Hong Kong Tourism Board Social Media Platforms 1
Background Travellers and their travel behaviours are changing. They have higher expectations and are looking for unique experiences - authenticity is their primary motive. From tourists to explorers, experience is everything, from product to experience. So, we launched a new brand campaign My Time for Hong Kong. It communicates the variety of experiences and emotions travellers can enjoy in Hong Kong. Speaking to travellers from their perspective and puts them at the centre of the story. Hong Kong packs a wide variety of rich and diverse experiences into a compact area that is easy and fast to get around. From fascinating contrasts of East and West, urban and nature, to modern and ancient, Hong Kong is a unique city offering much sought after the world over. The campaign aims to portray these unforgettable moments and experiences that can be had in Hong Kong. 2
Marketing Hong Kong We built our marketing on content that told stories about authentic Hong Kong experiences, from the perspective of locals, experts and travellers. In Hong Kong, we have a rich resource of experiences. From it, we can extract stories that resonate with travellers; stories they will want to share; content that will inspire them to come to Hong Kong and create their own stories. This is perfect for the medium of the internet and with social media, where it is natural to share experiences, thoughts and feelings, and to join and build communities to share information. Travellers want to bring home a great story. 3
HKTB Social Media Platforms Social Media has become an indispensable platform for the travel industry to speak to its target customers so the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has various Social Media profiles on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, LINE, Tencent, WeChat and Weibo to increase exposure and create a platform for communication and interaction. Objectives HKTB s social media accounts aim to maximize its reach to potential visitors and promote Hong Kong as a preferred travel destination. Increase fan base to broaden reach of promotional messages. Engage potential visitors overseas by developing creative and visually appealing content that showcases Hong Kong s brand essences, core strengths and mega events. Acquire a community of loyal fans to spread the word about Asia s world city and to build brand affinity amongst this community. 4
Facebook Fan pages HKTB has various Facebook pages to target various markets including a global page in English to target a mass market Page name: Discover Hong Kong https://www.facebook.com/discoverhongkong 5
Taiwan Facebook page Facebook page in Traditional Chinese (Taiwanese) targeting the Taiwan market Page name: 香 港 逗 陣 行 https://www.facebook.com/discoverhongkong.tw 6
Japan Facebook page Facebook page in Japanese targeting the Japan market Page name: Discover Hong Kong - 香 港 政 府 観 光 局 https://www.facebook.com/discoverhongkong.jp 7
Australia Facebook page Facebook page targeting the Australia market Discover Hong Kong (Australia) https://www.facebook.com/discoverhongkong.au 8
Korea Facebook page Facebook page in Korean targeting the Korea market Page name: Discover Hong Kong - 홍콩 여행의 모든 것 https://www.facebook.com/discoverhongkong.kr 9
Russia Facebook page Facebook page in Russian targeting the Russia market Page name: Discover Hong Kong - Откройте для себя Гонконг https://www.facebook.com/discoverhongkong.ru 10
Twitter HKTB has various Twitter accounts to target various markets including a global page to target a mass market. Username: discoverhk https://twitter.com/discoverhk 11
Twitter - US Twitter account targeting the US market Username: HongKongTourism https://twitter.com/hongkongtourism 12
Twitter - UK Twitter account targeting the UK market Username: HKTourismUK https://twitter.com/hktourismuk 13
Twitter - Japan Twitter account in Japanese targeting the Japan market Username: HKTP_JP https://twitter.com/hktb_jp 14
YouTube HKTB has a global YouTube account in English to target a mass market Username: Hong Kong https://www.youtube.com/user/hongkong 15
YouTube - Taiwan A YouTube account in Traditional Chinese (Taiwanese) to target the Taiwan market Username: 香 港 旅 遊 頻 道 https://www.youtube.com/user/hongkongtc 16
Instagram HKTB has a global Instagram account to target a mass market Username: Discover Hong Kong https://instagram.com/discoverhongkong/ 17
Pinterest HKTB has a global Pinterest account to target a mass market Username: Discover Hong Kong http://pinterest.com/discoverhk/ 18
LINE HKTB has a LINE account which is bilingual in Traditional Chinese (Taiwanese) to target the Taiwan market and English to target a global market Username: Discover Hong Kong 19
Sina Weibo HKTB has a Sina Weibo account in Simplified Chinese to target the China market. Username: 香 港 旅 游 发 展 局 http://www.weibo.com/hktb 20
WeChat - China HKTB has a WeChat account in Simplified Chinese to target the China market User ID: hktbwx 21
WeChat - Taiwan HKTB has a WeChat account in Traditional Chinese (Taiwanese) to target the Taiwan market User ID: hktbtw 22
Tencent HKTB has a Tencent account in Simplified Chinese to target the China market. Username: 香 港 旅 游 发 展 局 http://e.t.qq.com/asias_world_city 23
Promoting Hong Kong through Social Media Visually appealing content was created to meet the business objectives of HKTB and at the same time to arouse interest by entertaining, informing and engaging potential visitors, often promoting the city with beautiful and unique images from all over Hong Kong and providing interesting news, travel tips and updates or facts about Hong Kong. Social Media Strategy: Dynamic and creative content strategy such as Hong Kong Now, Hong Kong Insider s Guide, Event promotions, Talk The Talk, Best Vantage Points, and competitions. Cross promotion of content across HKTB social media platforms building synergy and consistency of the brand and reach. Collaborating with LINE. Collaborating with social media influencers. Showcasing UGC and user experiences. Integration and cross-promotion of HKTB social media platforms. 24
Hong Kong Now To reinforce Hong Kong as a preferred travel destination and let potential visitors learn more the city, we introduced Hong Kong s attractions, creatively done through the series Hong Kong Now. It put a spotlight on a district in Hong Kong to introduce different areas and provided tips on what could be done visiting the area, as well as being a nostalgic reminder for those who had already visited - giving them a talking point to express their fond experiences in the comments or tag their friends. It also provided a realtime look at Hong Kong to allow people to feel as if they were in the city whilst educating on the type of weather conditions at that time of year. These could be shared on our various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. 25
Hong Kong Insider s Guide The Hong Kong Insider s Guide is a series putting the spotlight on particular districts in Hong Kong, usually non-tourist areas to show a different and more authentic side of Hong Kong, as well as providing tips and advice from local insiders. Promotion for the Insider s Guide started with a collage introducing the district and it s unique elements, followed by Hong Kong Now posts and in some cases a YouTube videos (Cantonese: Talk The Talk with Carlos Douh). 26
Best Vantage Points We also developed a series giving fans tips on where to find the best vantage points for taking photographs or viewing the city, allowing us to attract people by showcasing our infamous skyline images, while still providing handy travel advice to them. Again, posts were promoted across different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. 27
Event promotion Hong Kong has various highlighted events throughout the year which were promoted through visually driven stories. For example, Chinese New Year, was promoted through the teaching of Chinese New Year blessings in Cantonese using traditional, Chinese calligraphy style characters. The phonetic pinyin was added underneath the characters so non-chinese readers could learn how to say the blessings. The specifications of the images fit the Facebook cover photo, allowing people to replace their covers, or just share online or print them out for good luck. Each blessing included a QR code to our website with our social media channels as well as cross-promoting our other social media accounts with the usernames of our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account. 28
Event promotion To provide live and immediate coverage on what was happening in the city, we also held live updates from the events to share the atmosphere so people overseas could experience without being in the city, whilst also providing information to in-town visitors on things to do. The photographs taken try to capture the event from different perspectives. Again, all were shared on social media and had a strong visual hook. 29
Collaborating with LINE To increase awareness of the New Years Countdown Celebrations, HKTB collaborated with social networking app, LINE, providing an interactive communication channel for the event so visitor s could easily engage with one another through the exchange and sharing of messages, images, video and audio - enhancing their experience of the occasion using the app and giving us the potential for mass international reach with their database of over 480 million users worldwide and 170 million active user accounts. As well as broadcasting on our dedicated LINE account, the event was promoted across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, with custom-made videos of the LINE characters in Hong Kong. 30
Cantonese: Talk The Talk Continuing on the theme and success of teaching Cantonese from the Chinese New Year blessings, we collaborated with YouTube curator Carlos Douh to teach useful Cantonese that could be used by tourists when visiting Hong Kong either for ordering or understanding where there are no English menus. Carlos gained some International popularity online for teaching Cantonese slang, so we collaborated on a few videos under themes which aligned with our promotions - promoting Hong Kong on multiple levels. For example, teaching Cantonese slang at a Hong Kong special event - the Hong Kong Dragonboat Carnival, and featuring districts in our Hong Kong Insider s Guide campaign whilst introducing iconic or specialty Hong Kong foods during Hong Kong Wine & Dine month. 31
Cantonese: Talk The Talk The Cantonese:Talk The Talk series included videos and food flashcards, and provided people with useful information - places to visit, foods to eat, Cantonese slang/words to say in Hong Kong, but with an entertaining and unique approach. The flashcards could also be collected as a series and or printed and used for ordering food in Hong Kong. By selecting different popular and iconic Hong Kong foods for the flashcards, we also educated on must-eat foods and found they proved popular in allowing people to reminisce and share their experiences of having eaten that food when they were in Hong Kong, or tag their friends because they wanted them to try it in Hong Kong. These could be shared on our various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. 32
Collaborating with Social Media Influencers HKTB co-created content for social media with leading social media influencers including YouTube curators, Instagrammers and popular bloggers. Via their social networks, we extended our reach and enhanced the credibility of our messages. Content was produced for HKTB s own social media platforms with the social media influencer also promoting HKTB s channels to their followers, and producing content on Hong Kong for their followers. For example, fashionista Gary Pepper Girl created blog entries on her Hong Kong trip; the 16,000 Panda s world tour posted updates on social media as they visited iconic Hong Kong spots and featured in a HKTB brand video; Instagrammer, Murad Osmann, continued his Follow Me to round the world series in Hong Kong with a fan meet-up and re-created their own Follow Me to photo; and Instagrammer, Tyson Wheatley, featured in a HKTB brand video as well as provided photos for an Instagram take-over of the Discover Hong Kong account. 33
Competitions Ask the Boss! Whilst the content strategy helped with organic growth for the fan base, online promotions boosted growth by actively acquiring new fans. Ask The Boss was a unique engagement program whose main objective was to show Hong Kong hospitality by offering a competition to fans to win a trip to Hong Kong and giving them a VIP experience at a major-event so they could become Hong Kong advocates and share their feelings and experiences to other potential visitors. The concept also tied in with the promotion of our new My Hong Kong Guide app - the app helps prepare everything for your trip to Hong Kong so all you simply needed to do was Ask The Boss to take your holiday. 34
Ask the Boss! - Winners There is more power and influence with real experiences and word of mouth when it is coming from a trusted source, such as a friend or family member, so it was valuable that the winners could share their unforgettable experiences before and after their trip on their social media channels or blogs, and potentially become Hong Kong advocates. (See left with a winner posting whilst in Hong Kong then reposting a photo months later to reminisce about his Memorable, Unforgettable experience.) With Ask The Boss!, the winners had their wishes fulfilled by providing them not only with a trip to Hong Kong but the special Hong Kong experience they selected in the competition, which they shared with their networks on social media, to then be re-shared on HKTBs Facebook page to tap into our fan s feelings and emotions, showing real and authentic Hong Kong experiences from people who had visited Hong Kong as a more compelling reasons to visit Hong Kong. 35
UGC To harness the power of user-generated content (UGC) and as part of our experiential marketing direction, as well as our winners stories, we encouraged travellers to become storytellers. We promoted the adding of our hashtag #DiscoverHongKong on traveller s photos so we could then aggregate and share on our social media channels to show appreciation and acknowledge them, as well as increase word-of-mouth. 36
Integration & cross-promotion of HKTB social media platforms Discover Hong Kong s social media platforms are also cross-promoted on other channels, such as on our DiscoverHongKong.com website, HKTB s monthly and standalone enewsletters, and HKTBs YouTube, Twitter and Instagram accounts and also offline materials such as event posters and leaflets, to get more exposure to target audiences. Discover Hong Kong website (www.discoverhongkong.com) and enewsletter 37
Integration & cross-promotion of HKTB social media platforms Discover Hong Kong YouTube Channel cross-promoting the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts. 38
Integration & cross-promotion of HKTB social media platforms Discover Hong Kong Instagram account crosspromoting the Facebook account. 39
Integration & cross-promotion of HKTB social media platforms Discover Hong Kong Facebook account cross-promoting the Instagram account with a Facebook app Displaying photos from the HKTB Instagram account as well as photos from users who have tagged their photos with our hashtag #DiscoverHongKong. 40
Integration & cross-promotion of HKTB social media platforms Offline Promotion of HKTB s social media channels: Promoting Facebook on Overhead Beams at the Hong Kong International Airport and in advertorials/ leaflet/posters. 41
HKTB Social Media fans Number of fans/followers on HKTB Social Media Platforms (as of 31 Dec 2014): Facebook (Global): 870,693 Facebook (Taiwan): 395,968 Facebook (Japan): 37,950 Facebook (Australia): 50,820 Facebook (Korea): 677 Facebook (Russia): 2337 Pinterest: 1,360 LINE: 29,833 Twitter (Global): 39,134 Twitter (USA): 43,344 Twitter (Japan): 9,501 Sina Weibo (China): 1,658,336 YouTube (Global): 8,936 YouTube (Taiwan): 4,125 WeChat (China): 153,609 WeChat (Taiwan): 41,336 Instagram: 7,866 Tencent (China): 82,612 42
Conclusion By the end of 2014, HKTB had over 3.1 million fans across our social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Weibo. This meant 921,201 more fans compared to the previous year, an increase of 42%. On just the global and Taiwan Facebook pages, the average number of people talking about the pages increased from 7,285 per day in 2013 to 22,770 per day in 2014, a huge growth of 213% in total interactions. On Instagram, our hashtag #DiscoverHongKong was used 27,001 times by the end of 2013, and grew to 88,326 by the end of 2014, another huge increase of 227%. Engagement also increased on Twitter with 8,375 interactions (favourites+comments+retweets) in 2013 to 40,467 interactions in 2014, a huge increase of 383%. We added emerging social media platform, LINE, to our portfolio last year, which generated more than 700 thousand video views over just a few days. 43
Thank You 44