Brands in HK celebrate Edgar Cheung's triumphant gold at the Olympics

Hong Kong fencer Edgar Cheung Ka-long has made history taking home the gold in the men’s individual foil event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. While his victory sent the city into a celebration frenzy, brands in Hong Kong have decided to quickly roll out a series of promotional offers, discounts or social media posts to celebrate the success with Hongkongers. Some businesses have even taken to provide bespoke offers for Hong Kong athletes. 

IKEA

IKEA Hong Kong published a post with an image yesterday at about 8:29pm, one to two minutes after Cheung's triumph at the Olympic Games, promoting its artificial flower Smycka. The writer of the post said, "Although I am just a flower, I am proud to have the same initial as foil! Add 'foil' Cheung!" In Hong Kong, the term "add oil" is often used to show support to others, and this post played a pun on "add foil" to support Cheung. 
https://www.facebook.com/IKEAhongkong/posts/4306792429385491
The image also highlighted the Chinese characters of flower (花) and sword (劍), as these characters putting together means foil, while it also contained a sentence "Bravo! Hong Kong athletes". 

This post is one of the most popular social media activities online to celebrate Cheung's success. As of 10 am, 27 July, this post had more than 19,000 impressions, 726 comments, and over 1,800 shares. 

KLOOK
Some other brands have also rolled out promotional offers for the public. For example, after spending HK$2,000 on KLOOK, customers can enjoy a HK$193 discount by entering a code (193劍神家朗), as Cheung's height is 193 cm. 
https://www.facebook.com/klookhk/posts/3029752560579791

MTR
MTR has also launched bespoke offers for Hong Kong athletes participating in the Olympic Games as every one of them will receive a ticket that offers them one-year free journeys. Meanwhile, MTR has also decided to offer Cheung a lifetime ticket that enables him to travel for free.

https://www.facebook.com/mtrhk/posts/10166184802540151

Similar actions can be seen from KMB, as all Hong Kong athletes participating in the Olympic Games can enjoy free bus services for a year too. 
https://www.facebook.com/kmbhongkong/posts/4284644621593608

Meanwhile, beverage brand Aquarius and Visa also published a post respectively to celebrate Cheung's success. 
https://www.facebook.com/aquariusports/posts/2277422782394636
https://www.facebook.com/visahk/posts/4338642429530480

LEGO's director, head of marketing (Hong Kong, Taiwan & Macau) Kenny Sham also celebrated Cheung's success with a photo that a LEGO minifigure in fencing gears. 
As Cheung has become a popular figure in Hong Kong, some netizens found out that lawmaker Lam Tai-fai once promised that if athlete won a medal at the Olympic Games, he would help them to buy an apartment, according to HK01. Lam yesterday said that Lam Tai Fai College, where Cheung completed his education and Lam is the supervisor, will give a total of HK2.5 million to Cheung as prize money. Meanwhile, according to the Elite Athletes Performance Recognition Scheme, Cheung will also be awarded a total of HK$5 million after winning the gold medal. 

Have you seen any other cool execution by brands? If you have, email me at simony@marketing-interactive.com. 

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