#MarketingExcellenceAwards 2021 PH highlights: HKTB goes on digital blitz to claim mindshare among Filipinos

The pandemic brought unprecedented changes to how the world works, and tourism is one of the sectors most negatively impacted. For tourism-driven countries such as Hong Kong, this has taken a toll on businesses. In fact, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), this sector accounts for approximately 5% of its GDP and more than 250,000 jobs. For instance, Hong Kong experienced a 93% decline of Filipino travellers as soon as the pandemic hit, with numbers going down from 875,897 in 2019 to 62,741 in 2020. 

To address these challenges, HKTB came up with the “100 Reasons to Miss Hong Kong” campaign, aiming to bring Hong Kong to Filipinos from the comfort of their homes. This campaign also allowed these individuals to share about the things they’ve come to love about Asia’s World City - food, shopping, outdoor activities and the nightlife. For HKTB, it acknowledges that the Philippines was in fact an important market for the country.  In fact, based on available information provided by PartnerNet, the country accounted for 32% of tourist arrivals from the Southeast Asian region for the year 2020 alone. 

Done in partnership with PR and corporate communications agency, Perceptions, the campaign managed to impress the judges, clinching the gold award for Excellence in Marketing at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Marketing Excellence Awards Philippines 2021.

Challenges 

At a time of uncertainty, HKTB was faced with the challenge of marketing and promoting Hong Kong, despite the safety issues surrounding the pandemic. Unlike its many successful campaigns in the past, HKTB had to postpone all the planned on-the-ground events, media and influencer familiarity trips, and even country-specific executions such as mall shows and trade fairs. This, in turn, posed a huge problem as tourism promotions were often greatly amplified by the firsthand experiences that can be had by its partners and collaborators, including the media and influencers.  

One would think that a destination would simply put its plans on hold given the travel restrictions, but as early as the third quarter of 2020, HKTB set its sights on preparing for the possibility of the world opening up again and the tourism industry recovering from the aftermath. The situation called for more creative implementations in spite of the limitations, and for HKTB to tap into a resource pool that it can maximise albeit virtually to keep connected with its main audience

Strategy

While no country was shy to be a victim of the pandemic, the Philippines was one of the countries badly struck by the virus, with the number of positive cases continually increasing on a daily basis. Expectedly, this led to a series of changes in the lifestyle behaviour segment. For instance, the pandemic saw the increase of users using electronic devices such as phones and laptops, to cope with the boredom of working from home or being quarantined. Aware of this, HKTB decided to carry out a fully virtual direction for its campaign, utilising social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. 

For the entire campaign, HKTB budgeted its expenses to enquire what was trending and what interested the Filipinos at that time. This included tapping Filipino KOLs who had a high following and good engagements, creating Instagram AR filters and bingo challenge templates, participating in short and free online classes, bonding with friends and loved ones over virtual games, as well as whipping up YouTube-inspired dishes, among others.
 
Execution

When the pandemic was at its peak, HKTB had to do what it can to keep Hong Kong top-of-mind for Filipinos, such that when travel restrictions ease, the first place they’ll want to go to will be Asia’s World City. In fact, this was HKTB's ultimate goal for the campaign — to reach and engage with Filipinos and get them to talk about the things they love and miss the most about Hong Kong.

To kick the campaign off, HKTB tapped popular Filipino KOLs, with a combined following of more than four million followers, who have a close affinity to Hong Kong. It created its own Hong Kong-themed AR filter and Instagram bingo challenge for KOLs to use — two of the many activities that kept Filipinos generally entertained during the lockdown. This was followed by Hong Kong Heist, an online mystery hunt created in collaboration with Mystery Manila in October 2020. This was timely for Halloween festivities where Filipinos would travel to Hong Kong to join the fun, but because travel for leisure was prohibited, HKTB wanted to bring this occasion to Filipinos where they could bond with friends and loved ones over a destination-themed mystery game.

Short and free online courses were also made available to Filipinos who wanted to spend their free time learning a new skill or a foreign language. At the same time, the board tapped Hong Kong-born Filipino-Chinese TV personality, Richard Juan to host a two-part series called “Missing Hong Kong with Richard Juan”. In the series, Juan taught basic Cantonese words that Filipinos could use on their next trip to Hong Kong. Aside from Juan, HKTB also tapped into one of the country's celebrity couples, Nico Bolzico and Solenn Heussaff. The couple was tasked to recreate a famous Hong Kong dish as the board banks on Filipinos to reminiscent the food they had when visiting the country. 

Results 

According to HKTB, the campaign was a success, garnering more than 14 million reach to Filipinos through social media executions. Additionally, the campaign recorded more than 2.5 million impressions. On the KOL engagement front, the board garnered more than 700,000 impressions from more than four million influencers. The Hong Kong Heist livestream that was hosted on Mystery Manila’s Facebook page featuring Khalil Ramos and his friends playing the game garnered more than 8,000 organic views and a total engagement of more than 6,000. As of date, Cantonese Lessons by Richard Juan, garnered more than 140,000 views on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok combined. The Spouse Cook-off between celebrity couple Nico Bolzico and Solenn Heussaff, who have a combined following of more than nine million, garnered more than 300,000 organic views.