Hong Kong – As the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games begin, Cathay has teamed up with Publicis Groupe Hong Kong to launch a new campaign honouring the historic achievements of previous Hong Kong’s Paralympians.

Titled ‘Every Move Counts,’ Cathay’s campaign seeks to revive and spotlight the stories behind Hong Kong’s most legendary Paralympic moments, many of which were barely recorded and have since faded from memory.

The campaign puts a focus on three trailblazing Paralympians—Cho Ping, Benny Cheung, and Ko Chi Kin. Utilising AI, it reimagines and brings to life the pivotal moments when these athletes competed and won medals for Hong Kong.

As part of the campaign launch, Cathay is also rolling out a range of supportive initiatives for Hong Kong’s Paralympians, including special check-in counters, excess baggage allowances, dedicated baggage handling in Hong Kong and Paris, unlimited business class flights, 1 million miles for medallists, and more.

Edward Bell, general manager of brand, insights, and marketing at Cathay, said, “As the Official Airline Partner of the China Hong Kong Paralympics Committee, Cathay wanted to honour the grit, passion, and sheer talent of our home city’s Paralympics team, who share Cathay’s ‘Move Beyond’ spirit. Just like them, Cathay strives to make every move count, so we launched a campaign to ensure that this year these amazing athletes get the recognition and cheers they deserve.”

Halo Cheng, group creative director at Leo Burnett Hong Kong, added, “We’ve been oblivious to the monumental feats from our highest-achieving athletes for too long, but now Hong Kong’s Paralympians are finally getting the cheers they deserve. It was a huge honour to interview past Paralympians and learn their stories. We may have missed out on cheering for past Paralympians, but it’s not too late to cheer on this year’s 23 athletes.” 

Cathay recently introduced its new brand ambassador, Siobhán Haughey, a double bronze medallist at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Together, they are championing support for Hong Kong’s local athletes while inspiring everyone to reach new heights in their own journeys.

Hong Kong –  International airline carrier Cathay Pacific has partnered with Publicis Groupe Hong Kong to launch a new campaign promoting the upcoming Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens event. 

Titled ‘That’s What We Call A Seven’, the campaign features a film that documents the life of Eric. Eric starts to rate his everyday experiences and realises that nothing has lived up to the exhilaration he once felt at the Hong Kong Sevens and that life hasn’t been the same ever since. 

The Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens is one of Asia’s most popular annual sporting events and the world’s first truly global rugby tournament. With nail-biting matches, the event is always expected to be a costume-crazed, fun-filled spectacle, with every year being bigger than the last. 

This year, with Cathay being one of the event’s co-title sponsors and official overseas travel partner, the airline is committed to delivering a world-class rugby festival. Cathay promises an enhanced Sevens experience for fans around the globe by offering a suite of flight, ticket, and accommodation packages. 

As part of the promotions, the campaign will also extend to out-of-home advertising, social, and in-stadium activations and giveaways. 

The local activations transform the idea of the campaign film into an actual rating system. People can rate the people, places, or experiences that they feel also achieve a perfect ‘7’ by collecting and giving out Cathay’s series of collectible badges. Each badge is inspired by the most captivating aspects of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Sevens. 

Edward Bell, general manager of brand, insights, and marketing at Cathay, said, “We loved the idea of playfully reminding people of how epic the Hong Kong Sevens are—so epic, everything else in life, big or small, pales in comparison. From Cathay’s in-flight hospitality to the spectacle of the stadium and the tournament’s world-class rugby warriors, each element comes together to create a perfect score. Now that’s what we call a seven.” 

Meanwhile, Christopher Lee, executive creative director at Publicis Groupe Hong Kong, shared, “It’s human nature to rate stuff, which gave us a funny thought: what if coming to Hong Kong to watch the Rugby Sevens could ruin all other experiences for you? If you ask us Hong Kongers, no other event can rival its greatness; it’s a perfect 7 out of 7.” 

Singapore – Cathay has rolled out a new campaign called ‘Feels Good to Move’, which is part of the airline’s rollout of its new premium travel lifestyle brand, and celebrates passion for travel as a way of living under their master brand and simplifying the way their customers interact with them.

Created by Publicis Groupe Hong Kong, the ‘Feels Good To Move’ campaign consists of a diverse content system where each touchpoint is fuelled by energetic and playful observations about how much humans love moving – this very fact is the reason for being for the entire travel lifestyle industry globally. 

It kicks off with a film that explores how good it feels to move in all situations in life, big and small, set to a cover of Junior Senior’s classic track ‘Move Your Feet’ and directed by Pierre Dupaquier from We Are From LA.

For Cathay, the new campaign represents much more than airline travel but rather represents their evolution into a premium travel lifestyle brand consisting of a host of complementary categories – flights, holidays, shopping, dining, wellness and payment.

Moreover, the ‘Feels Good to Move’ campaign celebrates humanity’s innate urge to move, starting from someone’s very first heartbeat, and every piece of content is an irresistible call to get moving.

Ronald Lam, chief executive officer at Cathay, said, “This month of September marks 77 years since the Cathay story first began with a single Douglas DC-3 aircraft nicknamed ‘Betsy’ and a drive to connect the world and its people. As the habits and needs of our customers have changed over the years, so too have we.”

He added, “Our evolution into Cathay marks an exciting new chapter in our history, and reflects our renewed focus on the customer and our determination to fulfil our vision of becoming one of the world’s greatest service brands.”

Meanwhile, Edward Bell, general manager of brand, insights and marketing communications at Cathay, commented, “This campaign goes straight to the heart of why Cathay exists as a premium travel lifestyle brand – a brand that aims to enable us to live the premium travel lifestyle, every day. Since our beginnings, Cathay has always been about forward progress. Restlessness is in our DNA. This campaign is a celebration of how good it feels to move.”

Natalie Lam, chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe APAC, said, “We’re all born with a restless urge to move, never truly staying still even if we’re supposed to. Rolling around in our mother’s belly, restlessly waiting for class to be over, those moments where it feels good to shake a little in a yoga class, just because staying completely still is against human instincts. Thinking about the next move in life, or dreaming of the next trip, when you’re still enjoying the current one. This urge to move is exactly why we travel, how we make progress, and why a world-class brand like Cathay exists in the first place, and keeps progressing — to facilitate humanity’s urge to move forward.”

She added, “This global brand campaign is an amazing opportunity to defy the category clichés of beautiful destinations and travelers, and look back into the very reason why humans want to move — simply because it feels good. We are very excited to bring a new way of looking at airline creativity together with our brave clients at Cathay.” 

Hong Kong – The pandemic has prompted countries around the world to introduce travel restrictions and containment measures. However, these implementations cannot stop eager travelers to resume planning their travel preparations. 

A new range of credit cards by Standard Chartered, Cathay, and Mastercard has been launched to enable travelers to earn more prestigious privileges and enjoy a higher level of banking and travel experiences offered by the new credit card series.

A multi-platform campaign has been developed by TBWA\Hong Kong in support of the new card series – ‘Standard Chartered Cathay Mastercard Credit Cards’.

The theme of the campaign centers around ‘Get Ready for New Heights’, the over one-minute ad features famous South Korean actor Song Joong-Ki, and renowned Hong Kong lyricist Wyman Wong. It captures the actor explaining the card series’ many offers and privileges through various ads, encouraging the lyricist to plan his future banking and travel experiences.

The three new cards in the series are ‘Standard Chartered Cathay Mastercard Credit Card’, ‘Standard Chartered Cathay Mastercard Credit Card – Priority Banking’, and ‘Standard Chartered Cathay Mastercard Credit Card – Priority Private’, which recognize different banking segments. The card series replaces the existing ‘Standard Chartered Asia Miles Mastercard Credit Card’.

Cardholders can still earn Asia Miles directly by using banking services only from Standard Chartered, while Priority Banking and Priority Private cardholders can also enjoy complimentary Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge access, priority check-in and boarding services, or limited Marco Polo Club Silver or Gold membership during the promotional period.

“With the pandemic delaying travel plans and creating a growing sense of wanderlust, the campaign invites people to get a head-start on their travel preparations with an elevated card experience to earn miles faster and more easily than ever,” said Terence Ling, the head of strategy at TBWA\Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, TBWA\Hong Kong’s Managing Director Jan Cho commented that they wanted to tap into the booming popularity of K-dramas, and use the allure of Korea as a travel destination.

“However, due to pandemic travel restrictions, overseas filming was no longer possible, and forced us to quickly adapt to a new way of working. I’m very proud of our team, and the production team in Korea, for working remotely and cohesively to bring this campaign to life,” said Cho.

Developed together with media support by Carat Hong Kong and iProspect Hong Kong, the campaign includes TVC, out-of-home, and print, as well as online, and social media.

Hong Kong – In its ongoing stance to improve their engagement with customers, airline Cathay Pacific has recently announced its newest premium travel lifestyle brand called simply ‘Cathay’ that merges “positive things” on travel and lifestyle. 

Over the coming months, ‘Cathay’ will be rolling out a range of new offers in spending, dining, shopping, hotels, and wellness – enabling it to engage with their customers not only when they fly with them, but “everyday.” 

‘Cathay’ brings together Cathay Pacific and its existing loyalty programs Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles all in one place, simplifying the way customers can interact with them, including how to earn status and use miles.

Through the new brand, ‘Cathay’ is also set to make its proposition more appealing. By integrating its offerings and forging better partnerships, it promises to bring a wider range of products and services to the benefit of customers.

As part of the initial launch is a new Cathay co-branded credit card – which will be rolled out in Hong Kong soon. These will all culminate in an upcoming refreshed customer relationship program in the first half of 2022. 

Augustus Tang, chief executive officer at Cathay Pacific, notes that the center of the ‘Cathay’ brand is a so-called ‘celebration of all the best things we love – and have missed – about travel’.

“We are very proud to have been connecting our customers with people, places and experiences around the world through the joy of travel. Our ability to enter the travel lifestyle space and the success of this strategy is built upon the enduring strength, trust and respect that Cathay Pacific has established over 75 years of accomplishments, and the hard work and dedication of our people around the world,” Tang stated.

He added, “‘Cathay’ reinforces our commitment to engage with our customers in their everyday lives with world-class service. By adding more value and simplicity, we are helping to move them forward in life as per our ‘Move Beyond’ purpose.”

‘Cathay’ will be only available in Hong Kong at the moment, as Cathay Pacific will work out in the near future to expand the travel lifestyle brand to other markets in the near future.