Chris Kyme’s Postcard from Hong Kong: activities in adland

Chris Kyme (pictured above) continues his ‘Postcard from Hong Kong’ series.

City of life. Once again. Sort of.
Well here we are nearly halfway through the year and it seems like the sun is shining through the bleak darkness of the past few months. Hong Kong is opening up, people are eating at night again, the beaches are getting busy and the distinct tones of moaning and groaning seem to have dissipated a bit on the streets (I say a bit, this is Hong Kong after all “Aiiieeeeyaa”).

With all that’s been going on I’ve seen a few activities in adland that are what I would call somewhat a reflection of the times. Influenced by what we’ve just been through and are still going through. It’s going to take time to recover.

NO MORE DFH
The lockdown here has been pretty severe the past couple of months as I’m sure you’ve seen or read about if you don’t actually live here, and one of the most irritating (and for businesses, destructive) measures was the ban on dining out from 6pm onwards. Not to mention all the bars being closed. That did a lot of damage. Everyone knows restaurants somewhere which were forced to close up forever. It’s been pretty sad. How can you survive when you’re not allowed to do business but your less than sympathetic landlord is still free to take money off you? But, with the restrictions recently lifted, I did like the ‘Dining out again’ campaign recently featured on this website by Dentsu McGarry Bowen here, which welcomed back the diners to the Café de Coral restaurant chain. Nice and opportunistic and I’m sure well received. We might still be WFH some of us but at least we don’t have to DFH all the time.

TIME FOR A BEER
I actually can’t remember the last time I had a beer out, but when the bars do open again in the evening, I might be going for an Asahi after seeing this first ever 3-D billboard in Hong Kong, also from Dentsu McGarry Bowen (on a roll?). I’ve yet to see it up live but I’ll be making a trip down to have a look for sure. The tagline for the brand is Beyond Expected and for once an execution that lives up to its line.

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?
Now I’m not sure that you’ll be seeing this campaign turn up in the award books anytime soon, however, here’s a theme that I think is timely and also plays on the sentiments maybe felt by many. Everyone has been talking about the “Hong Kong exodus” in various local and international media channels of late. And for good reason. Recent ups and downs have affected lives one way or another, expats and locals, decisions have had to be made. And people have had to decide, do we stay or go? I saw this campaign created by shared by Edwin Pang, who is an Associate Director at Hong Kong City University. The theme is ‘Stay or Go. Why not both?’

It’s for CityU SCOPE, and it’s appealing to soon-to-graduate Hong Kong high school students who are interested to study for a degree in the UK. There are three versions in the campaign: Go or Stay; Degree or Interest; Solid Foundation or Future Skills. I found it a rather witty twist on a dilemma many have had to face. Now you can have a bit of both worlds. Very topical.

WTF?? LOOK AT THOSE FTPs.
Everyone knows the HSBC building in Hong Kong. There was a time when it looked like something out of the original Blade Runner film, especially from a cab at 3am after a night up in LKF (Days of Being Wild). It’s still a remarkable structure that anyone visiting for the first time is bound to have a bit of a look at. But for most of us it’s just part and parcel of the scenery, a bit like the Aussie expats surfing during a typhoon while clutching a coldie in one hand and mobile in the other. But now there’s a really good reason to pop by and have a stare. At the moment, the main façade of the building is dazzling the public with the city’s largest outdoor gallery of NFT art, in partnership with K11 malls. According to Brian Hui, who is Head of Customer Propositions and Marketing at HSBC, the event itself “Shows our leadership in the digital art space and strengthens our pioneering role as a progressive and forward-looking player in the market.” I’ll drink to that. Good to see the city coming alive.