Roundup of marketing industry's CNY campaigns for HK audiences in 2022

We are all ushering the Year of the Tiger in full force, and the marketing industry is leveraging the festive season to engage customers and convey blessings to them. As part of this year's initiatives, we saw many brands across the region giving out gorgeous looking lai sees to make their way into the hands of consumers. Meanwhile, others such as Booking.com and Nippon Paint are dishing out relationship advice based on zodiacs, going all out with their content marketing push. And as always, campaigns in the market are taking over in full force.

So as part of our Chinese New Year roundup, we have collated all of the campaigns we've come across to infuse some entertainment and creativity into the holiday ahead.

Bank of China (Hong Kong)

Bank of China (Hong Kong) rolled out a video to celebrate the launch of a new digital lai see (red packet) function on the bank’s app and eWallet BoCPay, featuring singer Chantel Yiu and three celebrities of Macanese entertainment company Manner. Yiu has various styles of entertainment, and in the video she performs a rap song with Manner’s Puinam, Sinam and Roberto Madan, telling the audience how to give out the lai see through Bank of China(Hong Kong)’s “Phone Lai See” function.

Other touchpoints of the campaign include a set of WhatsApp stickers and a cash prize giveaway. Users can win a cash prize from 31 January to 16 February by giving out digital “Lai See” through the app. The bank also uploaded the video on its YouTube Channel on 27 January. At the time of writing, the video has over 3,300 views. The video is more popular on Manner's Facebook. As of 28 January, the video has more than 3,100 reactions and about 90,000 views.

To further encourage customers to use the app to give out the digital lai see,  Bank of China (Hong Kong) has also rolled out a new design of the digital red packets.

Carousell Hong Kong

With Chinese New Year fast approaching, people are starting to tidy up their homes to welcome the festive season. In a recent campaign, Carousell Hong Kong featured DJ Bonnie Wong (Ah Jeng) and her mother, telling the audience that they can list unwanted items on its platform. The campaign (大掃除掣) encourages Hongkongers to declutter in a more sustainable way. In the campaign video, Ah Jeng and her mother share tips around decluttering before the festive season. They can sell game consoles for better personal relationships; sell books for a better career; or sell household items for wealth.

Carousell Hong Kong said instead of throwing away items that are still in good condition, users of Carousell Hong Kong can list them on the platform to benefit other users. The company added that each user in Hong Kong has an estimated average of 43 unwanted items in their home, 18.5% of users also estimated that they can earn over HK$10,000 by selling unwanted items on Carousell's platform, according to Carousell Hong Kong's internal study.

HSBC

HSBC's eWallet PayMe has launched a new group Lai See feature for Chinese New Year and has rolled out a campaign afterwards to celebrate the new function. The campaign features several popular celebrities in town, including MIRROR's Keung To, singer Ivana Wong, girl group COLLAR's Marf Yau and Day Hui, in addition to influencer Ray Chan (雞丁). The ongoing campaign includes a video showcasing each celebrity competing with each other to grab the most Lai See. Before the end of the video, Keung To advises users how to win a cash prize.

The video debuted on ViuTv on 24 January. It will be also be aired on Hong Kong Open TV. From 28 January to 15 February, HSBC will feature five characters on the exterior of HSBC Main Building in Central. All of them will offer new year greetings to Hongkongers.

The group Lai See feature allows PayMe users to send electronic Lai See with customised blessings to up to 100 recipients at a time. Users can choose to send designated recipients a Lai See directly, or create a shareable link for recipients to collect the money. The link to receive Lai See can be shared via social messaging apps too.

Meta
According to Meta's data from January 10 to 19, 2022, the most popular hashtags used by Hongkongers are #虎年 (Year of the Tiger), #農曆新年 (Lunar New Year), hashtags that are about festive food are #新年禮盒 (New Year gift box), #賀年禮盒 (Lunar New Year gift box) and #蘿蔔糕 (turnip cake).

Giphy stickers, frequently used by Hongkongers, also give festive vibe. According to Meta’s data, the most common recently used stickers in Hong Kong are all about Lunar New Year, and some of them related to the Year of the Tiger. Here are the top three Giphy stickers in Hong Kong:

Instagram launched a series of Lunar New Year sticker packs on 29 January, allowing everyone to share the Year of the Tiger stickers on Instagram Stories with a festive touch. Facebook and Instagram are launching Lunar New Year AR filter #MyLNY2022. Users can open their mouth to taste all kinds of festive delicacies in a fun way. Moreover, a cartoon tiger represents the Chinese zodiac of the year, will give users an endless stream of gold coins signifie good luck and good fortune in the Year of the Tiger!

Superunion

To welcome the Year of the Tiger, WPP creative company Superunion has created an online game playing on the use of words, the agency created a “tiger machine” (inspired by the Chinese name for a slot machine) that generates a unique “lucky cat” design for each player – attracting good fortune for Superunion clients, teams, friends and family.