Tag: Hong Kong

Hong Kong – The Coca-Cola Company, the global beverage company that owns the world-famous beverage brands Coca-Cola and Sprite, and its bottling partner Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong, have announced the return of its glass bottle beverage, with a new design and a refreshed look.

The relaunch of the new glass bottle is in line with the commitment of The Coca-Cola Company and Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong’s vision of sustainability. By adopting more environmentally friendly new technology to facilitate the development strategy for recycling and reuse, they joined hands to move towards Coca-Cola’s goal of ‘World Without Waste’.

Coca-Cola comes back with the classic contour bottle design and meets consumers with its familiar look. At the same time, other brands under Coca-Cola, including Sprite, Fanta, Schweppes, and Kochakaden are also coming with another bottle design. Both designs are adopting transparent bottles and make the appearance sleeker and cleaner. It is more convenient for consumers to return them after usage for the bottling plant to clean, disinfect and refill them. After adding the labels, they will be relaunched in the market, which is more efficient in protecting the environment.

The company said that the bottle comprises 60% recycled glass materials, with a weight loss of one-third compared to the previous bottles, making it easier to hold. Each box also now contains 24 bottles instead of 12 for easier transportation and storage.

Connie Yeung, Swire Coca-Cola’s general manager for Hong Kong, said, “Swire Coca-Cola HK has been the authorised bottler of The Coca-Cola Company since 1965. To realize the company’s vision in sustainable development, we have been actively enhancing packaging designs with more environmentally friendly elements throughout the years so that consumers, while enjoying the great taste, can have more options in recyclable packaging.”

Meanwhile, Marella Canepa Risso, The Coca-Cola Company’s franchise director for Hong Kong and Macau, shared that the new returnable glass bottle will allow their consumers to dive into a unique meal occasion experience uplifted by the refreshing taste brought by Coca-Cola.

“By increasing the use of returnable packaging, we promote a circular economy as our return to reuse bottles have high levels of collection and are low-carbon-footprint beverage containers because the bottles collection is built into our beverage direct delivery model,” said Risso.

The brand new glass bottle Coca-Cola brand is now rolling out in the market, while an extensive campaign will also soon be rolled out.

Hong Kong – Game software and venture capital company Animoca Brands and consumer brand developer Planet Hollywood Group have launched a new joint venture called the ‘MetaHollywood’.

MetaHollywood seeks to transform the awe-inspiring Hollywood experience into a Web3 metaverse that benefits and reaches more supporters, studios, and creators globally within a virtual environment for the creation, ownership, interaction, distribution, and sharing of digital collectibles, movies, clips, and other assets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including NFTs based on some of Planet Hollywood’s most iconic physical assets including photography, movie posters, and memorabilia.

Moreover, the joint venture will be providing a community for collectors to own uniquely famous pieces of film history in the form of NFTs as well as to share, interact with, and experience the digital assets in a purpose-built metaverse fueled by the utility of its native token. This will include the tokenisation of over 60,000 of Planet Hollywood’s iconic motion picture memorabilia encompassing all popular film genres, providing the community with exclusive benefits and offerings. These collectible props have been used by movie stars from every era including Arnold Schwarznegger, Tobey Maguire, and Michael J. Fox, as well as Jim Carrey, amongst many others, representing classic, pop culture, and modern Hollywood.

Robert Earl, Planet Hollywood’s founder, commented that he is thrilled to partner with Animoca Brands as they launch Planet Hollywood into the metaverse.

“Through MetaHollywood, we will offer utility and functionality that is unrivalled in this burgeoning sector, and I cannot wait to see what our users create using the power of their imagination,” said Earl.

Meanwhile, Yat Siu, Animoca Brands’ co-founder and executive chairman, shared that they are very excited to partner with Robert Earl and Planet Hollywood to bring this iconic brand into the rapidly growing world of Web3. 

“The MetaHollywood joint venture will create tremendous opportunities by leveraging Planet Hollywood’s vast network of celebrities and IPs and combining them with our industry expertise and our broad portfolio of products and companies,” said Siu.

Just recently, Animoca Brands has acquired Darewise Entertainment, a game developer founded by veterans of the AAA games industry that is currently developing a high-quality blockchain MMO game ‘Life Beyond’. Through the buyout, Animoca Brands will be assisting Darewise Entertainment to fast-track development and publishing in the Web3 space.

Hong Kong – As Hong Kong gradually eases its social distancing rules to allow dining-in at restaurants until 10:00 pm starting from April 21 2022, it has given a much-needed relief for the F&B businesses. In accordance with this, Café de Coral, a Hong Kong fast-food conglomerate, has decided to launch a timely campaign to welcome its customers’ return.

Done in collaboration with ad agency dentsumcgarrybowen, the campaign announces the reopening of the evening dine-in service pulling on those deep universal truths around connection and belonging. It also serves as an authentic and light-hearted reflection on those moments of eating at parks, in the car and on the streets before the restrictions were lifted.

William Tsing, marketing director of Café de Coral, commented, “We have been longing to reopen our dinner daypart to all customers. Wishing to start on a positive note, we nimbly created the ad campaign with dentsumcgarrybowen as an energy booster for our Café De Coral family and the wider public.”

Meanwhile, Jeffry Gamble, chief creative officer of dentsu international Hong Kong, said, “We wanted to announce the reopening in a way that showed empathy to our customers and also grounded in the unique fact that CDC is probably one of the most popular restaurant choices for every man and woman in Hong Kong for dinners, not just for the quality and affordable food but also for the familiarity of CDC’s safe and friendly environment.”

Hong Kong – On-demand delivery platform Lalamove has launched a new campaign in Hong Kong, ‘Lalamove Deliver Joy’, to inspire the act of giving by using the service to deliver ‘happiness’ and ‘care’ to loved ones. As the city adapts to the new normal in the aftermath of the fifth wave of Covid-19, Lalamove reiterates its role in helping to keep family and friends connected by being able to deliver any goods – such as bouquets, nourishing soups, and hearty meals – as an act of care.

The centrepiece of the campaign is a brand video, created together with creative agency Secret Tour Hong Kong. The ad captures an interaction between a mother and son where the mother transforms into a Lalamove driver-partner to deliver a bowl of aromatic soup to her son who lives apart. The ad aims to show Lalamove’s commitment to making on-demand delivery possible for everyone “through thick and thin.”

Alex Kwan, the platform’s director of marketing, said, “The pandemic has unprecedentedly interrupted social interactions across the city and the world, therefore the need and urge to rekindle such connections are now stronger than ever. At Lalamove, we connect friends, families and businesses with goods they need via instant deliveries as and when you need them. This campaign conveys a clear message: Lalamove delivers care, joy and love to all. Our 45,000 driver partners are always at your service!”

He adds, “In our promise to meet the many different delivery needs of our customers, we want to inspire our users to deliver different items to those they love. We foster human interactions by delivering nourishing soup, brighten up people’s day by delivering fresh food ingredients, rekindle relationships by delivering bouquets and nurture human’s friendship with pets by covering the hassle of transportation. By doing all these, Lalamove is on a constant quest to inspire people across this city to build closer bonds.”

Hong Kong – Fintech platform Airwallex has launched an SME support initiative worth HK$2.5m, where they will provide a series of exclusive offers to help businesses recover and reopen from the pandemic while managing costs.

Through this initiative, SMEs can open an Airwallex business account for free, and also enjoy HK$0 transfer fees for international payments to 60 destinations. Customers will also be able to enjoy exclusive subscription fee discounts, rebates and other perks through Airwallex’s local partners including Boutir, Bowtie, GOGOX, Google Ads, Google Workspace, SleekFlow, Xero and YOOV. 

Arnold Chan, head of SME for Hong Kong and Singapore at Airwallex, said, “SMEs are the backbone of Hong Kong’s economy, and in the months ahead, many of these businesses will continue to face challenges in managing their financials and cash flows.”

He added, “As the pandemic situation continues to impact local businesses, we hope that by doing our small part, we can help local businesses power through these difficult times and facilitate their path to recovery. With support from our partners, our offers aim to provide a more convenient and cost-efficient solution for making cross-border payments.”

The initiative comes as Hong Kong SMEs continue to combat the coronavirus related economic disruptions, and are experiencing numerous hurdles as they try to recover and rebuild in the wake of the pandemic. With over 340,000 SMEs operating in Hong Kong today, these businesses serve as vital economic engines for the city.
Airwallex had recently partnered with Hong Kong-based investment company Choco Up to support the future growth of cross-border e-commerce in the region, as well as expanding its services in Singapore.

Hong Kong — Game software and venture capital company Animoca Brands have announced its buyout of 100 per cent of the issued capital of Eden Games S.A.S. from Engine Gaming & Media. Eden Games is a highly respected and successful racing game studio with prized IPs such as Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, F1 Mobile Racing, and the Gear.Club franchise, among others.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented, “With its quarter of a century of expertise in building high-quality motorsport video games, Eden Games will enhance and accelerate the development of the REVV Motorsport ecosystem and add powerful value to the REVV community and the racing metaverse.”

David Nadal, co-founder and head of studio of Eden Games, said, “We are excited to start the next chapter of Eden Games by joining Animoca Brands. We look forward to producing new experiences that challenge the status quo within the motorsport genre and venture into new frontiers such as Web3 alongside a leader in the space.”

Eden Games was founded in 1998 and is based in Lyon, France. The company has strong experience in developing award-winning racing games across the mobile, console and PC platforms and over 13 million game boxes sold and over 60 million app downloads worldwide.

The game development studio also has long term partnerships with more than 30 established brands in the automotive industry, including BMW, Bugatti, Porsche, Lotus, Pagani, and many others.

Animoca Brands will leverage the expertise and capabilities of Eden Games to work on existing and new titles in the REVV Motorsport ecosystem and to bring to market a series of new blockchain-based racing games.

The new games will provide additional utility to the NFT Race Passes and the other assets obtained by swapping assets from Animoca Brands’ F1 Delta Time, which ceased operations in March 2022.

Hong Kong – Amidst a looming fifth wave of COVID-19, small and medium enterprises in Hong Kong are confident that they will overcome it, according to the data collected by dual studies conducted by CPA Australia.

The data shows that in order for these SMEs to overcome the fifth wave, small businesses may need to increase their investment in technology and innovation, and reset their business strategy. In it, 55% of respondents to the March poll were confident that their business or employer will overcome the fifth wave, with 57% expecting revenue will largely remain the same as normal or grow in the next three months.

Meanwhile, 42% of respondents believe that the relaxation of social distancing restrictions will have the most positive impact on their SME in the next three months, followed by the Employment Support Scheme (18%) and Consumption Voucher Scheme (12%).

Lastly, when asked which areas of their business were most negatively impacted by the fifth wave, over one-third (35%) nominated business operations, followed by cash flow (26%).

Janssen Chan, chairperson of CPA Australia’s SME Committee for Greater China said, “We are aware that many small businesses are suffering during the fifth wave of COVID-19, but they are also demonstrating resilience and adaptability during this period.”

He added, “The pandemic is a major catalyst for transforming business models and consumer spending patterns. In Hong Kong, more consumers are purchasing online and using digital payments. With social distancing restrictions set to relax from mid-April and the roll-out of stimulus measures such as the e-consumption vouchers, small businesses should continue innovating, digitalising and updating their business plans to ensure they are best placed to rebound in the second half of 2022.”

There was also an increase in the number of local businesses that found their investment in technology in 2021 improved their profitability (40% in 2021 compared with 25% in 2020). Revenue generated from e-commerce also increased. Over half (53%) generated more than 10% of their revenue from e-commerce in 2021, the highest result for the city since 2017.

“Although Hong Kong small businesses overall may still fall short of the survey average in technology adoption, another positive to emerge from the 2021 results was that more small businesses embraced digital transformation. This bodes well for the future with the survey results showing that high growth small businesses are significantly more likely to be using digital technologies in many aspects of their business,” Chan concluded.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong’s magazine publisher SCMP Magazines has integrated global digital adtech Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) Publisher Optimisation Solution, aimed at delivering quality impressions for its advertisers.

By activating the IAS Publisher Optimisation solution, SCMP Magazines aims to directly improve its ad inventory’s viewability and match its advertisers’ brand risk threshold by avoiding risky content. The partnership entails measurement and optimisation toward low IVT rates in real-time to ensuring its traffic is worth the investment and to reduce the redundancies of manual campaign optimisations.

Jennifer Tsang, SCMP Magazines’ VP of digital, shared that their goal has always been to uphold high standards of MRC viewability and brand safety for advertiser campaigns running on Cosmopolitan, Harper’s BAZAAR, ELLE, and Esquire Hong Kong websites. 

“IAS’ Publisher Optimisation Solutions allows us to do so effectively through intelligent ad inventory management and optimisation,” said Tsang.

Meanwhile, Laura Quigley, IAS’ SVP for APAC, said that their Publisher Optimisation solution seamlessly integrates publishers’ ad servers and powers inventory to automatically optimise ad delivery down to the placement level for direct and programmatic deals. 

“We’re very excited to partner with SCMP magazines to help advertisers ensure that they continue to invest in digital safely and efficiently,” added Quigley.

Hong Kong — The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong has announced the appointment of Dr. Eden Woon as its new president. Woon is a seasoned business and education leader with many years of experience serving government and NGOs. His appointment will be effective September 1 this year and will succeed Tara Joseph as president after five years in office.

Woon has excellent working experience in Hong Kong, Shanghai and the United States, and has extensive business experience in Greater China. From 2010 to 2017, Woon served as the vice-president of University Development at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. From 2006 to 2010 in Shanghai, he served successively as managing director of Li & Fung Group China Office, managing director of China Toys R Us and vice president of Starbucks Coffee Company China. Woon was the president of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce from 1997 to 2006.

Woon holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle, majoring in mathematics. Woon is also a member of the New York-based Council of Foreign Relations, a Justice of the Peace of Hong Kong, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Ballet.

Joseph Armas, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said, “We are very excited to welcome Woon back to Hong Kong to lead the Chamber. Woon’s appointment was selected through global recruitment by the Board of Directors. And the local business experience will bring positive benefits to the Chamber of Commerce and the future development of Hong Kong.”

Meanwhile, Woon commented on his appointment, sharing that he earnestly looks forward to returning to Hong Kong at this challenging time to lead the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and work together for the Chamber of Commerce and Hong Kong.

“I hope that based on my experience, I can work with the Board of Directors to promote the development of the Chamber of Commerce for its members, and The business community of this international city benefits,” Woon said.

Woon’s appointment comes at a strategic juncture for the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong as it is now one of the established chambers of commerce outside the United States and one of the major foreign chambers of commerce in Hong Kong. The Chamber of Commerce entered the core business area of ​​Central this year as a permanent venue and operated in a member community-oriented manner.

Hong Kong — The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has announced Adeline Ee as its new managing director, and head of sales and marketing for ASEAN. Ee will report to Christina Bao and Kevin Rideout, HKEX’s co-heads of sales and marketing.

Based in Singapore, Ee will head up HKEX’s Singapore office and will be responsible for leading the expansion of HKEX’s business across Southeast Asia, adding new clients and flows whilst further elevating the Group’s profile across the region. Ee will work alongside Roger McAvoy, who will transition to a new international client-facing role within the group.

Ee joins HKEX from Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX), where she has worked for nearly two decades in various senior sales and product management roles.

Ee was most recently global head of sales, equities and fixed-income, currencies and commodities for SGX, a role she has held since 2019, where she oversaw the successful launch of a number of flagship products. She was previously head of SGX’s Hong Kong office, as well as head of sales for the Asia Pacific and the Middle East, among other roles, having joined SGX in 2003. Ee has a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Social Science degree from the National University of Singapore.

Nicolas Aguzin, chief executive officer of HKEX, said, “I am delighted to welcome Adeline to HKEX. She brings with her substantial capital markets experience and deep knowledge of the region. This makes her perfectly suited to help take our franchise in Southeast Asia to the next level as we continue to build HKEX into Asia’s risk management centre. We are looking forward to welcoming Adeline to the HKEX team.”