"Youthful Marketing" among Hong Kong Traditional Brands
A youthful marketing strategy is essential for brand development in Hong Kong. In recent years, many Hong Kong companies have created fun, friendly cartoon characters that attracted customers from younger demographics.In this article we’ll explore the efforts of Vitasoy, Hong Kong Airlines, and Chow Sang Sang, and the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Vitasoy x McDull
Vitasoy, an evergreen FMCG company with over 80 years of history, has successful stories in youthful marketing. Vitasoy collaborated with the famous Hong Kong cartoon character McDull. McDull's breakfast scene and fun quotes were put on the packages.
Mrs. Mak said, "Eat more breakfast to grow to 180cm. Drink Vitasoy for breakfast first!"; "Eat breakfast, and your crush will like you"; The romantic Miss Chen said, "This is more than your pork belly, there's poetry and breakfast. Have your breakfast first with Vitasoy!"
After the launch of breakfast packaging, Vitasoy continued the tone by extending from the breakfast scene to the spicy-eating scene. It makes use of McDull's famous cartoon character to tell a series of "McDull-style" stories, such as "Drink Vitasoy while eat spicy," "No friends can eat more spicy than me," and "There is no problem that a meal of crawfish can not solve." The ingredients were also made into "McDull style" cartoons. Similar designs are also used in exercise scenes. The marketing strategy is not only cute and affable, but with the famous Hong Kong cultural features and cartoon characters, it enhances the audience's emotional identity and sense of belonging to Hong Kong culture.
Apart from the cartoon characters, Vitasoy held the "Spicy Crawfish Mukbang Competition" before to attract the younger generation's attention. The brand message of "Spicy food and Vitasoy are a perfect match." was implanted in consumers' minds.
Hong Kong Airlines
Hong Kong Airlines launched a couple of youth marketing schemes in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Cartoon characters, stickers, and filters are made to attract younger generations.
A group of 'FLY ME TO' AR filters was launched on Instagram. By increasing the brand's affinity and interaction with customers, the communication between themselves and the young audience can be closer and more casual.
On Weibo, Hong Kong Airlines picked the nickname "Xiao Gang" for itself and created a couple of cartoon images. The brand is shaped into a personality symbol, creating a pleasant brand image for young people. Here is Hong Kong Airlines talking about the Winter Olympics. They not only made stickers and GIFs but also used very colloquial words well connected to the younger generation.
Chow Sang Sang x Onmyoji
As a jewelry brand with a long history of 87 years, Chow Sang Sang has always kept close to the market of young people. Chow Sang Sang collaborated with Netease's mobile game "Onmyoji" and launched a series of new designs, all well-loved by the younger generations.
At the same time, Chow Sang Sang collaborated with a couple of famous IPs under its young fashion concept jewelry brand "MINTGREEN." The most famous examples are One Piece, Harry Potter, Tom and Jerry, etc.
Hong Kong Tourism Board
Not only commercial brands, Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Grey Advertising Agency promoted Old Town Central with illustrations. A couple of interactive artworks are created, combining art, heritage, culture, and history. By hovering their hands onto the illustration map, people are able to interact with the 8 different key hotspots. These artworks attract people, especially the younger generations, to have an immersive experience of the old town central and Hong Kong heritage and culture.
