Love is in the air: Marketing tactics to better promote Chubby Hearts HK

Love is in the air as Chubby Hearts Hong Kong has made its debut in Asia after its successful launch in London in 2018. The exhibition aims to spread love to everyone and embrace the city’s East-meets-West heritage. 

The ‘Chubby Hearts Hong Kong’ project was conceived by British designer Anya Hindmarch, curated and presented by the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC). From 14 February until 24 February (Lantern Festival), a gigantic 12-metre diameter floating red heart will be displayed at the Central Queen's Statue Square Garden. 

Furthermore, daily flash mob displays of three-meter-wide floating red hearts will also take place at various tourist spots across Hong Kong such as Lam Tsuen Wishing Square (林村許願樹) and the Belcher Bay Promenade (卑路乍灣海濱長廊). 

During the event which MARKETING-INTERACTIVE was present, over 40 residents or tourists stopped by to check out the giant art installation at Central’s Statue Square on 14 February. 

Several members of the public told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the giant heart exhibition can bring happiness to the city, especially after three years of lockdown during the pandemic. However, some locals said more efforts should be put into promoting the campaign as they haven’t seen a lot of ads surrounding it. 

Addressing the confusion that consumers and readers might have, Sam Lam, curator and project director of Chubby Hearts, told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE during an interview that the project is for the first time travelling outside of the UK, with a new format and larger scale. 

“The magnificent Hong Kong cityscape is what we want to highlight in the project. With simple yet cute Chubby Hearts, we hope more people will look up and find the beauty of our city instead of focusing on their phones.” 

The project has connected over 100 large-scale screens in prime tourist areas and utilised movable billboards on buses and taxis throughout Hong Kong, aiming to allow the “Chubby Hearts” Hong Kong to appear everywhere in the city. It has also cleverly leveraged guerilla marketing to wow Hongkongers without engaging any parties for commercial purposes. 

"We do not wish to dilute the power of simplicity of this non-profit art project and we keep the surprise by announcing the pop up locations every morning 7am and we also engage an extensive base of celebrities and KOLs to spread the words and teach audiences the best way to take photos," Lam said.

The organiser expects to have 100,000 audiences for this project, as well as thousands of beautiful images of different scenery of Hong Kong shown to the world, Lam added. 

Media intelligence firm CARMA saw over 500 mentions with 66% positive and 15% negative sentiments. The negative mentions were driven by individuals who expressed confusion regarding the design of the Chubby Hearts, with some suggesting that it looks like it was ordered via Taobao, said CARMA's HK general manager Charles Cheung.  

“Additionally, some mentioned that they were unaware of the installation until they saw it on social media. A few netizens even questioned its effectiveness in attracting more tourists,” he added. 

Meanwhile, social monitoring firm Meltwater saw a total number of 451 mentions across social platforms, with 54.5% positive sentiments and 0.2% negative sentiments. Keywords associated with the project include "famous design" (著名設計), "more big events" (更多盛事) and "gigantic" (巨型).  

Industry reactions 

On the creative front, Yvonne Ma, founder and managing director, Eighty20, said emphasising simplicity in design is a way to highlight an element, underscore its importance and bring it into focus. 

“The iconic scenes and less-travelled paths of Hong Kong provide an excellent backdrop. They create a visually appealing canvas that is instantly recognisable. The message of love is simple yet powerful,” she added. 

Furthermore, the giant heart-shaped installation hanging in the air creates a dreamy and romantic vibe, while the red colour adds to the impact, said Desmond So, CEO, Uth Creative Group. 

Sometimes a divine location is needed to tell a compelling story. Rudi Leung, director and founder, Hungry Digital, said the installation should be placed in a suitable location that would help to convey a compelling story. “At the moment, it seems like the installation is hanging in the air for the sake of display,” Leung added. 

How can it improve to draw tourists' attention? 

Despite the creative and engaging concept, industry players MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to believed better promotional tactics should be executed to drive conversion.  

One simple way to achieve the goal of spreading positive messages about Hong Kong through checking in (打卡) is by encouraging people to take photos with a specific hashtag and share them on popular social media platforms, according to Hungry Digital’s Leung.  

Apart from collaborating with various local creative units, including composer Leon Ko; digital media artist and founder of ‘SurrealHK’ Tommy Fung to launch digital artworks, Leung said the campaign can ramp up its creativity by applying AR filters to the chubby hearts to engage with the public. 

Speaking from a broader perspective, Chris Kyme, co-founder and creative director, Kymechow, said that Hong Kong needs more than fun one-off installations to reinvent its image in the eyes of visitors. 

“Just having an installation will not ‘spread the love’. People are intelligent adults. This is cute, and it’s fun. That’s all,” Kyme added.  

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