Café de Coral and Hello Kitty promote green lifestyle with new campaign

Café de Coral Group has partnered with Hello Kitty, the classic Sanrio character, to motivate customers to bring their own cutlery with a new “Love the Earth” campaign.

This comes in line with the group’s initiative to scrap plastic utensils for takeaways across its 380 dining and catering outlets from 16 April onwards, echoing the launch of the first phase of the citywide ban on single-use plastic tableware at restaurants on 22 April.

In celebration of her 50th anniversary under the theme of “Friend the future”, Hello Kitty was chosen to be the face of the limited-edition reusable cutlery set and cutlery combo available at all outlets of the six restaurant brands under the group starting 16 April with the purchase of selected items.

The six brands include Café de Coral, Super Super Congee & Noodle, Mixian Sense, Shanghai Lao Lao, The Spaghetti House, and Oliver’s Super Sandwiches. The campaign kicked off on 15 April and will continue to run throughout the month.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, a spokesperson from Café de Coral said this comes following the group’s previous collaboration with Sanrio’s My Melody character. To further amplify the campaign message, the group hopes to leverage Hello Kitty’s huge fan base in Hong Kong to raise awareness of green lifestyle.

“We hope to empower citizens to adapt to green lifestyle. Given that some people have already developed this habit, but some may take time to convert their lifestyles," the spokesperson added.

Instead of incorporating marketing strategies, the spokesperson said this is in fact an educational ESG campaign, which hopes to drive change in consumers’ daily routines and habits.

Mainly driven by the group’s in-house corporate communications team, the campaign is executed in partnership with event agency Boxing Promotions Hong Kong, while social media promotion by local foodies is also leveraged.

The campaign is amplified through displaying in-store posters, giving consumers a heads-up the company will scrap plastic cutlery from 16 April, and HK$1 will be charged if consumers request wooden utensils.

In terms of measuring the return on investment (ROI), the spokesperson said the group will monitor the redemption rate of the Hello Kitty-themed cutlery sets; as well as the usage of wooden utensils.

Furthermore, the group has also introduced its ‘Bring your own cup’ pilot scheme, which starts on 16 April at eight outlets where customers may choose to bring their own cups for beverages, minimising the use of disposable utensils.

Besides driving the transition to a plastic-free lifestyle, the group also proposes sustainable or plant-based menus through its restaurant brands, featuring 73% of seafood ingredients from certified sustainable sources. Examples include the New Zealand Fish Fillet (MSC-certified) Breakfast Collection by Café de Coral.

Piony Leung, CEO of Café de Coral Group said, "In recent years, we have been an active advocate of sustainability, championing multi-pronged eco-friendly strategies in all aspects of our operation, from sorting and recycling food waste to sourcing diverse and sustainable ingredients, and to reducing carbon footprint in all business operations, with a view to creating a trickle-down effect in the local community as we work towards a greener future.”

“This effort is now given new impetus through the plastic-free campaign that draws together six brands under Café de Coral Group for the first time. With Sanrio’s Hello Kitty cutlery sets, we offer an additional drive towards behaviour change in favour of reusable tableware[...]The campaign also confirms the six participating brands’ commitment to sustainable development, as we continue to promote green living among our customers by providing more choices of green dishes,” she added.

Joyce Chiu, corporate director, corporate communications and sustainability, Café de Coral, said establishing a green lifestyle cannot be done overnight, we hope to strive towards a sustainable and green lifestyle with our consumers. This campaign is just the first step towards achieving the goal.”

Join us this coming 26 June for Content360 Hong Kong, a one-day-two-streams extravaganza under the theme of "Content that captivates". Get together with our fellow marketers to learn about AI in content creation, integration of content with commerce and cross-border targeting, and find the recipe for success within the content marketing world! 

Related articles:

Café de Coral serves up Cantonese wordplay in its HK hotplate steak ad
Café de Coral ditches plastic straws in all stores