Why more HK clients feeling comfy enough to dish out big bucks this CNY

Chinese New Year is just around the corner and we have seen an influx of brands in Hong Kong trying their best to impress consumers with their CNY ad campaigns. For many, the flurry of activity can indicate the slow recovery of Hong Kong's ad land, as advertising activities are showing signs of returning to normal level amid the further easing of pandemic measures in the city. 

With numerous campaigns out there, a number of ads have emerged revolving around the term “revival” and rejuvenation”, symbolising the recovery of Hong Kong economy in 2023, according to local creative agency Secret Tour’s director Stephen Chung. 

Brands such as Wellcome also emphasised “reunion” with the campaign “Share Blessing and Joy” with clearly massive media exposure, which features local director Vincent Kok sharing Wellcome's signature CNY gifts with his family and relatives, according to Jarvis Wong, director, digital and content strategy, Omelette Digital. In addition, he also noticed that many people are visiting family and friends this year for the first time since 2020, creating business opportunities for F&B brands. "Maxim's, for example, is actively promoting Chinese New Year-themed products this year," he added. 

On the other hand, Rabbit-themed campaigns are also likely to make their appearance around the happy occasion, said Jason Cheung, former head of creative of Hong Kong Trade Development Council. For example, Burberry’s latest campaign brings in a new perspective by welcoming everyone to “take a leap” into the unknown with reference to a rabbit.Cheung said that there will be more ad themes on the celebration of friends and families having reunions physically since the city is opening up, “There may also be ads revolving around building Hong Kong up as a cultural centre with art and lifestyle related themes and being part of the Greater Bay Area,” he added. 

How does it differ from ads of 2022? 

The increase in variety of CNY ad campaigns certainly comes with a reason and industry players attribute it to the overall positivity around Chinese New Year and the atmosphere of 2023 being stronger compared to the previous year. Secret Tour’s Chung added that many clients are more willing to come forward to produce campaigns to bring hope to the new year.

It is also worth noting that more brands around APAC are using humour to diffuse the difficult situations consumers often find themselves during CNY celebrations this year, according to Terrence Lee Ji Long, co-founder, business development and partnerships, COLLABTIVE Singapore. "CNY ads of 2022 around APAC seem to gravitate a little more towards the emotional side of things, such as wanting people to come home, to go visit and to generally remember their love ones. There were still comedic pieces but definitely lesser than the emotional ones that were being put out. That feeling of nostalgia or feeling of warm-heartedness," he added.

But of course there are brands who are still on the more reserved side. Omelette Digital’s Wong said there are still many brands that tend to be more cautious this year and produce only product-driven and tactical CNY campaigns. “With such an eventful festive season, most top brands this year, however, only focus on creating campaigns aimed at raising product awareness with less media investment this year. It reflects an overall more conservative view of the market.” he added. 

Are clients spending more or less or about the same? 

When it comes to marketing dollars, local advertising spending recorded a 4% YOY in Q3 2022, with a total spending of 7.5 billion, according to admanGo. Among the top 10 Industries with the highest adspend in Q3, adspend of banking and investment services ranked the first, recording a YOY decrease of 3%. Certain banking groups still showed YOY growth in Q3. In particular, HSBC Group and Hang Seng Bank, which ranked first and seventh among the top 10 advertiser groups, recorded a 17% and 7% YOY growth in Q3 respectively.

As the epidemic slowed down and Hong Kong lifted inbound travel quarantine, ad spends around the time of Chinese New Year is likely to have a continued growth, said Terry Tsang, director of Narrow Door.

“We saw a revival in terms of clients’ confidence, coupled with high expectations in the open border and strong come-back in economy. Starting from end of Q4 of 2022, we witnessed a slight increase in marketing budget for 2023. We expect there will be a bloom in marketing campaigns from many brands in Q2 this year,” Tsang added.

Agreeing with Tsang was HKTDC's Jason Cheung, who said the marketing budgets clients are spending depends on the brands and the demographics. “They may spend a little bit more but will do so more wisely as everyone is recovering from last few years financially. Clients still need to spend but have to be more accurate with spend versus ROI,” he added.

On the other hand, creative agencies such as COLLABTIVE SINGAPORE have seen lesser clients coming forward to request for CNY content this year, of which Lee said many of his clients are pretty contented to just doing simple content posts wishing their consumers well, instead of doing branding pieces that make people feel good about the brand and its values.

While the local spending power after the reopening of the border is still up in the air, many brands tend to be quite conservative for 2023 considering the uncertain state of the global economy and the local economy, according to Omelette Digital’s Wong.

When asked how brands can better prepare for the downside of this, Wong said: “Brands need to keep their business momentum, but may look for quick fixes or more comprehensive business solutions. As a local agency, we are aware that this will be a challenging year, but we remain optimistic as long as we are able to be versatile,” he added.

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