THE LEGEND OF LION DANCE

TitleTHE LEGEND OF LION DANCE
BrandTIMES SQUARE
Product / ServiceSHOPPING MALL
CategoryA02. Corporate Responsibility
EntrantOMD HONG KONG, HONG KONG
Media Agency OMD HONG KONG, HONG KONG
Entrant Company OMD HONG KONG, HONG KONG
Media Agency 2 OMD HONG KONG, HONG KONG

Credits

Name Company Position
Katherine Poon Times Square Limited Promotions & Advertising Manager
Jaxie Ho OMD Hong Kong Buying Director
Deric Wong Omnicom Media Group Hong Kong Managing Partner, Strategy
Anthony Lau Omnicom Media Group Hong Kong Senior Strategist
Janice Lee Omnicom Media Group Hong Kong Communication Planning Executive

The Campaign

Chinese New Year is the busiest promotional period to most HK shopping malls. But Times Square decided to share the New Year’s blessing in a more meaningful way, leveraging on one of the first intangible cultural heritage of Hong Kong – Lion Dance. Introducing “The Legend of Lion Dance”, we leveraged on our superior location to provide a platform for staging the cultural asset that everyone could access conveniently for FREE. Audiences could participate the cultural heritage in different forms and discover the charisma of the artistry with their own hands! More than entertainment, our immersive experience of cultural heritage engages shoppers as well as the media. In just 4 weeks and ZERO media spend, this event successfully gained >HK$6.5M free media mentioning!

The Brief

However, the artistry of making lion heads is fading away. Although lion dance remains popular, HK’s youngster are not encouraged to make it a career as it is more regarded as a leisure activity. Even worse, few youngsters withstand the complicated and tedious procedure to inherit the craftsmanship. As a 20 year old landmark - an integral part of Hong Kong’s local culture, we wanted to restore the respect for the city’s valuable crafts, as well as generating more awareness to help with the heritage’s sustainability.

Results

More than entertainment, our immersive experience of cultural heritage engages shoppers as well as the media. In just 4 weeks and ZERO media spend: - Over HKD 2.5M local PR and over HKD 4M international PR Coverages, totally over HKD 6.5M free media mentioning - Facebook Fans grew over 2,300. Generated over 22,000 likes, 500 comments and over 3,000 shares - Videos and photos hit Instagram daily hot photo / music feeds, follower increased by 7.4% - Official videos viewed over 38,000 times But most importantly, “The Legend of Lions” gave the fading heritage a chance to restore the glory it deserves! “I really appreciated the exhibition because this is the first exhibition about lion dance in Hong kong. The scale of the exhibition is very large and the exhibition have included everything you need to know about lion dance.” Master Lao Fu Zi

Execution

We displayed 36 dancing lions, including renowned needlework masters’ work since 1950 – 1980. We even setup a carved drum cart to allow everyone to feel the momentum of leading the lion dance team! Lion dance drama performance was another exclusive item that could rarely be found in the world. Based on martial arts, dancing lions with features created base on Chinese historical heroes, told stories to spread the spirit of mutual respect and reliance. Audiences could enjoy lion dance in a more dramatic way! We also invited needlework grand master Lao Fu Zi to demonstrate the traditional sewing and binding artistry and explain how each lions’ fabrication were different, because they were telling the stories of the cultural artistry which has been lasting for >1000 years! Under guidance of master Lao, we arranged school tour and small lion head painting to ensure younger generations get exposure over the heritage!

The Situation

Chinese New Year (CNY) is the busiest promotional period to HK shopping malls. But Times Square decided to share the CNY’s blessing in a more meaningful way, leveraging on HK’s very own heritage. Lion Dance is one of the first intangible cultural heritage of HK. It is believed that “Lions”, a dignified divine creature, could scare away evil spirits and brings good luck, joy, fortune and happiness. It is often performed at the openings of business, religious festivals and ceremonies but mostly can be seen during CNY Celebrations.

The Strategy

Think of things we know that are preserved: pickles in a jar, butterflies in a glass case and frogs in formaldehyde. They have one thing in common – they were all once alive and now dead. “Preservation” involves modification of something so that it will last and remain unchanged. But we believe cultural heritage is a living thing. It can live as long as it is passed along generations and modernized upon social changes. Therefore, instead of “preserving a local culture”, we encouraged participation to bring it to life. Introducing “The Legend of Lion Dance”, we leveraged on our superior location to provide a platform for staging the cultural asset that everyone could access conveniently at NO cost and multi-dimensionally. More than an exhibition, both local and international shoppers could participate the cultural heritage in different forms and discover the charisma of the artistry with their own hands!