when it’s out and we’ve seen how it’s been given so much love by Singaporeans, we are driven to fine-tune the site and bring the best experiences to our users,” she said.

Chun also hoped that the website has given Singaporeans a reason to smile during this trying period. Choosing to look on the bright side, he added that the situation has taught him some life lessons.

“Going through this, we have learnt that there will always be disruptions in our lives. COVID-19 is a test of how we can still work at home and keep our businesses going. We just need to be agile to find a work around,” he said. “Plus, staying home doesn’t mean we can’t help each other. So, let’s all do our part and be the best CCBs ever!”

For those who are looking for more ‘lobangs’, you can join the CCB Lobang King FB group – where you can post your own lobangs & score some of your own too!