Famous butcher Samuel Lau inks deal with Skechers, launches social channels

Skechers has recently tapped on a new face for its brand picking butcher Samuel Lau as its latest work shoes promotion campaign representative for the Hong Kong market. Lau is well known for his humility and like-able nature, and has often been compared to boyband Mirror’s member Anson Kong in his appearance.  

In the latest collaboration, Lau is seen wearing the brand’s working trainers at his store in Tsuen Wan wet market. According to a Skechers press release, the brand aims to bring every user a comfortable walking experience, which is why it picked Lau as its ambassador- as he has to endure long hours of standing in his job to satisfying the needs of his consumers at the butchery. As such, Skechers believes Lau needs a pair of slip resistant and comfortable working shoes, to minimise the chance of getting accidents and reduce muscle fatigue.

Lau has worked as a butcher in Tsuen Wan for six years, and as the owner of his store he starts work every morning at 5.30, six days a-week. According to the brand, this has resulted in Lau often feeling exhausted after standing for long hours on “floors [that] sometimes get wet and slippery". As such, the collaboration was one that was aligned with Lau's day to day given Skechers has a wide range of working shoes catering for different careers, such as medical care, retail, food & beverage, beauty and others.

Skechers currently works with  L Concept Communications as its PR agency.  Meanwhile, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE can confirm that currently Lau is being represented by Amo Creative.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, a spokesperson from Amo Creative also confirmed that Lau has just launched his first ever Instagram and YouTube channels on 19 May 2022, and already the channels have over 5000 followers on Instagram and 2.2k subscribers on YouTube followers.

The spokesperson also told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that Lau plans to create content around cooking, hiking and fitness for the Hong Kong audience. While many brands have approached Lau in the past, the spokesperson shared that what made Skechers stand out is the alignment of product to Lau's needs and lifestyle. While Lau is open to future brand collaborations, he is however still content with his current career.   

Established in 2008, Skechers Hong Kong not only localises global marketing campaigns, but also delivers unique and innovative ways to introduce Skechers to their consumers. Despite having a different marketing strategy in each region, the brand continues to convey the same brand image over the world that it is a comfort technology company.

Furthermore, Skechers's aggressive multi-platform and targeted marketing methods span all media to raise brand awareness and excitement. Every compelling campaign, from store windows to stadiums to social media, drives consumers to discover and experience its footwear in their favorite stores, catalogs, and websites.

Meanwhile, the influencer marketing scene in Hong Kong is clearly thriving.  A survey done by VS Media unveiled that 78% of Hong Kong consumers did not mind indirect advertising as long as the content produced by influencers was entertaining. Also, 73% of the Hong Kong audience trusted influencers' recommendations or reviews even if their content contained ads or involved paid partnerships. 

Another study by AnyMind group highlighted that Instagram remains the most-used social media platform by influencers in Hong Kong with a share of 53.77%, followed by Facebook (24.58%) and YouTube (20.72%).

Across the region, the number of brands spending more than 30% of their total marketing budget on influencer marketing has increased to 25.4% this year, up from 21.4% in 2021. Meanwhile, 69.4% of brands are spending 1% to 30% of their total marketing budget on influencer marketing, according to The Southeast Asia Influencer Marketing Industry report by influencer marketing and commerce platform Partipost and Quest Ventures.

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