Tag: Hong Kong

Hong Kong – When it comes to health and wellness information offered by social media influencers, close to half of younger consumers from Gen Z (48%) and Millennials (46%) consider them to be reliable, compared to less than two-fifths of Gen X (38%). This is according to the latest data from YouGov on health information sources the Asia-Pacific market consumes the most.

According to the data, while most Gen X (61%) and Millennials (53%) in Hong Kong regard medical practitioners as a reliable source of health information, less than half of Gen Z (48%) say the same. Meanwhile, millennials are significantly more likely than other generations to trust their gym/personal trainer (35%) to provide reliable health information.

It is also worth noting that close to two-fifths of consumers in Hong Kong (38%), say they find at least some health and wellness information offered by social media influencers to be trustworthy – compared to just a sixth (16%) of consumers internationally. Hong Kong also shares a similar sentiment to some of its Southeast Asian neighbors, with over a third in Indonesia (36%) and a fifth in Singapore (21%) echoing the same sentiment for social media influencers.

Consumers in Hong Kong and Indonesia are also significantly more likely to look to their friends/family and pharmaceutical companies for health and wellness advice.

Meanwhile, Over half of consumers in Hong Kong (51%) and two-fifths of consumers in Indonesia (40%) say they trust health-related information provided by family/friends, compared to just a third (33%) internationally.

Lastly, almost a third of consumer in Hong Kong (31%) and a quarter of consumers in Indonesia (26%) find pharmaceutical companies to be a reliable source of health information, compared to less than barely a fifth (19%) internationally.

Hong Kong – HSBC has partnered with MSL to launch its newest brand campaign, “Make Your Next Move. Make Your Mark.” Under the campaign, HSBC will orchestrate the latest advertising endeavour, which will act as a rallying call for Hong Kong residents. 

Involving locals in every facet of the campaign, it serves as a visual representation of the city’s continued progress and the achievements of people from various backgrounds making their mark on the globe.

Several parts of the movie’s scenes were even filmed by Hong Kong residents, while others drew inspiration from actual HSBC clients. The Hong Kong film director Jack Ng selected and further directed these moments. The film deftly combines HSBC’s history and worldwide reach with the diversity, tenacity, and resolve of Hong Kong.

More than 70 distinct sounds from Hong Kong are featured on the original soundtrack, which also includes narration from the locals. Every frame pulsates with the authenticity and dynamism of Hong Kong’s diverse society, from the “ding ding” of trams to the colourful MTR announcements and the rhythmic beats of lion dancers. 

As part of the campaign, HSBC ventures into the world of film for more than two months, starting in March, on an atypical and creative marketing journey. A gala premiere held at K11 Art House to commemorate the launch was held in addition to several online and offline marketing initiatives. The campaign displays its tagline through newspaper wraps, editorial alliances, TV commercials, and tunnel billboards. 

Enhancing its involvement, HSBC reached out to Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) across a range of industries on social media, including travel, sports, entertainment, art, culture, film, and more. With each post featuring a cinematic clapperboard image and a personal reflection on the user’s goals and aspirations, they invited the public to submit their #NextMove on Instagram.

Speaking about the campaign, Luanne Lim, chief executive officer, Hong Kong, HSBC, commented, “HSBC and the local film industry in Hong Kong have grown alongside its people. Our latest advertising campaign involves a collaboration with a talented director to capture the essence and vibrancy of Hong Kong, while also emphasising our bank’s vision and global reach. As a steadfast supporter of the Hong Kong economy, HSBC is proud to sponsor the upcoming Hong Kong Film Awards, which celebrate Hong Kong’s creative industries and highlights its allure as a global city.”

Meanwhile, Alexis Chiu, group managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi and MSL expressed, ” We are thrilled to collaborate with HSBC and Jack to bring this extraordinary campaign film to fruition. A true local product, directed and shot in the heart of Hong Kong, capturing the unique sounds and visuals of our city. This film truly reflects the energy, diversity, and cultural richness that define Hong Kong. It has been an incredible journey to celebrate the spirit of this dynamic city and create a cinematic experience that resonates with audiences worldwide.” 

Hong Kong – Kathy Wong has been appointed general manager of We Are Social, a global creative agency, in Hong Kong. She will report directly to Pete Lin, CEO of We Are Social in North Asia. 

Wong’s new position will include overseeing both We Are Social Hong Kong and the creative agency Metta/We Are Social. Wong will lead a team of 20 at We Are Social and work with clients including Keetah, Abbott, GEOX, and Alipay. 

Wong brings a wide range of knowledge and experience to her new role, having worked for more than 18 years. She had worked for several advertising firms in the past, such as Ogilvy, TBWA, and FCB, and RollRollRoll, where she was the business director. 

Wong began her professional career at Metta Communications, which in 2022 amalgamated with We Are Social to establish Metta/We Are Social. She has managed clients like Mercedes Benz, Barclays Capital, Hong Kong Disneyland, and L’Oreal Travel Retail. 

Kathy Wong takes over the role previously held by Donald Wong, who left We Are Social Hong Kong to seek possibilities in the United States. 

Speaking about her appointment, Wong expressed,“I am thrilled to join the We Are Social team in Hong Kong, and to rejoin Metta where I have many great memories. I look forward to drawing on my experience in both agency and client-side roles to continue to help We Are Social’s clients excel creatively and strategically. I am excited to expand the team at We Are Social, drive the digital discipline in Hong Kong forward, and serve the digital marketing demands of both local and international clients.” 

Meanwhile, Lin commented, “We’re delighted that Kathy has chosen to join the team at We Are Social. She’s a first-class communicator with an unrivalled reputation in the Hong Kong advertising world, and there’s no better person to take our growing team to the next level.” 

Hong Kong – FWD Group Holdings Limited announced today that it has extended its partnership with Microsoft for a four-year period. This partnership intends to provide access to the most recent generative artificial intelligence technologies while still retaining support for FWD’s cloud-first technology strategy. 

By utilising Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service and other enterprise-grade developments, FWD Group aims to enhance its generative AI ambitions. The business expects to gain from Microsoft Azure’s AI models as well as its private networking, security, and monitoring features. 

In a number of areas, including underwriting, claims, channel and agent performance, acquisition, marketing, underwriting, and customer service, FWD Group is actively working to enhance the client experience and streamline its business processes. The business also used Copilot for Microsoft 365 early on, which is an AI assistant that helps staff with daily chores. 

Speaking about the partnership, Ryan Kim, group chief digital officer of FWD Group, said, “Digital innovation has always been core to FWD’s vision of changing the way people feel about insurance. This collaboration marries FWD’s pioneering spirit in Asia in some of the fastest growing insurance markets in the world, with the global scale and skill that Microsoft brings in engineering and AI.” 

He added, “We’re excited to harness more next-generation innovations to develop new industry use cases and standards that we believe will shape the insurance journey of the future.” 

Meanwhile, Bill Borden, corporate vice president of Worldwide Financial Services, Microsoft, stated, “AI is driving transformation across the financial services industry, opening new opportunities for innovation and business growth with agility and at scale. We are thrilled to strengthen our AI partnership with FWD by offering Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365 capabilities to enable world-class customer experiences and operations securely and responsibly.” 

“As a pivotal player in the global financial landscape, the Asia Pacific region stands out for its dynamism and adaptability, fostering continuous growth and driving innovation. We are committed to empowering our customers in the region with generative AI capabilities in a responsible way. With Microsoft’s enterprise-grade AI advancements, we are helping the financial services ecosystem accelerate innovation to drive operational efficiency and greater value creation to customers,” Borden added. 

Hong Kong – AS Watson Group has announced the appointment of Freda Ng as the managing director of PARKnSHOP for Hong Kong and Macau, succeeding Norman Yum who has made the decision to retire and will be appointed as business advisor. 

Ng joined AS Watson Group (ASW) in 2010 in a business planning role, and joined PARKnSHOP as chief operating officer in 2023. Prior to her appointment in PARKnSHOP, she was the chief digital officer of Watsons International and the chief customer and digital officer of Watsons Hong Kong.

Looking ahead, as the managing director of PARKnSHOP, Ng will continue to build upon the strong business foundation and deliver a seamless shopping experience to the customers in the supermarket’s portfolio of nearly 260 O+O stores. 

Dominic Lai, group managing director of AS Watson Group, commented, “Freda has been a valuable member of AS Watson for 14 years, excelling in various roles in business planning, customer experience, digital innovation and development. We’re very confident that Freda will lead PARKnSHOP in continuing the journey of transformation and take the business to new heights.”

He added, “I would like to express heartfelt gratitude to Norman for his dedicated service in PARKnSHOP. During his tenure, PARKnSHOP successfully launched its online business and built the O+O (Offline plus Online) platform model, expanding its customer reach and adapting to the evolving digital landscape. We would like to extend our appreciation to Norman for his unwavering dedication and outstanding leadership and wish him a fulfilling retirement.” 

Guangzhou, China – Automotive manufacturer GAC AION has expanded into Hong Kong, opening its first showroom in Hong Kong and marking the brand’s official entry into the market.

The brand launch event in Kowloon Bay featured the introduction of new energy vehicles and highlighted GAC AION’s technological achievements, with GAC’s initiatives to promote the use of electric vehicles(EVs) in Hong Kong. 

During the opening ceremony, Wei Haigang, general manager of GAC International, expressed the company’s commitment to providing the best technology and models to Hong Kong consumers. On the other hand, Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC AION, introduced the company’s development history, core technological innovations, then emphasised the importance of Hong Kong as a crucial point in their global strategy.

These efforts that lean into EV usage are in line with Hong Kong actively undertaking diverse measures for decarbonization and there is a steady rise in new energy vehicle purchases. 

With this in mind, GAC AION plans to open six showrooms within the year, offering competitive products and services to meet the rising demand. Additionally, the company will invest in 1000V ultra-fast charging stations to combat charging infrastructure shortages, targeting 300 public charging stations by 2028.

The Hong Kong market serves as an integral part of GAC Group’s global layout. Using it as a starting point, GAC AION’s plan would be to expedite the overseas layout of new energy vehicles, advance GAC Group’s internationalisation process, and contribute to the realisation of the “Trillion GAC” blueprint. Simultaneously, GAC AION is committed to driving the worldwide growth of the new energy industry.

Hong Kong – Hotel operations and management company Miramar Group has recently tapped SAP Emarsys in order to support the groups’ objective of elevating its customer experience operations by harmonising customer data from diverse business units.

To support its multi-faceted operations, Miramar Group has embarked on a company-wide digital transformation by unifying multiple IT systems and enhancing data analysis capabilities with more structured data. 

With SAP Emarsys, the group integrates customer data from various business units and leverages segmented data to streamline different stages in the customer journey, such as reservations and online shopping.

Going forward, Miramar Group plans to leverage SAP Emarsys’s ‘Smart Insights,’ utilising its inherent AI modelling and machine learning, to develop an in-depth understanding of the customer lifecycle. The solution will facilitate the group to define customers into five distinct groups namely lead, first-time buyer, active customer, defecting customer and inactive customer so that the group can deliver highly personalised content to the customer accordingly.

Mabel Ho, senior marketing manager for digital marketing at Miramar Group, said, “A comprehensive and detailed understanding of our customers underlies the foundation of our customer experience operations and in many ways contributes to our business success. Personalization is essentially data-driven.”

She added, “By taking steps to better understand our customers, we can deliver tailor-made messages and the right product offerings. SAP Emarsys equips us with a data-driven landscape to enhance connections with customers through emails, paving the way towards a more enriching customer experience.”

Meanwhile, Esmond Tong, managing director of SAP Hong Kong, commented, “In response to the fast-paced changes in the marketplace, global brands are engaging customers on their own terms – supporting their journey and ensuring a positive experience. By leveraging SAP Emarsys, the Miramar Group and other future-proven companies are building up customer engagement across all channels and ensuring excellent experiences.”

Hong Kong – The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has announced it has rebranded its SCMP Events to SCMP Live as it initiates a new phase of business transformation in its events division.

SCMP Live is set to deliver fewer but larger-scale events that are more impactful and more aligned with the organisation’s top-of-mind news events. However, the China Conference, Family Business Summit, and Redefining Hong Kong series will remain its flagship events in 2024.

Additionally, SCMP Live’s custom events, which are produced on behalf of its partners, will leverage SCMP’s brand to convene the right target audiences and curate the most relevant programmes and speakers to drive meaningful connection, high engagement, and consideration.

Catherine So, chief executive officer of SCMP, said, “For 120 years, our readers have placed their trust in SCMP to help them make sense of the news events across Hong Kong, Greater China, and Asia. Through SCMP Live premium event experiences, we ignite our readers’ journey from informed to empowered, enabling them to dive deeper, connect with opinion leaders, and shape industry conversations—all LIVE.” 

She continued, “The way our audience engages with our events is constantly evolving. As such, our events division has transformed to anticipate and adapt to our audience’s needs and expectations. The rebrand to ‘SCMP Live’ marks this transformation.”

Kevin Huang, chief operating officer of SCMP, also commented, “There has been tremendous growth in our Events division this past year. In the current fiscal year, we’ve already seen high double-digit revenue growth YOY. With the rebrand and transformation to SCMP Live, we hope to turbocharge our events capability to further build out the depth and breadth of our events portfolio and to help many more of our partners bring their event vision to life in the most impactful way that supports their business priorities.”

Hong Kong – Retail sales in Hong Kong back in November 2023 have by $34.2b, marking a 15.9% increase compared to the same month in 2022, and for the first 11 months of 2023 taken together, it was provisionally estimated that the value of total retail sales increased by 17.1% compared with the same period in 2022. This is according to the latest data released by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) of Hong Kong.

According to the data, of the total retail sales value in November 2023, online sales accounted for 9.3%. The value of online retail sales in that month, provisionally estimated at $3.2b, decreased by 16.1% compared with the same month in 2022. The revised estimate of online retail sales in October 2023 increased by 9.0% compared with a year earlier.

Moreover, the provisional estimate of the volume of total retail sales in November 2023 increased by 12.4% compared with a year earlier. The revised estimate of the volume of total retail sales in October 2023 increased by 2.9% compared with a year earlier.

It is also worth noting that jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts rank the most in the value of sales, amounting to around 60.8%. This was followed by consumer goods not elsewhere classified (29.0%); wearing apparel (54.1%); commodities in department stores (15.0%); food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (6.3%); medicines and cosmetics (38.7%); footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (24.4%); Chinese drugs and herbs (33.7%); books, newspapers, stationery and gifts (11.1%); and optical shops (17.8%).

A government spokesman said that the value of total retail sales increased visibly in November over a year earlier alongside the revival of inbound tourism.

Looking ahead, the spokesman added that an expected further recovery of inbound tourism should continue to benefit the retail sector. Continued improvement in household income, as well as various promotional campaigns and activities launched by the Government and the industry should also provide support.

Hong Kong – McDonald’s Hong Kong has ‘secretly’ partnered with creative agency DDB Group Hong Kong for the launch of its newest ‘#SNEAKJOY’ campaign that gives travellers a chance to enjoy the joy of sneaking.

The social campaign is largely based on the shared experiences of travellers who find some joy in sneaking their favourite food into unexpected places like aeroplanes.

Partnering up with Hong Kong International Airport, the first 1,000 people who show their boarding pass at the airport McDonald’s will receive a free apple pie that they can sneakily enjoy on the aeroplane.

As part of the special promotion, customers will have the opportunity to be rewarded with free Chicken McNuggets on their return to Hong Kong. They just have to share on social media their creative takes of their sneaky flight experience with the hashtag #SNEAKJOY and tag McDonald’s Hong Kong Instagram account.

The campaign will only run for three weeks, or until supplies last.

Tina Chao, chief marketing and digital customer experience officer at McDonald’s Hong Kong, said, “This campaign really celebrates the joy of having McDonald’s in unexpected places. Joy is a key value of our brand, and this is a playful way to showcase that we want to enable our customers to experience this emotion anytime and anywhere.”

Also speaking on the campaign, Andreas Krasser, CEO at DDB Group Hong Kong, commented, “This campaign is special because it taps into and amplifies an existing behaviour; it was of sorts already co-created with customers. We hope it will bring a lot of joy, as well as entertainment, to even more people along the way.”