TamJai sister brands invite Australian firemen to promote new products

TamJai sister brands have invited three Australian firemen from the 2024 Australian Firefighters Calendar (2024澳洲消防員月曆) to Hong Kong to promote their new hot-pot-style products (熱鍋), taking advantage of the recent chilly weather in the city. 

This is the first collaborative campaign after a subsidiary of TamJai International (TJI) entered into a joint venture agreement with a subsidiary of ST Group to expand into Australia. 

According to the TamJai Yunnan Mixian and TamJai SamGor, the Australian Firefighters Calendar, known for its iconic images of muscular firefighters and their posing with animals, aligns with the brands' new products that are hot and spicy.

As part of the two-to-three-week campaign, the three firemen will participate in a tasting event and various fundraising activities on 8 December, aiming to help generate awareness and support for the new products. 

Moreover, the TamJai sister brands have formed a partnership with a charity organisation called 大樹下善待動物庇護站. While the three firefighters will visit four TamJai and TamJai SamGor local stores, customers who donate to the charity can take photos with the firemen and get their autographs.

To engage a wider audience, the TamJai sister brands have shared image teasers on their Facebook and Instagram pages, featuring their mascot, TamJai Jeh Jeh, using a firefighting monitor to put out the “fire” (撲火) of their new products. This playful and creative content aimed to generate interest and anticipation for the campaign.

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Ronald Wong, chief marketing officer of TamJai International (TJI), told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that apart from the PR events and in-store messages, the company also leveraged digital technology in this campaign, including precise geo-location targeting to send time and store location-specific messages to its customers, aiming to ensure that the promotional messages were highly relevant and contextual to customers. 

Wong said that the hot pot products positioning is about re-inventing the way to present TamJai sister brands' classic flavours in a way that is not only filling but also fulfilling emotionally, something tasty customers can enjoy with someone close instead of eating alone. 

“For a lot of HongKongers, Winter is always about the reunion and gathering with friends and loved ones - it is the first time for TamJai and TamJai SamGor to offer a dinner product to suit the occasion. However, we are also mindful that the animals out there are less fortunate that’s why we are very keen to partner with 大樹下善待動物庇護站 who are doing so much meaningful ground work to care for the animals. This is totally in line with the same good cause that has been supported by the Australian firemen for a long time,” Wong said. 

This campaign has drawn mixed reactions across social platforms in Hong Kong. According to media intelligence firm CARMA, over 300 mentions were observed in the past 24 hours, with approximately 11% expressing a positive sentiment, while 17% had a negative sentiment. 

Charles Cheung, CARMA's HK GM said netizens generally perceived the campaign as innovative and creative. Some even drew a comparison to the Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) campaign that took place in Central about a decade ago, but noted that Tamjai's campaign is driven by a good cause, he said. 

In response, Wong said the key difference between A&F's campaign and TamJai's campaign is that TamJai wants customers and fans to be aware of the fact that the Australian firemen have been keen advocates of wildlife and animal protection. A big part of this campaign is also to support local animal protection causes, which has obviously also been picked up by many local media.

Meanwhile, social monitoring firm Meltwater found that since the release of the campaign, TamJai sister brands’ brand sentiments have been 70.8% neutral, 20.4% positive and 8.8% positive across social platforms. The most searched keywords regarding the campaign include "calendars with muscular men covers", "animal protection" and "donation".

Back in November, TJI signed a master franchise agreement with its controlling shareholder Toridoll Holdings Corporation (東利多株式會社), to obtain the franchise rights to operate new stores for Japanese noodle brand Marugame Seimen (丸龜製麵) in Hong Kong for three years. 

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