Case Studies

Hong Kong Tourism Board

The Challenge:

The 2009 financial crisis caused the global economy to stagnate, and one of the industries to be hit hardest first was the tourism industry. The Hong Kong Tourism Board wanted to boost in-bound travel from Taiwan, and identified young travellers as key tourism growth drivers.  They enlisted the help of ICL MSL to encourage this target audience to consider Hong Kong as a holiday destination.

The Solution:

Off the back of the Hong Kong Winter Fest (HKWF), the agency invited Brother Lin to produce an interactive video series: "Winter in Hong Kong - The last 120 hrs of a Taiwanese Geek". The video was shot in first-person narrative and features a fictional nerd in search of a girlfriend in Hong Kong.  And there's a time-pressure: if he doesn't hook up with a woman before Christmas, a curse will leave him a bachelor for life. At the end of each sub-video, options appeared offering different potential 'what happens next' scenarios and users were able to choose.  Each given choice would then take the user on a different adventure - letting them experience what dating their dream girl in Hong Kong would be like, but virtually - through their computer screen.

The Results:

This was the first online interactive promotion video in Taiwan, using the "videosharing" function on YouTube. The video cleverly wove Hong Kong tourist attractions together with a tongue-in-cheek  storyline, interactive games and good-looking guys and girls from Hong Kong and Taiwan - all elements that draw young adults to a website, and help keep them engaged.

  • Uploaded onto YouTube on 16th December.  Within 24 hrs, became  the"most popular" and "most viewed" video. 
  • Accumulated more than 300,000 viewers in just 2 days, reaching one million visits in two weeks and cumulative views of all in excess of 8 million. 
  • A total of 2,288 YouTube comments, and a further 2,331 on other major forums. 
  • 25+ broadcast coverage, 1 national daily, 2 lifestyle media and 127+ articles online.
  • Helped generate 376,629 visitors to Hong Kong between January-February 2010 - an increase of 12.7% over the same period in 2009.