BBDO’s Koman Ko: What Hong Kong’s First Countdown Concert Reveals About What’s Next

By Koman Ko (pictured), Managing Partner, BBDO Hong Kong.

Four weeks into 2026, we’re reflecting on the last thing that happened in 2025: Hong Kong’s first-ever Countdown Concert at new landmark, the Kai Tak Sport Park, on New Year’s Eve.

Two sold-out shows. 80,000 fans. Record-breaking sell-out speed, all-time-high dining spend, measurable hotel and restaurant bookings uplift – and a complete merchandise sellout.

But the real story isn’t the sold-out shows. It’s what this event reveals about where Hong Kong is heading. And how brands can show up differently in the years ahead.

What We Learned:
Entertainment is no longer just a marketing channel. It’s a business accelerator and importantly, a brand builder.

When done authentically and at scale, cultural experiences drive measurable economic impact and improve brand equity. They move people – physically, emotionally, and commercially. Our integrated approach, working across sponsorships, government, celebrity talent, and brand partnerships, created a flywheel effect: a great experience led to word-of-mouth, led to social amplification, led to tourism uplift, led to economic benefit.

Crucially, this wasn’t about one brand dominating the spotlight. By creating an ecosystem that supported a cross-section of partners, we unlocked not just opportunities for clients, but endless ways to elevate the experience for consumers.

Sponsorship initiatives went beyond traditional formats, creatively leveraging brand equity through standout activations such as the AIA Ferris wheel, priority booking privileges for Union Pay and Bank of China customers, and a strategic partnership with the Hong Kong Tourism Board to produce promotional materials showcasing the city. Each brand added value to the moment, rather than extracting from it – positioning themselves front and centre of culture, not adjacent to it.

Zhou Shen delivered an exceptional 3.5-hour performance each night, creating an outstanding guest experience, and brands showed up around the performance in considered and creative ways to only enrich the concert. The event itself generated extensive media coverage, but importantly audience-created content flooded social platforms, driving high levels of positive sentiment and further exposure.

The Zhou Shen concerts proved something important.

Brands don’t need to interrupt culture to be noticed. They can co-create it – and be remembered for it.

Why This Matters Now:
Hong Kong is at a genuine inflection point.

Post-Covid, the city is actively reclaiming its place as a global cultural hub – reopening, reenergising, and reintroducing itself to the world. At the same time, brands are facing an increasingly familiar challenge: consumers are harder to reach, more sceptical of traditional advertising, and more selective about what they give their time and attention to.

Entertainment fills that gap. And as people grow tired of constant screen-based engagement, real-world experiences are becoming more valuable, not less.

Showing up in real life creates a tangible, emotional connection that digital alone struggles to replicate. When a brand enables an experience that is something people choose to attend, share, and remember, there is an automatic value exchange. The brand isn’t just present; it’s appreciated.

And so locally, we’re seeing brands recognize that sponsorships, celebrity partnerships, and live experiences aren’t expenses – they’re investments in cultural relevance and community connection. Indeed, globally, entertainment-led marketing is reshaping how brands think about customer acquisition, loyalty, and lifetime value.

Concerts are especially excellent sponsorship opportunities. They deliver highly emotional experiences, and any sponsorship benefits from association with those positive feelings. When an artist performs well and connects authentically with the crowd, that connection reflects positively on sponsors, with the artist effectively representing the brand values on stage. Beyond awareness and emotional impact, brands gain immersive, social and long-lasting experiences, making concerts a practical and powerful investment.

BBDO Hong Kong’s team at the concert. 

The Opportunity Ahead:
If Hong Kong leans into its strengths – world-class venues, international talent, passionate local audiences, strategic partnerships with government and tourism bodies, the city has a real opportunity to become a global hub for experience-driven brand marketing.

For brands, the creative challenge (and reward) lies in building experiences with the customer genuinely at the heart of them. Creating something people want to be part of is far more powerful that simply telling them what you think they want to hear. That extra consideration builds emotional attachment – and emotional attachment drives loyalty.

Looking ahead, we’re planning several international artist collaborations for events in 2026, and we’re already in conversations with brands recognizing that entertainment is fast becoming the new battleground for consumer attention, relevance, and long-term loyalty. It’s a careful creative consideration – who to involve and how they can best show up, but one that can make significant impacts on culture, brand and business.

The Questions for Brands:
Are you still thinking of entertainment as a sponsorship line item?

Or are you ready to think of it as a brand builder that will benefit the bottom line?

What experience can you create to capture the attention, but the affection of your customers?

While AI is rightly dominating marketing conversations, it’s worth remembering the rising relative value of IRL. Being part of a large-scale entertainment experience places brands in a uniquely powerful position – present in the physical world of the customer, embedded in their memory, and aligned with culture itself.

We’re betting on entertainment experiences as not just having their moment, but as very much the future of marketing in Hong Kong.