HONG KONG, 24 August 2021: Hong Kong spent HKD49.7 million for a public relations agency to create a 12-month “Relaunch Hong Kong” publicity campaign and delayed the launch.
Communications consultancy Consulum FZ beat seven competitors to win the contract through an open tender in June 2020 to conduct research to help government officials gain insights into what people in key markets thought of Hong Kong.
Replying to a question by the New People’s Party’s in a Legislative Council meeting last week, Secretary for Home Affairs Casper Tsui Ying-wai said the timelines, scope and scales of the campaigns would hinge largely on how the pandemic was going and the recovery of business activities.
The PR firm was also tasked with improving perceptions of Hong Kong, including the idea that the SAR is “a safe, growing market” and “a great place to live.”
The research showed that Hong Kong had unique advantages over other competing cities in Asia. Hong Kong was the only Asian city that possessed three important attributes; access to markets in mainland China and Asia, a sophisticated and secure pro-business platform, and a cosmopolitan lifestyle.
The original value of the contract was USD6.4 million, equivalent to HK$49.7 million, but around USD730,000 was saved due to a change in the promotion strategy and implementation timeline, bring the payment down to around USD5.7 million.
The earliest timeline for the recovery campaigns based on the findings is set for 2022, but that remains open-ended.
Tsui concluded that “due to lingering uncertainties about the Covid-19 situation, we will take a phased approach for the rollout of our publicity plans. We will adopt the advertising and publicity messages to launch a business confidence campaign overseas later this year to reinforce Hong Kong’s image as the best place in Asia to live, work and invest in, and pave the way for the ‘Relaunch Hong Kong’ campaign tentatively scheduled for next year.”
(Source Hong Kong Government website)
