Tag: Hong Kong

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.

Hong Kong — Vitasoy, the iconic soymilk brand rooted in Hong Kong City for more than 80 years, is making a substantial move to evolve its branding by reviving its plant-based heritage to resonate with modern consumers’ desire for a healthier and nutritious lifestyle. Through dentsu international Hong Kong’s ‘Planting Goodness Every Day’ campaign platform, Vitasoy aims to represent its wide portfolio of plant-based products everyone is familiar with.

The Vitasoy brand has been planting its goodness in Hong Kong since the 1940s to serve affordable and plant-based soy milk for everyone. Their long commitment transcended and transformed through time to now a heritage that shall be rejuvenated to sync with the needs of contemporary consumers and to remind them that greater goods are achieved through daily small practices, such as consuming plant-based food and beverages every day.

The ‘Planting Goodness Every Day’ campaign visualized Vitasoy’s genuine and wholesome brand personality showcasing its portfolio of products including Classic, Calci-Plus and VitaOat, from its most iconic range of Vitasoy classic products to its functional line of Calci-Plus range, to its latest new product, VitaOat.

The new brand equity stamp is a branding mnemonic device that holds the various stories and product strengths, set in daily moments including social gatherings, workouts, and home cultivation.

David Kim, group CMO at Vitasoy International, said, “We continue to be poised for growth at all times, including the future. We are happy to reintroduce what we have cared about since the beginning as a tribute to our past and bring forward our heritage so as to build a better future with our consumers together.”

Meanwhile, Simone Tam, CEO of dentsu international Hong Kong, commented, “Vitasoy is our long serving client. Knowing the brand has a rich and devoted heritage, we are happy to revive it and modernize it, so the brand stays relevant and connected with the young generation through its wide range of plant-based products.

Hong Kong – krip, a local fintech startup and Hong Kong Cyberport incubatee, has launched a personalized, comprehensive and centralized credit card deals and offers platform that empowers Hong Kong consumers to spend smarter and to get the most out of their cards.

krip’s intuitive user interface makes deals and offers more visible and easily searchable, allowing people to discover over 6,000 deals from 3,000 merchants covering over 480 credit and debit cards. Consumers on the go using the krip HK mobile app can discover all the great deals nearby in real-time across seven major categories, including dining, fashion & accessories, beauty & wellness, entertainment & lifestyle, home living, travel and healthcare.

The krip HK app is free for consumers. Anyone can download the iOS or Android app to start discovering credit card deals and offers by exploring merchant categories, searching for specific stores or restaurant names, or browsing nearby shops in the district. For a more personalized experience, consumers can register an account and select their card(s) by tapping on the cards’ images to set up their personal profiles. This will allow consumers to discover the relevant deals and offers applicable to their own cards, leading to an easier, faster and more personalized experience.

David B. Wang, Founder of krip, shared, “Through a personal experience, I discovered that many deals and offers are left to chance, and most cardholders don’t even know they are missing out. This meant that there was a huge gap in Hong Kong’s credit card market, creating a whole layer of deals and offers available to cardholders that have remained difficult to discover. 

Wang added, “It was clear that consumers would benefit significantly from an intuitive and centralized platform where they could easily discover the deals and offers available to them and spend smarter to maximize the benefits they are entitled to. We are extremely excited to introduce krip to Hong Kong consumers so that they can truly discover the world of credit card deals and offers to its fullest and no longer have to leave money on the table when paying with credit cards.”

With its mission to empower consumers to spend smarter with innovative technology and information transparency, krip aims to revolutionize deals marketing by facilitating information exchange across all three parties; consumers, merchants and financial institutions through open API. By leveraging open API, krip has built a comprehensive deals data ecosystem that harnesses artificial intelligence to uncover and analyze consumer spending patterns, preferences and trends through the platform.

From shopping malls and retail outlets, to restaurant reservation platforms and e-commerce portals, businesses can take advantage of open API to access krip’s comprehensive deals database, and drive their business with thousands of attractive and personalized deals. Merchants can better understand their customers to further personalize deals and offers, while financial institutions can develop more effective targeted marketing strategies to increase card usage and loyalty.

Alice So, head of entrepreneurship at Hong Kong Cyberport, said that FinTech has been integrated into our everyday life, bringing instant benefits for the general public.

“As a major start-up incubator and the largest FinTech community in Hong Kong, Cyberport is delighted to see our incubatee krip successfully launch this innovative and personalised platform,” So said.

So added, “The platform can help consumers spend smarter and, at the same time, can boost the economy by further stimulating their desire to consume, especially as the pandemic situation is stabilizing, and the retail and food & beverage sectors are gradually recovering. Congratulations to the team at krip on a successful launch.”

Hong Kong – With the COVID-19 pandemic’s fifth wave gradually subsiding in Hong Kong, financial service giant HSBC has launched a new local campaign to support the local community, conceptualised alongside Grey Hong Kong.

Eighteen designated HSBC branches will become Hong Kong’s photo-worthy spots. To spread positivity and unveil the city’s hidden gems, each branch across the eighteen districts will showcase signature landmarks and sights of the district along with a dedicated, inspirational quote. 

The HSBC Main Building in Central also recently launched the ‘Branching Out Our Support’ light show – urging the Hong Kong community to slow down and enjoy life while capturing new opportunities. 

Luanne Lim, CEO for Hong Kong HSBC, said, “HSBC has been supporting the HK community for 157 years. Launching the ‘Branching Out Our Support” campaign allows us to stay closely connected with the community, which we hope will continue to thrive.”

Meanwhile, Sonic Choy, creative partner at Grey HK, commented, “The people in HK have been making a concerted effort to meet with all the challenges posed by the pandemic. We want to give them the opportunity to experience some joy, and enjoy all the photo-worthy spots, accompanied with inspirational quotes.”

The campaign will be rolled out in HSBC branches and on social media for the Hong Kong market. In addition, HSBC has launched a check-in mini-game on Facebook and Instagram to encourage people to tour different districts of Hong Kong. They will also randomly select 40 lucky winners to each receive an HKD2,000 HKTV Mall coupon.

Hong Kong – Xaxis, the outcome media specialist from GroupM, has announced that it has launched its first-ever programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) campaign at MTR’s advertising in Hong Kong. The campaign ran throughout Hong Kong for loan and financial services company United Asia Finance Limited.

The advertisements were shown in eight high traffic locations across 41 panels located within the MTR network in Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Admiralty, Central, Tsim Sha Shui, Mong Kok, and Prince Edward through exclusive access with the MTR Trackside Digital Motion Network.

The campaign featured three creative advertisements that utilised time targeting based on the operational hours of surrounding businesses while factoring in weekends and public holidays to ensure the best content with the right context is shown to the right audience. 

“With Xaxis’ programmatic expertise, United Asia Finance Limited was able to take flexible campaign planning to the next level and elevate its OOH advertisements, allowing it to dynamically define its station mix, panel mix, and audience type, and set messages to be delivered at the best time possible,” the company said in a press statement.

The pDOOH campaign will catapult MTR advertising into a new automated phase of OOH with programmatic. It will provide real-time flexibility for United Asia Finance Limited to curate a captive viewing environment by identifying the best time, audience, location and messages to create an effective, efficient, and brand safe channel for its campaigns.

Andy Chung, managing director of Xaxis in Hong Kong, said, “We’re thrilled to make history with MTR advertising and United Asia Finance Limited to launch the first pDOOH campaign at MTR and deliver dynamic content to Hong Kong commuters. Programmatic will bring about a whole new definition of digital creativity for advertisers and consumers alike, providing a non-intrusive avenue for passengers to engage in relevant and high value interactions with brands. It gives marketers much more flexibility such as time targeting, creative changes, or even triggering the ad with real time weather conditions or stock market index.”

Meanwhile, Shirley Chan, managing director at JCDecaux Transport, commented, “Utilising the reach of Hong Kong’s MTR network and the flexibility of programmatic, advertising campaigns are reaching and best resonating with the audience at any time or place. MTR advertising offers the largest coverage of DOOH in Hong Kong, and by having this level of precision, marketers can truly direct the most captivating creative advertisements to the largest audience. We are excited that UA Finance smartly integrates the flexibility of programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) into the MTR network with dynamic content capabilities to deliver tactical and contextual messaging, thus allowing its ad content to be optimised against specific data parameters to ensure the very best target audiences are reached.”

Lastly, Elvis Yan, chief marketing officer at United Asia Finance Limited, said, “We are eager to explore innovative and convenient ways to connect with our customers, and fascinated to learn that UA Finance is the first advertiser to tap into MTR advertising with pDOOH. It’s an exciting space for us to celebrate a new chapter of our innovative journey. Leveraging the powerful visual impact of OOH plus the new programmatic capabilities, this location-based marketing platform enables us to reach a large volume of on-the-go target audiences throughout the day, bringing big uplifts in impressions and efficiency.” 

He added, “At selected MTR locations, we adopt dynamic creative display technology to develop scenario-base ads to communicate our service offering. We strongly believe this innovative solution will be a popular trend for advertising in the new era. It perfectly complements our integrated marketing strategy, tapping into the holistic customer journey.”

Hong Kong — EuroEyes International Eye Clinic Limited, an established ophthalmology brand, has appointed international communications consultancy Hume Brophy as its investor and public relations partner. The appointment aims to enhance awareness of EuroEyes’ distinct vision care offerings and its strong business and financial success as the company continues to rapidly expand globally.

Dr Jørn Slot Jørgensen, founder, chairman and CEO of EuroEyes, said, “Since establishing in 1993 and trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019, we have successfully executed our growth strategy, remained committed to expanding our clinics and services to clients, and continued to capitalise on business opportunities.”

Jørgensen added, “With our continued global expansion, we are now entering a new phase of growth. By partnering with an international communications firm like Hume Brophy, we look to optimise our brand exposure to the broader capital markets community in Hong Kong and beyond, enabling investors to better understand the potential investment value that EuroEyes offer and be part of our growth journey.”

A strategic communications programme will be put in place to increase the number of EuroEyes touchpoints with clients and investors, ensuring proper delivery of the latest and most relevant information about vision correction, business developments, and financial performances at EuroEyes.

Meanwhile, Thomas Kwan, director of Hume Brophy Communications Hong Kong, commented, “We are pleased to become the communications partner of EuroEyes. Our team of communications professionals will help potential clients and investors to better understand the advantages of EuroEyes – from both eye care and investment perspectives – and drive sustainable interactions that could translate to further business success for EuroEyes.”

Currently, the number of EuroEyes clinics around the world is close to 30. The company will continue to capitalise on the growing awareness of vision care, and identify new clinic locations or optimise existing surgical centres to better serve clients and achieve greater business results for shareholders.

Hong Kong — Syfe, a digital investment platform headquartered in Singapore, has announced its launch in Hong Kong. This marks the company’s first market expansion since its founding in 2019. Syfe has gained tremendous success in Singapore and is a trusted brand in Singapore’s growing wealth tech industry.

Dhruv Arora, founder and CEO of Syfe, said, “Syfe combines proven to invest strategies, technology and continuous innovation to deliver financial solutions at a fraction of the cost when compared to traditional institutions.”

Arora added, “We are very excited to bring our successful offering with a strong track record in Singapore to Hong Kong as our first market for expansion. Syfe looks forward to partnering Hong Kongers in shaping better outcomes in life through better investing.”

Meanwhile, Yenson She, head of business development of Syfe, commented, “Culturally, people in Hong Kong have a high tendency to save. With a focus on long-term wealth building, Syfe is now bringing high-quality financial services made affordable and accessible for investors, helping Hong Kongers reach their important financial goals.”

Licensed in Hong Kong under Types 1 in Dealing in Securities, 4 in Advising on Securities, and 9 in Asset Management, and regulated by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Syfe provides investors access to institutional-level investment strategies and advisory services previously only available for the top level of high-net-worth individuals.

The company also offers direct indexing global portfolios for retail investors, exclusively for Hong Kong. The portfolios are classified as Core portfolios, built for one’s essential financial goals, and Themes portfolios, which act as satellite portfolios to complement the Core.

The fast-growing fintech saw a significant four-fold increase in its assets in the first half of 2021. Syfe’s platform and its features are protected with bank-grade security, coupled with two-factor authentication through phone or email for all users. Monies and assets in investors’ portfolios are held in a custodian account through an SFC licensed broker, and any uninvested cash is held in a client account at HSBC Hong Kong, regulated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Commenting on this, Yenson said, “Starting today, Hong Kongers can participate in investing opportunities available in global markets and leverage Syfe’s curated portfolios to grow their wealth. Having a simple, smart yet powerful digital wealth platform enabling investing at your fingertips will be a true game changer for Hong Kongers.”