GOLF ANYWHERE

TitleGOLF ANYWHERE
BrandTHE HONGKONG & SHANHAI BANKING CORPORATION
Product / ServiceFINANCIAL AND BANKING SERVICES
CategoryB03. Consumer Services
EntrantJWT/XM SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Entrant Company:JWT/XM SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Advertising Agency:JWT/XM SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Media Agency:MINDSHARE SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Jun Fukawa JWT Singapore Chief Creative Officer
Tay Guan Hin JWT Singapore Regional Executive Creative Director
Karen Muck JWT Singapore Creative Group Head
Ed Cheong JWT Singapore Creative Group Head
Pradeep D'Souza JWT Singapore Copywriter
Priya Suri JWT Singapore Senior Copywriter
Parixit Bhattacharya JWT Singapore Creative Director
Celeste En JWT Singapore Art Director
Alan Leong JWT Singapore Associate Creative Director
Vickie Gurbani JWT Singapore Project Manager
Lydia Daly JWT Singapore Senior Planner
Evelyn Tan JWT Singapore Associate Account Director
Herman Lundquist JWT Singapore Business Director
Nicole Pang XM Asia Creative Director
Cheng Shuyau XM Asia Senior Art Director
Nicole Sim XM Asia Designer
El Lynn Yeoh Hill & Knowlton Director
Sumiati Hashim Mindshare Singapore Director
Karen New Omnitoons Chief Creative Officer
Mark McCarthy Sparky Media Productions Pte Ltd Creative Director

Results and Effectiveness

More than 28,000 people attended the championship. That's an increase of over 19% from the previous year. Over S$1.5 million of free PR was generated via bloggers and journalists. he global HSBC site dedicated to golf saw an increase in daily visitors during the campaign period from 30,841 to 162,690. The app was the top downloaded sports app when live.

Creative Execution

Our Idea was to turn the iPhone into a golf club. To do this we designed an app for the 400,000 off iPhone users in Singapore. Using Augmented Reality and Accelerometer, the app allowed people to play golf anywhere. Then by using some clever coding we transformed one of Singapore's most popular malls into a virtual golf green to launch The HSBC Live Challenge. It invited people to negotiate the 8th hole of the famous Tanah Merah course from 8 natural golfing stations in the middle of the shopping district. The app and event were supported by ads that ran on print, broadcast, digital and outdoor platforms including buses, trains and billboards. For digital, the campaign ran on Facebook, Twitter, mobile applications, online banners, and a specially created microsite. In addition, HSBC's branches were also dressed up to reflect the campaign theme.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our challenge was to make golf accessible to as many Singaporeans as possible and inspire them to attend the HSBC Women's Champions 2011 tournament in Singapore. HSBC sponsors eight major golf tournaments across the world. One of them is the Women's Champions tournament that's held in Singapore every year. Golf is still an elitist sport in this island city. Only 0.5% of the population plays golf as golf club memberships are rather prohibitive. We realized the solution wasn't in driving people to the course but to bring the sport to the people. And then inspire them into attending the championship. To make golf accessible, we used technology as Singapore has the highest penetration of Smartphones in the world, including over 400,000 iPhone users.