Tag: Hong Kong

Hong Kong – Uber Eats’ famous campaign, ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’, has just been debuted to the Hong Kong audience. This follows the latest installment that was recently released in Australia by Special Group, the brains behind the campaign, which features famous talent judge and critic Simon Cowell and Australia’s iconic household entertainment group, The Wiggles. 

The highly-awarded TIBE campaign first graced TV screens and social media platforms in 2017, which then was highly focused on the Australian audience featuring stars hailing from Australia. A big part of the campaign’s traction among viewers is its use of sarcasm and humor, basing the narrative on the featured famous star’s well-known quirk and characteristic. Some of the widely-known personalities that have already appeared on the campaign were British singer Boy George, actress Naomi Watts, and professional rugby league footballer Beau Ryan. Some of the most recent are comedian Leslie Jones and hockey legends Patrick Roy and Mario Tremblay. 

Still showcasing that trademark charm and humor, the debut in Hong Kong will be taking a different turn, where the campaign has been developed to spread the advocacy of loving and supporting local businesses. It has been named ‘Make Local Famous’ and was developed by Special Group Australia in partnership with creative group Uth Hong Kong. 

The ad features the country’s most loveable and dynamic duo, singers Joyce Cheng and Alfred Hui. Set in a lavish and stylish home, Joyce and Alfred are donning denim jackets covered in the logos of many local favorites. In the commercial, Joyce playfully irons patches of logos from some of their favorite local shops they will be ordering from. Towards the end of the scene, the duo is seen promoting many local restaurants and their food with an entire wall of televisions sitting behind them, while Alfred is seen in a classic Mary Poppins moment pulling out dishes after dishes of food out of an Uber Eats paper bag. 

Aside from the focus on local businesses, the Hong Kong installment is also flipping the traditional celebrity endorsement model on its head by picking the said duo. The ‘Make Local Famous’ campaign will see Joyce and Alfred advocate for the thousands of small and medium restaurants on Uber Eats. The campaign will also be providing a wide number of restaurant partners with ready-to-use content for them to repurpose on their owned channels.

Elisa Janiec, general manager of Uber Eats Hong Kong, said that the campaign genuinely speaks to their culture where food is a huge part of their cultural distinctiveness, with the “collision of West and East, old and new, hawker street stalls and Michelin-starred restaurants.” 

“It’s lively, creative, social, and deeply ingrained into the fabric of the city. There’s no better way to pay homage to this than to hero local restaurants and their food. Hong Kong is built around great food, and this campaign is all about celebrating that,” said Janiec. 

Ally Doube, APAC head of brand strategy & social at Uber Eats, commented, “Across APAC, we are passionate about unlocking local consumer insights to bring to life in all of our marketing, whether through brand campaigns or social ads. We are blessed with having the ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’ platform at our hands, one of the most award-winning campaigns, as our creative hook. The team in Hong Kong has done an amazing job pairing it with the strongest local insight to bring to life a magical and compelling campaign.”

A mock-up of the campaign’s marketing asset on an HK tram shared by the agencies

Meanwhile, Max McKeon, Special Group Australia’s creative director, added, “Introducing the ‘Tonight, I’ll Be Eating’ brand platform in Hong Kong is in itself incredibly exciting, but to do so with Uber Eats offering up one of their biggest brand assets – celebrity – to all the local restaurants in the region makes this an especially unique way to celebrate Hong Kong culture.”

Aside from Hong Kong, the TIBE campaign has also been launched in Asian markets Japan and Taiwan. In September last year, Uber Eats and Special Group saw one of its biggest celebrity partnerships when it featured Sci-Fi icons, Star Wars’ Mark Hamill, and Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart for the campaign’s debut in the US and Canada. The ad took audiences by storm due to the spot igniting each of the franchises’ fans’ cultural debate of which is the better franchise. 

The integrated campaign in Hong Kong will air across TV, social, OOH, digital, and through restaurant partners. 

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.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong-based beauty and personal care chain SaSa has announced in its latest financial results for the year 2020/2021 that it is expecting to close 15 to 20 stores throughout the year. 

SaSa is only one of the many businesses that have shut down operations as a strategic move over pandemic-induced economic downturn. According to the company, the markets of the Hong Kong and Macau SARs dealt a severe blow to the group’s sales performance with the pandemic bringing tourism to a standstill. 

Since the beginning of February 2020, the cumulative number of Mainland Chinese visitors in the Hong Kong SAR up to now has plunged to almost zero year on year, and due to social distancing initiatives imposed by the Hong Kong SAR government, local consumer sentiment has also been dampened. 

SaSa’s brick-and-mortar stores are established in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Malaysia. 

SaSa
Inside a SaSa store

Overall, the group’s retail sales in the markets of the Hong Kong and Macau SARs dropped by 58.1% year on year, while its same-store sales decreased by 54.4% during the financial year. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, turnover decreased by 34.9% in the financial year. 

Due to the movement control orders in Malaysia, the group’s stores were temporarily closed for nearly 100 days in total. As of 31 March 2021, the total number of SaSa’s retail stores in Hong Kong and Macau SARs was reduced from the peak of 118 two years ago to 100. Among closed stores in Hong Kong SAR, 80% were located in tourist districts. 

With this, the company has expressed plans to leverage its online sales and deliver an enhanced customer experience by combining online with offline. 

Sasa
SaSa’s current website

Compared to offline sales, the beauty retail chain’s online business had been looking up, rising by 45.4% to HK$501.3m accounting for 16.5% of the total turnover from the group’s continuing operations, up from 6% in the previous financial year. 

The company shared that the group’s long-term vision is to grow businesses beyond brick-and-mortar operations. By growing the share of sales from online platforms, it trusts that it can help reduce its reliance on physical stores. 

“Through persistently adjusting and rationalizing the store network, the group could improve its overall cost structure and lower the breakeven point for the traditional retail business, thus reinforcing its competitiveness and profitability in the long term,” the group said.

The group will work to further realize the complementary effects of combining the advantages of online business and physical stores to improve both customer experience and the group’s profitability. 

It plans to execute the integration of online and offline operations. The group said that it will be improving inventory and logistic arrangements to provide a seamless O2O customer experience. For SaSa, the O2O business offers a more favorable gross margin and basket size owing to the element of personal service when compared to pure online sales channels. All these mean a more attractive profit margin for the O2O business, an area that the group wishes to develop to its fullest potential.

Dr Simon Kwok, SBS, JP, the chairman and CEO of the Group, said that online business has become the new focus of the retail industry, and that they are dedicated to expediting development in the new retail landscape by investing more resources in their online business, unceasingly strengthening the brand and adjusting their product portfolio. 

“The Group will also proactively propel businesses beyond our core markets in Hong Kong and Macau SARs and promote the online business, thus diversifying and expanding our revenue portfolio and customer base and creating value for our stakeholders in the long term.”

Hong Kong – The consequences of the pandemic are unprecedented and felt around the world, wreaking havoc across the retail industry. Euromonitor International, the global independent strategic market research provider firm, has revealed its list of the top companies within the retailing industry in the APAC region for 2020, and in Hong Kong, more than half of the leading companies in 2019 are still the ones that ruled 2020.

The majority of the 10 companies on the list maintained their sales growth and rankings in 2020. International health and beauty retailer AS Watson Group has retained its standing, coming out to reign the rankings as the top retailer. This was followed by Dairy Farm International Holdings, the pan-Asian retailer that operates across food, health and beauty, and home furnishings, and restaurants, with Japan-based distribution business firm Seven & I Holdings Co landing in the third spot.

Meanwhile, jewelry company Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group also maintained its sales as well, coming out in the fourth spot, while property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties caps the top five. One of the firms that have also retained growth for the year is convenience store firm Alimentation Couche-Tard ending in the eighth spot.

Two out of the top 10 firms have registered improvement in sales, namely, retail and financial services company AEON Group and multimedia business firm Hong Kong Television Network, landing in the sixth and seventh spots respectively.

On the other hand, jewelry retailer firm Luk Fook Holdings and retail chain company Broadway Photo Supply have dropped sales in 2020.

AS Watson Group, which registered $9.8b in sales in 2020 came out as the 34th leading retailer in the Asia region. For the region, Alibaba Group Holding took the crown with $367b in total sales for the year.

According to Euromonitor, the pandemic has had a significant negative effect on consumer confidence, leading many to rein in their spending, which impacted many retailers adversely enough to exit the market. However, the pandemic has been a boon for grocery retailers and e-commerce and will continue to enjoy strong growth in retail current value sales, as consumers become more interested in home cooking and following a healthier diet.

In 2021, the research firm believes that brick-and-mortar sales will begin to rebound, while retailers that depend on tourism will be the slowest to recover, including stores selling jewelry, watches, and apparel, as well as footwear, and luggage.

Hong Kong – In its continuing bid to stay true to its promise of being a sustainable brand, the Hong Kong branch of global footwear brand Nike has unveiled its very first Nike Grand Court, which was made using around 20,000 used pairs of sneakers, which are recycled for this very purpose.

Located at the Kwai Chung residential neighborhood, the court, which is named the ‘Shek Lei Grind Court’, is made from Nike Grind materials, which are palettes of recycled and regenerated materials composed of plastic, rubber, foam, fiber, leather, textile and much more.

Nike’s purpose is to redefine human potential, and that’s what drives us to partner with those who have the same goal to make the world a better place. With a shared sustainable vision, renowned illustrator and toy designer James Jarvis has been invited to create colorful visuals on the courts’ Nike Grind surface. James Jarvis will be illustrating his signature sphere characters playing basketball on the courts, expanding his artistic expression to a new dimension.

Nike-Grind-Court-Hong-Kong-Sustainability-1

Said initiative initially came to life in 1992 during a grassroots initiative to repurpose old shoes. Over the decades, it has developed into a global sustainability program that has and will continue to positively change the landfill landscapes forever.

“This local sustainable art project not only marks a new exploration for Nike Grind but also embraces all of Nike’s core values. By transforming and giving second life to this parent-child court, Nike will engage and link the community through sport activities and inspire people to unleash their fullest potential through sport. Shek Lei Grind Court provides the platform to Make Sport a Daily Habit while soaking up the storytelling creative vibe, making it an energetic emotional experience that will stretch beyond limits,” the company said in a press statement.

The newly-launched court will also help to foster physical activity among the children in the neighborhood, as most of them may have limited access to healthy sporty lifestyle as there is little leisure area and living space is extremely packed. The newly designed side-by-side kids and standard basketball court will serve and provide an accessible sports community hub for the less privileged kids and families.

The Nike Grind project launched in Hong Kong mirrors the company’s sentiment in modern times to become more sustainable, as their mantra ‘Move To Zero’ shows, with initiatives ranging from creating their latest apparel from at least 50% recycled Nike materials, releasing studies and insights about climate change and the circular economy, as well as initiating discussions, such as with popular pop singer Billie Eilish and marine biologist Elizabeth Johnson on speaking up about climate change.

Hong Kong – The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), a statutory body that promotes, assists, and develops the country’s trade, has launched the GoGBA one-stop platform, a new business support program that aims to help SMEs tap into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

GBA is China’s project that seeks to foster economic growth by developing technology and innovation, boosting infrastructure, and increasing financial links between Hong Kong, Macau, and nine other cities in Southern China.

Through the new GoGBA one-stop platform, businesses will be able to enjoy its three major services that can help them succeed in the region.

One of the services is the digital information and business tools, which consists of the GoGBA WeChat mini program digital messaging platform, running in collaboration with the government offices of Guangdong province and municipal governments in the GBA. It provides important information on the region including updates on policies and subsidies, listings of related business and trade organizations, and regional guides, as well as information on GBA government services and applications. It also offers practical tools such as weather forecasts, interactive maps, and details of public services, among others.

GBA also offers advisory services and training, where centers organize a series of seminars and workshops, sharing sessions and advisory activities in group or individual formats, equipping companies with the practical knowledge and skill sets needed to succeed.

And lastly, GBA offers online and offline activities, promoting the adoption of the new ‘digital and physical’ format for events and activities. The Council is currently planning to organize a wide range of activities in the mainland, including exhibitions and conferences, to help Hong Kong enterprises promote their products and services, explore business opportunities in GBA cities, and gain practical experience at the same time.

HKTDC’s Chairman Dr. Peter K N Lam shared that the GBA offers huge opportunities for businesses in Hong Kong and around the world. 

“Our GoGBA WeChat mini program is a useful digital tool to complement our physical support centers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and other parts of the GBA through our partners. As more and more businesses look for prospects in the GBA, the HKTDC is here to help,” said Lam.

Hong Kong – As more and more consumers are embracing an online-to-offline (O2O) approach to the retail industry, a greater majority of retailers across Hong Kong and nine key cities in Mainland China, known as the ‘Greater Bay Area’ (GBA), are keeping in mind the importance of digital strategies to their business, specifically in the local setting, a new report from consulting firm KPMG, in partnership with the Hong Kong arm of business communication non-profit GS1, and financial institution HSBC shows.

In its latest report, they note that 73% of GBA retailers are implementing localized forms of their retail digital strategies, keeping in mind that they are increasing their use of both direct-to-consumer e-commerce and third-party e-commerce platforms.

The most common business functions for which 43% of surveyed retailers are implementing a GBA strategy are sales and marketing and communications, as companies look to attract customers in the mainland China market. Thirty percent of those retailers polled are developing a GBA programme for fulfilment, logistics, operations or supply chain management.

Consumer-wise, one in two (50%) of Hong Kong consumers said they felt more comfortable about shopping online since the start of the pandemic, not far behind the 59% of respondents from the nine mainland China GBA cities surveyed. Tellingly, 24% of Hong Kong consumers and 23% of those in the mainland GBA cities say they could live without physical retail stores.

The greater force that the report notes as game-changer for the modern retailer is the choice of Gen Z consumers towards online shopping, as 73% of Gen Z consumers in Hong Kong and 86% in mainland GBA cities expecting a swift response to product enquiries logged on online chat, and expecting brands to use tech including AI to help shortlist new products. 

They also expect augmented reality (AR) functions to help them make better purchases online, with 61% in Hong Kong, and 82% in mainland GBA cities. The research also shows Gen Z consumers prefer contactless shopping (60% in Hong Kong and 77% in mainland GBA cities). Around 76% of retailers surveyed are adopting at least one type of Gen Z-specific strategy.

In the mid of the rising population of shoppers moving towards online, GBA retailers need to act fast to respond to the consumers’ O2O needs. The research shows a vast gap between customer expectations and what retailers are delivering, with 77% of Hong Kong and 85% of mainland respondents in the GBA indicating that retailers need to have a better connection between channels and create a seamless customer journey. Among retail executives that were surveyed on their actions to enhance customer experience, only 39% of businesses were currently focusing on the integration between physical stores and online, suggesting a significant gap in retailers’ O2O propositions.

Alice Yip, partner at head of consumer and industrial markets for Hong Kong at KPMG China, notes that these results cement the fact that more consumers are buying more online than ever before, and the retail brands who have best survived this rapid transition are those who have proven agile in their response to the growing demand for digital engagement.

“Hong Kong and mainland China GBA retailers are already implementing strategies for regional growth across the region while also looking to expand into Southeast Asia, with industry leaders emphasising the need for adequate localisation of products, services and marketing approaches to attract the growing pool of digital-savvy consumers,” Yip stated.

For Anna Lin, CEO at GS1, she explains that consumers expect a seamless transition from an in-store experience to an online experience. She added that consumers also want to engage with brands across social media and other digital media and they expect brands to use technology to improve customer service, ease of payments, flexible delivery options and convenient returns.

This is also agreed by Lewis Sun, head of product management for global liquidity and cash management for Asia Pacific at HSBC, who commented, “In order to deliver a seamless customer journey, more retailers in the Greater Bay Area are looking for a single platform that can take payments from multiple channels – from credit cards, bank transfers to e-wallets.”

As retailers and brands develop more complex digital channels and deploy new technologies, sourcing, upskilling and reskilling talent to build a future-ready workforce will be a key priority for retailers in navigating the new normal and capturing growth opportunities. With technical areas such as IT and systems support (38%), data analytics (35%), and research & development (31%) identified as top areas demanding more workforce, professional development programs as well as talent exchange within the GBA will provide opportunities to fill the gaps.

Hong Kong – In support of the growing number of small and medium business (SMB) merchants across Hong Kong, payment systems Octopus Card Limited (OCL) has announced the launch of its support scheme called the #NeighbourDOOD Merchant Support Scheme, targeted at helping local SMBs in their digital transformation strategies.

Furthermore, said support scheme also helps participating SMBs to take advantage of the Government’s Consumption Voucher Scheme (CVS). CVS is a local initiative by the Hong Kong government to stimulate consumer sentiment towards supporting local businesses by releasing said vouchers for local products and services.

The goal of Octopus’ scheme is to encourage citywide support of small businesses and bring together neighboring communities to create more business opportunities.

Through the initiative, the company will have a professional digital marketing agency to assist each merchant with setting up a social media business account and provide each of them a tailored digital promotion strategy. At the same time, OCL will offer each merchant HK$8,000 worth of online media placement and marketing budget for promotion of their unique story and signature products. 

In all, the scheme aims to help preserve and promote the city’s distinctive cultural and culinary heritage.

Speaking about the initiative, Rita Li, sales and marketing at OCL, notes that the company understands the challenges for small merchants and they see the need to go digital in order to sustain and thrive. Therefore, they want to help them by reaching out to the community and getting customers to find their way to them through digital marketing.

“OCL has been offering fast and convenient electronic payment solutions for small-and medium-sized merchants for over two decades. Through the Scheme, we hope to support even more neighborhood shops to keep pace with the trend of digital transformation,” Li stated.

She added, “This will not only increase visibility for small merchants and enhance their competitiveness, but also help people from all walks of life meet their shopping needs. OCL will promote these shops, their stories and features on Octopus social media platforms and the Octopus App.”

During the first phase of the scheme, OCL will also launch the event webpage “#NeighbourDOOD-Nomination of My Favorite Shops”, where visitors or shop owners can nominate their favourite “hidden” specialty shops in the city*. A total of 108 small shops will be selected using the following three criteria: business size, based on operating years, size and employee number; locality, where the shop is locally registered in the city; and speciality, where it is all about the unique history of the shop, its products or services.

This initiative is targeting those whose historical and cultural values contribute to the city’s identity including traditional local shops, handicraft shops and value-for-money specialty shops.

Taipei, Taiwan – Asia-centric big data company Vpon has announced a new partnership with global adtech company Hivestack to amplify data-driven digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising across the markets of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Said partnership merges Vpon’s extensive mobile location data enables precise audience targeting X Hivestack’s programmatic digital out-of-home technology. Furthermore, said partnership brings together Vpon’s extensive location data with the targeting and measurement capabilities of Hivestack’s demand-side platform (DSP).

This then allows Hivestack’s advertising clients to deliver contextually relevant out-of-home messaging to different segments of consumers in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hivestack’s DSP creates accurate custom segments by geofencing places of interest frequented by a brand’s target audience. The data will be leveraged to build hourly device concentration scores for each DOOH asset and activate screens where a high concentration of devices has been previously observed. Hivestack’s platform uses market-leading technology to activate the right DOOH screens at the right time, using billions of anonymous data points from mobile location ID’s. 

Arthur Chan, COO of Vpon, comments that their company’s effective and customizable data products are the ‘perfect accompaniment’ to Hivestack’s unique programmatic technology, which uses location data to activate digital screens in real-time based on behavioral patterns and movement.

“The partnership presents an exciting opportunity for marketers in Hong Kong and Taiwan to combine our far-reaching data sets and expert analytics with Hivestack’s market leading DSP to identify and reach the most relevant audience for their campaigns with high impact out-of-home advertising,” Chan stated.

Meanwhile, Troy Yang, MD for North Asia at Hivestack, describes that Hong Kong and Taiwan are key markets for Hivestack and they are excited to partner with an innovative big-data company that is prominent in these countries.

“Vpon’s unrivaled mobile location data and capabilities will be a valuable addition to the Hivestack offering, enabling marketers to serve timely and compelling advertising to the right audiences at the right moment and in the right place, as well as to continually measure and optimize their out of home campaigns to maximize conversions,” Yang stated.