Harbour City takes top HKMA/TVB Award

Hong Kong - Harbour City has taken out the top gong in this year's HKMA/TVB Awards for Marketing Excellence.

The Awards, now in its 23rd year, recognises marketers and companies that understand customer needs and seek to treat their customers as strategic partners.

Facing a stiff line-up of competition that included Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut and Ronald McDonald House, Harbour City was awarded the Gold Prize for its "One-up" campaign, which achieved a number of record breaking results in 2007. After the campaign launched, total retail sales increased 26% to $11.4 billion, while a sales growth rate of 13% was double the Hong Kong total retail growth rate. The Harbour City campaign resulted in $150 million in media exposure.

Also recognised was Pizza Hut, which took out Silver award for its "Cheesy Bites - Release the Child in You" campaign form Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong and Sun Hung Kai Realestate for its "Make Magic Happen in West Kowloon" campaign.

Since 2005 the annual awards ceremony, hosted by the Hong Kong Management Association and sponsored by Television Broadcast Limited, has recognised individual awards for marketing excellence.

This year, Koby Kwan, marketing head at Cerebos, was awarded CIM Marketer of The Year, with distinguished marketing leadership awards going to Bertha Chan, marketing manager at Ngong Ping 360 Limited and Stanley Cheung, Asia Pacific general manager for Okamoto Industries.

HKMA chairman David K P Li said with the fragmentation of traditional media and the growing complexity of internet marketing, reaching customers was an ever greater challenge.

"Not to mention even more costly. Relationship marketing - marketing that builds on existing customer relationships - is therefore one of the keys to success in today's business world," he said.

"We can learn a great deal about success from following the examples set by our deserving award winners."