Titled “Big Dinner is a Must”, the campaign is inspired by the local dining norm that a proper dinner is typically not complete without soup and a spread of dishes. It sits under the brand’s “Hong Kong Flavour is a Must” platform and frames everyday dinner preferences through a light, humour-led approach.

The title “Big Dinner” carries a double meaning, referring both to a hearty, generous meal and a Gen Z slang expression used to describe something impressive or “insanely good”.

Angel Tam, Director (Marketing) at Café de Coral, said, “We want to make a proper, hearty ‘big dinner’ accessible to everyone. A comforting dinner should be part of everyday life, and Café de Coral aims to bring that feeling to the table with premium ingredients such as Fish Maw, a long-boiled soup and a wide selection of Chinese-style dishes that add a little more warmth to everyday dining.” 

The campaign is rolled out through a series of short videos built around Cantonese puns that introduce Café de Coral’s offerings in a conversational, situational manner. Featuring actor brothers Chu Pak-hong and Chu Pak-him, the videos lean on their natural banter and chemistry to reflect familiar mealtime interactions, portraying dinner as a casual social moment for unwinding after a long day.

“Some jokes only work locally, and that’s what makes them so relatable. By leaning into humour that feels familiar to Hongkongers, we’re creating a more local and approachable brand voice. Through these familiar moments, we help Café de Coral rejuvenate the brand and stay relevant with its audience,” said Diana Tam, Managing Partner & Director of Operations, dentsu Hong Kong. 

“Built as an integrated campaign, the media strategy goes beyond mass awareness to focus on high-potential audiences. Playful videos are used to build interest, while retargeting drives engaged audiences to Café de Coral’s e-commerce website. The banner ads rotate different delicious dishes based on menu offers, encouraging users to purchase dinner set vouchers to drive conversion,” added Nicholas Siu, Business Director, Media, dentsu Hong Kong. 

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dentsu Hong Kong supported the rollout of Café de Coral’s “Hong Kong Flavour is a Must” platform through an end-to-end creative activation. The initiative combined elements of Hong Kong-style dining culture with the festival’s fandom-driven environment, resulting in a series of interactive experiences tailored to the cross-cultural setting of CON-CON.

Diana Tam, Managing Partner & Director of Operations, dentsu Hong Kong. said, “To truly connect with the audience, we knew we couldn’t just show up as an exhibitor but needed to show up as a fan. Our vision was to take Café de Coral and seamlessly weave it into pop culture. It’s about creating unexpected, joyful moments together, proving that iconic brands can be just as dynamic and relevant as the IPs these communities celebrate.” 

Ahead of the event, dentsu Hong Kong extended the activation onto social media via Café de Coral’s refreshed Instagram account. The campaign introduced a limited-edition pop-up character, “Menu Mate”, alongside an interactive Ask-Me-Anything format that incorporated humour, local references, and brand storytelling. The online activity served as a lead-up to the on-ground activation at the festival.

At the event, the activation featured the “Menu Mate” mascot as a roaming presence across the festival floor. Dressed in a costume inspired by Café de Coral’s menu board, the character engaged attendees through performance and cosplay elements, integrating Hong Kong cultural references into the broader IP-themed environment.

Supporting activities included the distribution of Hong Kong street snacks, a tongue-twister challenge, and a themed photo spot designed for social sharing, all positioned within a locally inspired setting.

“Café de Coral has always been a staple of everyday Hong Kong life, and we want to continue engaging with our community wherever they are,” said Angel Tam, Director (Marketing), Café de Coral. “By joining an exciting IP event like Con Con, we are stepping outside our restaurants to share the fun and create memorable experiences right alongside our customers.” 

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The campaign builds on Café de Coral’s long-standing role in Hongkongers’ everyday meals, updated with a contemporary twist. It also marks the launch of the brand’s new platform, “Hong Kong flavour is a must”, which celebrates the tastes, rituals, and moments that are central to daily life in the city.

The platform draws inspiration from the popular Cantonese Gen Z slang “MNYY”, a phrase used to describe everyday essentials that are non-negotiable. Leveraging this insight, the campaign is anchored on the message “A great start is a must”, framing breakfast not just as a meal but as a feel-good ritual that helps people set a positive tone for the day.

As the first activation under “Hong Kong flavour is a must,” the Scrambled Egg Breakfast Campaign signals how Café de Coral plans to continue highlighting local tastes and everyday relevance in future initiatives.

The campaign features rising pop artist Egg Wong, a playful nod to eggs that also serves as a cultural hook. His participation adds a relatable, light-hearted touch, appealing to younger audiences who value humour and authenticity.

Timothy Li, executive creative director at dentsu Hong Kong, said, “Instead of leaning on predictable breakfast cues, we wanted to focus on an emotional, everyday moment, a simple self-treat that can reset your mood and set the tone for the day. Egg Wong’s energy helped us reframe breakfast as a mindset rather than a routine. Rooted in Cantonese slang, pop-culture casting and real dining behaviours, the idea demonstrates how cultural insight enables brands to stay relevant in people’s daily lives.” 

The campaign is running until the end of April across television, print, outdoor, social media, programmatic display, and in-store touchpoints, bringing the “A great start is a must” message to audiences throughout Hong Kong.

“As Hong Kongers’ canteen, Café de Coral is dedicated to delivering great value by bringing comforting flavours made with quality ingredients. Using Hokkaido 3.6 milk in our Scrambled Egg Breakfast Set gives it the smooth, creamy richness our customers cherish,” said Angel Tam, director (marketing) at Café de Coral. 

“This campaign with dentsu Hong Kong reflects how we continue to evolve with the new generation, from refreshing our taste profiles to understanding what they enjoy, while remaining true to who we are as a brand,” Tam added. 

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The brand’s Provision Store (愛迪達辦館) drew directly from Fa Yuen Street, the city’s iconic football jersey district, blending kits, street fashion, and local flair.

At the heart of the booth, a towering wall of jerseys evoked the dense, bustling lanes of Mong Kok, giving visitors the feel of browsing amid a sea of fans and neon signs. 

The layout made clear how football culture in Hong Kong has long overlapped with street style.

Visitors could personalise jerseys on-site, adding letters, numbers, and decorative touches. 

The interactive feature positioned sport apparel as a canvas for creativity, reflecting broader trends in urban Asia where merchandise doubles as fashion statements.

The activation reached its peak when Korean superstar Jay Park and rising boy band LNGSHOT performed live, drawing fans to the booth and amplifying the event’s energy. 

Their appearance highlighted the growing crossover between music, streetwear, and football in youth markets across the region.

The installation also transformed retail into theatre, showing how a deep understanding of local culture can turn a product into a public performance—and why Hong Kong streets, even indoors, remain a stage for style and sport.

The adidas activation at ComplexCon mirrors a broader regional shift in marketing strategies, where cultural insight and immersive experiences are increasingly central.

Similar moves are seen in Singapore, where the Singapore Tourism Board is courting younger travellers with its “We Don’t Wait for Fun” campaign, blending heritage and street culture through installations, interactive art, and pop-up experiences at ComplexCon Hong Kong. 

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Titled ‘Wet Market Express’, the campaign features mascots and witty storytelling to highlight the freshness of HKTVmall’s products. The videos give personality to wet market ingredients, illustrating the difference between high-quality and mediocre items while blending informative content with entertainment.

The campaign also underlines HKTVmall’s role in providing convenient, same-day delivery of Hong Kong’s premium seafood, meats, and local vegetables and fruits at street-level prices.

“Wet Market Express is a new way of living for Hong Kong consumers. We’re bridging tradition and technology, making it possible for families to enjoy the freshest market produce without leaving home. This campaign is about building trust and changing habits, showing that quality and convenience can go hand in hand. We’re proud to help redefine daily shopping for our city,” said Vivian Cheung, head of quick commerce at HKTVmall.  

To maximise visibility, the campaign includes a high-impact MTR 12-sheet rollout across 36 stations, while TV and digital content showcase HKTVmall’s curated selection, generating public attention and encouraging engagement.

Toby Hong, associate creative director at dentsu Hong Kong, shared, “Our creative team wanted to capture the energy and soul of Hong Kong’s wet markets, but with a modern twist. By transforming market ingredients into lively, memorable mascots, we inject personality and fun into the shopping experience.” 

She added, “We believe this playful approach not only entertains but also reassures customers that HKTVmall is their trusted guide to the best the city’s markets have to offer.” 

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The collaboration marks the first time in the Asia-Pacific region that a tourism board has combined proprietary “Travel AI Audiences” with online travel agency (OTA) onsite placements to engage travellers throughout the entire decision-making journey.

As the festival continues to evolve into a premium cultural experience, dentsu Hong Kong developed a full-funnel media strategy designed to connect with travellers from inspiration to booking. 

By leveraging AI-driven insights, the campaign identifies high-intent audiences and re-engages them through placements across leading travel platforms, including Agoda, Expedia Group, Skyscanner, and Tripadvisor. This approach enables HKTB to deliver precise and relevant messaging at every stage of the travel planning process.

“This campaign reflects dentsu’s commitment to pioneering AI in marketing,” said Wai Chung Au, managing director for media at dentsu Hong Kong. “As one of the industry’s leaders, we’re driving forward a vision of responsible, transparent and impactful AI. This strategy showcases how our capabilities can elevate destination storytelling and deliver measurable value for our clients.” 

To enhance measurement and accountability, dentsu Hong Kong partnered with StackAdapt to integrate advanced tools such as Destination Visitation Measurement and Footfall Attribution. These solutions allow HKTB to track tourism uplift and monitor physical attendance at the festival.

“Our AI-powered platform is helping travel brands reimagine what’s possible when planning visitation drives for events such as Hong Kong’s Wine & Dine Festival. No one else in the market is offering insights like these across the travel vertical, and we can’t wait to see the results once the campaign concludes,” shared Liam McCarten, APAC vice president at StackAdapt.

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Titled “Timeless Taste of Hong Kong”, the campaign underscores the brand’s long-standing role as a familiar presence in the daily lives of Hongkongers, particularly during periods of uncertainty.

A centrepiece of the campaign is a cinematic commercial, “No Matter How the World Changes, I Want to Stay by Your Side,” which tells the story of a father and son navigating life’s challenges together. The narrative speaks to the resilience of Hong Kong families, drawing on themes of shared experience and perseverance. The message — “Take a good rest and eat well; it will get better” — aims to resonate with local audiences and reflect the emotional support the brand has offered over the years.

Central to the campaign is Café de Coral’s iconic Baked Pork Chop Rice — a dish that has become a fixture in Hong Kong households. Since the company’s founding in 1968, it has served as a familiar comfort food, often associated with warmth, stability, and family connections.

Piony Leung, CEO of Café de Coral, said, “This dish transcends mere sustenance — it is a memory, a cherished tradition, and a hallmark of our local culture. For over five decades, our Baked Pork Chop Rice has woven itself into the fabric of Hong Kong’s narrative. It is profoundly moving to witness how it continues to bring comfort and joy to every generation.”

Jeffry Gamble, chief creative officer at Dentsu Creative Hong Kong, added, “We wanted to honour the legacy of Café de Coral in a way that felt both nostalgic and fresh. The execution is deeply rooted in local culture — from the storytelling to the visual language. We reimagined classic Hong Kong cinematic styles to tell a story that’s not just about food but about resilience, love and the emotional threads that tie generations together.” 

The campaign is currently running across multiple media platforms, including television, digital channels, outdoor placements, and social media, aiming to reach a broad cross-section of the public.

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The campaign’s goal is to bring users to a new discovery by unlocking new ways to experience beer. 

Recognising Asahi’s offline-focused competitors and the evolving cookieless landscape, dentsu leveraged its data-driven expertise and first-party data to navigate the digital environment, precisely engaging target audiences throughout their purchase journey.

The campaign seamlessly integrated outdoor programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) advertising, strategically placed at prime locations across Hong Kong, with captivating interactive formats across video and display channels. Additionally, dentsu’s data partnerships with The Trade Desk allowed Asahi to leverage retail data, precisely targeting and converting users.

This multifaceted approach successfully captivated audiences, significantly increasing brand awareness while seamlessly driving conversions both online and offline. It not only enhanced Asahi’s full-funnel communication but also drove results in terms of awareness, engagement, and ultimately, conversion among its consumers.

The campaign had garnered 13.6 million impressions and 4.3 million video views. It continues to gain significant traction across Hong Kong, with plans to boost its reach by 87% moving forward. Asahi’s message has effectively reached the right consumers at the right time, leading to a remarkable 392% increase in conversions on Asahi’s flagship store on HKTVmall just three weeks after the campaign launched.

Mag Lai, regional head of brand at Asahi Super Dry, said, “We are thrilled to once again collaborate with dentsu Hong Kong on this effective omnichannel campaign for Dry Crystal. Dentsu has empowered Asahi to break through the competitive landscape and achieve remarkable success in both brand awareness and conversions.” 

Kitty Kwan, planning director at dentsu Hong Kong, added, “This omni-channel campaign for Asahi showcases dentsu’s commitment to delivering impactful solutions that drive meaningful growth for our clients. By seamlessly integrating data-driven strategies across channels, we’ve created a campaign that resonates with consumers and clients, helping to maximise the brand’s reach and engagement.” 

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Simone is an advertising and marketing veteran, having started her journey in agencies way back in the 90’s. Her creative expertise is nothing short of commendable as she sharpened her agency prowess with some of the most respectable firms. Her early career saw her serving in FCB and then the DDB Group. She spent a number of years at mcgarrybowen before finally landing her current position at Dentsu Hong Kong.

Distilling 13 creative outfits into an integrated division of 6

From the period of 2012 to 2019, Dentsu, the renowned global advertising agency network, began an aggressive growth journey where it made more than 200 acquisitions, twice the trajectory in the market. Whilst the group was continuously acquiring new talents, it became a compilation of many different companies working in silos. For Hong Kong, this meant 13 individual agencies.

The said agencies all had different management teams with 13 P&Ls, all operating without any relationship to one another. Enter Simone in the picture. In 2021, her focused leadership as one of the CEOs of the 13 units quickly escalated when she was tapped to be the Group CEO of the entire Hong Kong division. 

The year 2021 saw Simone driving the network’s transformation agenda and restructuring the organisation into six agencies; most importantly, she created a single leadership team and one P&L across the group of 6 agencies. In 2022, for the first time ever, Dentsu Hong Kong was ready to operate as one integrated agency group.

Operationalising a growth strategy – one that’s sustainable 

There’s growth, then there’s sustainable growth. The former is less elusive given the right mindset of a team, but the latter – much more challenging to achieve with the incredible need for strategic foresight. With Simone’s impressive leadership direction and approach, she’s built a team structure for Dentsu Hong Kong that is thriving and sustainable. 

She knows that in order for talents and clients to be well taken care of, value must be afforded from the inside. Just like with any great culture, the building blocks are effective practices — and this is exactly where she drew her influence from.

To breathe life into the ‘one dentsu’ vision, Simone leveraged town halls, sharing sessions, and workshops in order to create excitement for employees for the said company maxim. In addition, she scheduled bi-weekly one-on-one sessions with all 14 direct reports to share leadership wisdom and ensure alignment with management. 

Ultimately, she fortified this unity in leadership and shaped a high-performing culture by introducing the ‘Care to do Better’ motto to the entire organization This eventually turned into practice that awarded teams and individuals who championed their ‘Care to do better’ attitude.

Empowering the industry as a true advertising ally 

Simone’s passion and expertise for advertising transcends her drive to perform excellently in one entity, but to contribute to the betterment and evolution of the entire industry.

For the past six years, she sat on City University’s Advisory Committee for the Graduates Program to provide career guidance and design internship programs for undergraduates. As a guest lecturer at HKU Business School, she taught in its MBA class on creative effectiveness.

More notably, because of her belief in the power of the industry to create meaningful influence and change society, together with her creative partner, she led a 100% pro-bono project that produced a game helping autistic children build social & problem-solving skills.

With insights gathered from autism advocates, parents, therapists, and educators, the project ‘Critical Core’ enabled players to develop and adopt a magical character and work through a series of encounters with teammates whilst role-playing the adopted persona.

She commented, “I believe every industry, every leader needs to work on women empowerment until glass ceiling is no longer a term we use.”

Aside from Simone, check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.

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Petralia first joined Isobar Commerce Hong Kong in 2018, and afterwards, stepped up as general manager when the group launched Merkle Hong Kong last year. In just one year, the network said he has already demonstrated impeccable passion and determination in setting Merkle up for success and contributed to the group’s overall revenue growth. 

“This promotion signals our commitment that Merkle is our key strategic growth pillar for the overall Hong Kong operation, it also demonstrates our trust in Nathan, knowing that he is the right captain in leading Merkle for us,” Simone Tam, CEO of dentsu International Hong Kong said. 

“Nathan will bring together the customer experience capabilities Merkle owns and drive synergies and integration across the entire agency group and for our clients,” Tam added. 

Petralia commented, “I have always been passionate about customer psychology and data. Like any other person, I get pretty annoyed when I get irrelevant advertising because it tells me this brand does not know what I want and is wasting money on irrelevant advertising.” 

He aded, “With Merkle, I can help dentsu clients capture and leverage valuable data to increase their marketing effectiveness with predictable and measurable results, bring brands and customers closer together, and maximise the customer experiences and brand loyalty.” 

Just recently, John Riccio was named president of Merkle for whole of APAC.

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