Tag: Hong Kong

Hong Kong – Global transport company Uber has launched its newest index which details some of the most common lost-and-found items amongst Uber cars in Hong Kong, conducted across multiple Uber drivers in Hong Kong.

In 2022, phones and wallets remain the most commonly forgotten items. In addition, the index also shows a surge in the number of lost jewellery items, including wedding rings, a Audemars Piguet® watch and a Tiffany heart pendant.

As cashless payments become increasingly popular not thanks to the pandemic, riders have left behind 60% less cash in Ubers this year. Meanwhile, 1 January is crowned the most forgetful day of the year in 2022 and Hongkongers tend to be more forgetful on Fridays – with most laptops left behind on this day as well.

The index also showed that people are relaxed when the weekend starts and tend to forget their valuables. Among the 18 districts, riders in Yau Tsim Mong are the most forgetful, followed by Central and Wan Chai.

“Hongkongers are always on the go, and you will be surprised what’s supposed to be kept in their bags. Parents and caretakers are leaving behind kid items like a dimple fidget toy and a cute pink bunny soft toy, the astrologer who tried to escape the mercury retrograde left behind a string of pink crystal, a winner who lost in the game of lost & found left behind a crystal trophy, and a Calbee fan left behind a Calbee Hot & Spicy Potato Chips tote bag,” the company said, explaining some of the most unique items left by customers.

The index also encourages its customers to always call their driver if they lost items in the car they booked. If they lost their phone on the Uber itself, customers can log in to their account on their computer and contact customer support.

Hong Kong – Insurance provider FWD Insurance has announced their foray into launching their first-ever NFT collection. They were announced during the 2022 Step Change leadership conference, which brought together the company’s management to explore leadership qualities and inspire innovative thinking.

By firstly engaging internal teams on this NFT initiative, FWD aims to further enhance customer experiences with a diverse suite of engagement activities extended to the metaverse so that people can pursue their passions and live life to the fullest at anywhere, anytime.

The NFT collection is now available on the popular NFT marketplace OpenSea, although they are not for sale.

Paul Tse, chief marketing and digital officer of FWD Hong Kong and Macau, said, “FWD is a fast-growing, innovative and dynamic insurer. Leveraging digital technology and our teams’ commitment to pursuing creativity to stay ahead of the curve, we continue to enhance the customer experience and drive our goals.” 

He added, “The virtual world is set to transform our lives in many ways, and we hope to discover new opportunities in the virtual space as we see this as a new and additional way to engage and interact with our customers. With a suite of fun and exciting online and offline initiatives in the pipeline, we’re committed to realise our brand promise to ‘celebrate living’ with the community in the metaverse.”

Hong Kong – Ridesharing platform Uber in Hong Kong has launched its all-new Uber Taxi ‘Go your way, Live your way’ marketing campaign, aimed at empowering Hongkongers to focus on unlocking meaningful and joyful moments as Uber Taxi takes care of their travelling needs. 

As part of the campaign, heartwarming and joyful photographs of Uber Taxi riders going to places and making the most of their everyday lives will dominate the streets in Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok. Uber Taxi’s classic white chevron stripes will also be painted on billboards and taxis across town.

Moreover, Uber has released two campaign videos that resonate with busy go-getters’ life moments. The first 20-second video shows four white-collar ladies rushing to an evening concert after work but hit with the reality of rush hour – the desperate moment when you need to hail a taxi but have no control when you will get one. Right when the group starts panicking that they will not make it on time, one of them books an Uber Taxi.

Meanwhile, the second video shows a typical parent scrambling to get everything prepared for their child’s birthday on a rainy day after work. As the father worries about getting a Taxi in the rain, the mother confidently shows her booked and enroute Uber Taxi, meaning her husband can relax as everything else is sorted – the cake and a present. The couple not only makes it on time to their little girl’s birthday party but are in control of their journey home at the touch of a button with Uber Taxi.

At the same time, Uber has released a survey of over 1,500 riders which reveals nine out of 10 respondents say that Uber Taxi helps give them more control over their trips and daily schedules, and eight out of 10 riders describe their Uber Taxi experiences as ‘generally quite good’ and ‘it’s so amazing I use it frequently’.

The survey also found that respondents the top three ways they use Uber Taxi, ‘for returning home’ was ranked first with 64.4%, followed by ‘for going to work or school’ with 49.8%, and ‘for dining out and social gatherings’ with 38.9%. About 54.2% of the riders also said that not having to factor in whether a taxi is a cross-harbour one or not, or whether they need a taxi during shift change period, is why they prefer to book an Uber Taxi ride instead of hailing a cab on the street.

Uber Hong Kong said, “‘Go your way, Live your way’ aims to inspire riders to reimagine what living life to the fullest can mean as Uber Taxi gives riders the control they need for their daily commute. New Uber Taxi users who want a taste of what stress-free travel means on Uber Taxi can now use promo code TAXI2022 to get 50% off their first five Uber Taxi rides.”

Hong Kong – Hong Kong-based telecommunications and technology services provider, HKBN Group, has appointed William Ho, former managing director at AI networking company Juniper Networks, to be the new CEO of Enterprise Solutions.

In his new role, Ho will be leading HKBN’s enterprise services arm, expanding and leveraging its system integration capabilities, and further consolidating and developing the blue ocean business growth strategy across Hong Kong and Mainland China.

With nearly 30 years of professional experience in the ICT industry, Ho brings many holistic dimensions having been a customer-side user and a service provider, covering network technology, internet, cloud, and big data, as well as e-commerce, amongst others. He is amongst the few senior executives with a broad range of experiences in technology R&D, sales and marketing, and business development. Aside from his previous role at Juniper Networks, Ho has also held senior executive positions at local and international companies, including Cohesity, ARRIS, Cisco, and Hong Kong Jockey Club, amongst others.

Commenting on his appointment, Ho said, “In a dynamic evolving business landscape, HKBN’s Talent-Obsession culture uniquely empowers our talents to embrace changes and do everything to help our enterprise customers to foster their digital transformation and gain their competitive edge rather than merely save money. I am thrilled to have my skin in the game as a co-owner and to achieve our goals together with our Elite Sports Team.”

Meanwhile, William Yeung and NiQ Lai, HKBN’s co-owners, said that Ho is putting his skin in the game by investing an amount equivalent to 2 years’ salary into their co-ownership scheme. 

“With William leading HKBN Enterprise Solutions, our goal is to bring digital solutions that go beyond connectivity services to our 110K corporate customers, fortifying our customer relationship, driving efficiency and business impact in Hong Kong and across mainland China, especially the Greater Bay Area. We welcome William to our Elite Sports Team,” they added.

Hong Kong – Global retailing company GMG has announced the opening of a new Nike concept store in Hong Kong, located in the East Point City shopping mall in the Hang Tau district.

The new concept store represents GMG’s latest strategic investment in Asia, tapping into a huge potential market and leveraging the rising personal well-being trend in the region. The store boasts over 2,171 square feet and offers sports apparel for both men and women in categories including running, training and basketball. 

GMG first entered the Asian market in 2020 through the acquisition of Royal Sporting House, a multi-sports retailer. Keeping up with the momentum, it recently acquired Nike retail stores from SUTL Corporation, expanding its presence in Singapore and Malaysia, while further solidifying its position in Asia. 

To date, GMG has over 25 Nike stores in Asia and with the opening of the East Point City shopping mall, 11 Nike stores in Hong Kong alone.

Mohammad A. Baker, deputy chairman and CEO of GMG, commented, “Asia is propelling the retail industry forward, generating a substantial portion of global growth in the sector and offering immense potential and expansion opportunities for GMG.” 

He added, “The opening of our new Nike store in a key market such as Hong Kong, the first in two years, further signifies the recovery of a post-pandemic economy while allowing us to strengthen our physical retail presence in Asia, and empower even more people to embrace an active and healthy lifestyle.”

Hong Kong — Bluebell Group has announced its partnership with K-Way French outwear brand. Following the brand’s in-market digital launch in June, the new mono-brand physical store opening is planned for October 2022 at Pacific Place under the Swire Group, one of Hong Kong’s premium shopping malls.

The iconic French brand known for its windbreaker, lifestyle fashion and sportswear is part of BasicNet, an Italian company that also owns Kappa, Superga, Briko, and Sebago, and is on track to rapidly expand beyond its homebase. Bluebell Group, an Asian brand curator and operator, will manage the brand’s overall presence including an online e-commerce shop, local marketing activation, and overall retail operations.

K-Way will be introduced to Hong Kong consumers first through its online k-way.com.hk and a planned physical store in October. Targeting the active young local audience, and offering a mix of technical meets fashion apparel, the brand’s footprint is expected to grow further in Hong Kong and into Mainland China later this year.

Lorenzo Boglione, executive vice chairman of BasicNet, said, “We are very proud to open the first K-Way mono-brand store in Hong Kong and happy to embark on a path to a long presence in the city for the brand and for a long partnership between BasicNet and Bluebell.”

Meanwhile, Samy Redjeb, managing director for Bluebell group Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, shared, “We have no doubt K-Way will become an anchor brand for us in Hong Kong, where retail today is geared solely on local consumption. The brand offers a desirable and accessible lifestyle of unisex fashion and kids’ wear, which is one of our core focus for the development of this market. BasicNet has some very exciting global growth plans and hype collaborations for K-Way and we are pleased to play a role in bringing something fresh and playful to our Asian consumers.”

Hong Kong – Fruitpie, an avant-garde digital marketing consultancy, has launched its new NFT offering that first-ever combines traditional livelihood consumption and emerging virtual assets called ‘Fruit Pie NFT’. This campaign initiates and advocates the marketing concept of ‘Fruit to Earn’, which is the company’s inaugural attempt to make an exception and generalise the popularisation of NFTs with its in-house innovation team, signifying its first stand to show its edge in the field of ‘NFT Plus’ novelty fusion.

The purpose of the issuance of Fruit Pie NFT is to facilitate the integration of rising fintech tools and traditional livelihood consumption experience to lead a trendy lifestyle while offering fresh fruits to consumers. Its core marketing concept ‘Fruit to Earn’ is imbued with the hidden gambit, unlike the membership identities or pre-paid cards launched by other conventional fruit distribution companies, Fruit Pie NFT brings forward a bold breakthrough based on standardised marketing ideas by incorporating orchard farming games into the system. In addition, through the establishment and construction of Smart Orchard in the Metaverse, people’s traditional livelihood consumption scenarios of buying fruit will be ingeniously extended to the virtual space.

With this new offering, Fruitpie intends to leverage the inherent value attributes of NFT itself as an investment tool with the aid of fintech to endow a secure, novel, and distinctive investment significance to elementary consumption and entertainment behaviours, helping consumers understand and accept this newly-developing financial instrument in the accessible but profound terms.

Fruitpie said that after considering the NFT Plus integrated marketing tactic, the company’s technical and creative team agreed that the NFT about the fresh fruit consumption conception is an exceedingly ingenious and brand-new entry point and thus proposed ‘Fruit to Earn’, enabling consumers to invest at a reasonable cost and earn benefits while feasting fresh fruits. 

After the official release, in addition to two Fruit Pie Gift Boxes, Fruit Pie NFT holders can also enjoy four additional benefits as the project progresses, including member-exclusive discounts and free shipping for all orders on the e-commerce outlet, single-use participation right in the online raffle for once a month, join and share the profits generated in the Fruit Pie Orchard Game that will be launched in the upcoming first phase, and obtain extra right in the Smart Orchard that will be designed and built by Fruitpie in the Metaverse for the second phrase, attached to the unique NFT identity, amongst others. 

Abby, co-founder of Fruitpie, said, “This Fruit Pie NFT is an absolutely fresh attempt and a remarkable collision between fintech and traditional consumption. On the one hand, the concept of NFT can be vividly integrated into our daily life. On the other hand, it can help the industry bring up primary education for investors related to NFT, a type of ‘Edutainment’ that accelerates this emerging subject to take root in the mass market.”

Meanwhile, Charles Leung, founder of Fruitpie, shared that when NFT first appeared, it would only be linked to some world-famous paintings or out-of-print art collections, which means ‘too high-end to be accessible’, but now, ‘NFT plus 3D Games’, ‘NFT plus Beauty’, ‘NFT plus Social Avatars’, and so on, new dinguses are gushing out endlessly and changing with each passing day. 

“More and more technological innovations have come out and significantly improved our understanding and acceptance of NFTs. This time, in terms of innovative settings, we also specially added gimmicks such as game segment and Smart Orchard, which is generally familiar and easy to participate in. The company’s team has mastered quite mature technologies and hopes that NFT can be used extensively in traditional markets, helping various industries implement marketing reforms and pull through bottlenecks in innovation,” said Leung.

Hong Kong – A.S. Watson Group’s flagship health and beauty brand Watsons has announced the rollout of its region-wide recycling programme with cosmetics company L’Oréal in Hong Kong. This rides on the hugely successful launch of recycling programmes in Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Through the programme, Watsons Hong Kong has partnered with L’Oréal to roll out the ‘Beauty for the Future’ recycling campaign. From now on, customers can recycle the cleaned containers of any beauty brand, including foundation bottles, mascara wands, skincare tubs, and lipstick tubes at around 170 Watsons stores across the city in exchange for rewards at loyalty platform MoneyBack.

Once collected, its partner V Cycle will break down the wastes, separate them by materials, and work with local partners to transform them into new raw materials. The scaled-up campaign goal is to collect 250,000 containers in the 12 months following the official launch.

Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson for Asia and Europe, said, “At Watsons, we believe Going Green is The New Beautiful. We made it our purpose to do the right things for our customers and the planet. Sharing a common sustainability vision with L’Oréal, we appreciate this Beauty of Recycling partnership in the region to educate customers as well as engage them in action so that together we can create a bigger impact to the planet today and tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Eva Yu, president and managing director of L’Oréal Hong Kong, commented, “Pre-loved beauty packages have their place, but that place is not in landfills. Our goal is to meet it head-on with the first cross-brand recycling programme involving 18 of our beauty brands in 2021. Today, we are thrilled to work with partners along the value chain to expand the programme and positively impact people’s lives while preserving the planet.”

She added, “With the scaled-up recycling campaign as part of our ‘L’Oréal for the Future’ sustainability programme, we want to further inspire and influence how our consumers think and what they do about packaging wastes – not as something to toss out, but as a resource that can be recycled and used again, and sustainably, reducing the impact on our environment. Our partnership with Watsons and V Cycle will help make this a reality.”

Hong Kong – Edelman has appointed Delicia Tan as its new chief executive officer in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. In her new role, she will lead the firm’s offices in Hong Kong and Taipei, as well as being in charge of realising the firm’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) strategy, partnering with regional sector leads to further integrate and expand the firm’s operations in Shenzhen.

She will report to Pully Chau, President of Edelman Greater China. In addition, Tan will also serve as a trusted advisor to the firm’s China leadership team, having spent over two years leading the corporate practice at Edelman Beijing from 2013 to 2015.

With over two decades of experience in communications, Tan has spent the last 16 years at Edelman. In her most recent capacity, she evolved the Singapore operation’s 50-strong corporate reputation practice into a fully integrated communications team, as well as serving as the APAC chair for diversity, equity and inclusion, championing the firm’s efforts for greater inclusion and belonging across the region.

Speaking on her new role, Tan said, “I’m thrilled to be a part of Edelman’s journey as we enter a new era of client-centric innovation with a focus on driving stronger partnerships and impactful client work. I’m dedicated to building on our strength as One Edelman across borders and disciplines; earning trust through action, while presenting the full value and creative power of Edelman in a seamless and relevant way to our clients.”

Meanwhile Chau commented, “I’m delighted to welcome Delicia into her new role. Her strong experience in client strategy and integrated corporate communications and her past work in China will enable us to continue our strong momentum in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while inspiring greater growth in Shenzhen. I envisage the adjacency of Shenzhen and GBA as an additional springboard for sustainable growth that will bolster China brands going global and Hong Kong-based enterprises tapping into China growth.”

Hong Kong — The Mandatory Provident Fund, often abbreviated as MPF, is one of the key retirement pillars of the general public of Hong Kong. As a trusted pension partner of employees, AIA Hong Kong shares members’ concerns about MPF performance and has been providing highly competitive MPF products and services to help them live ‘Healthier, Longer, Better Lives’ -an ethos of AIA.

To enable members to have a better grip on the highlights of its MPF scheme, AIA Hong Kong has launched a large-scale advertising campaign that features singer Hins Cheung that will roll out throughout the city.

The brand-new advertising campaign aims to accentuate the four highlights of the AIA MPF scheme in a fun and light-hearted fashion where Cheung plays the roles of a courier boy, a tailor, an accountant and an architect.

In the first highlight, it underscores that AIA Hong Kong ranks first among MPF service providers in terms of average returns of overall MPF funds in 2021; on the second one, it highlights how over 99% of AIA MPF members achieved a positive return.

Another high point featured in the campaign was that MPF member accounts achieved an average cumulative 3-year investment return of over 28%; and lastly, AIA Hong Kong won numerous MPF awards like MPF Ratings’ Gold Rated Scheme, Best Tax Deductible Voluntary Contribution Provider, and more.

The advertising series will be rolled out on both online and offline media platforms, including trams and buses, MTR stations and social media.