Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong brings HSBC’s Red Hot Festival into the Metaverse
HSBC’s annual Red Hot Festival has established itself over the years as one of the city’s most memorable activations for rewards and offers, garnering high expectations from the community of HSBC credit card holders. To celebrate the strongest network of ‘Earn & Burn’ offers headlining this season, HSBC and Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong have brought the festival into the metaverse creating a ‘SUMMERverse’ experience – alongside an online campaign led by three iconic brand ambassadors.
With HSBC Red Hot Summer campaign, customers can accumulate and utilise RewardCash with an extended list of merchants and offers, with the two sales events on HSBC’s e-shop.
The Metaverse experience aims to bring the real-world activation of HSBC’s Red Hot Summer Festival into the virtual world. Built in Minecraft, players can roam around the well-known shopping hot spot Tsim Sha Tsui and see how the shopping malls, waterfront, clock tower, and even the HSBC branches were brought to life. When exploring the district virtually if players collect the 10 RewardCash treasures within 10 minutes they enter the draw to win $1,000 RewardCash.
Alongside the festival activation in the Minecraft platform, Wunderman Thompson also recreated a HSBC web version by harnessing the Minecraft platform. This web version extended the metaverse beyond the game’s users to a mass audience.
Leading the campaign is three iconic captains from the three hottest idol groups in Hong Kong, Lokman from MIRROR, Fatboy from ERROR, and Gao from COLLAR, who have come together for the first and perhaps only time to form an unprecedented new trio. Fans of the celebrity ambassadors can collect mementos from their favourite idol’s avatars, watch exclusive content, and participate in the lucky draw experience. Other visual elements utilised across different forms of media also draw inspiration from Minecraft to further echo this campaign differentiator.