Background

Hong Kong is well known as a shopping paradise but not many visitors recognise its beauty in nature. To show this unexpected side of Hong Kong, the ‘Great Outdoors’ campaign has been a major promotion of the Hong Kong Tourism Board in the last few years. In 2020, due to the pandemic, international travel was not encouraged. Hong Kong is striving to provide a wonderful experience for travellers in a digital format and prepare for tourism recovery. A Virtual Reality (VR), 360-degree video was created to allow overseas audiences the ability to immerse themselves in the beauty of the Hong Kong outdoors, and engage their senses in nature, even though they are miles apart. Through this video, we connect with overseas travellers and ensure Hong Kong stays top in their minds.

Describe the strategy

Hong Kong tourism dropped by 90 per cent in the first couple of months of the pandemic. In order to re-ignite visitors’ passion for Hong Kong, we are committed to utilising the latest technology to inspire and engage our target audiences with a cinematic outdoor VR journey, giving them a taste for travel even though they are cooped up in their homes. The platform is of utmost importance while everyone is encouraged to stay at home. Not only does it need to be available on a global scale, which overseas audiences can easily access, it also needs to be able to support multi-media, even 360-degree media. Therefore, YouTube and Facebook channels were selected, targeting the travel lovers in both long-haul and short-haul markets whose ages range from 18-45.

Describe the execution

A 360-degree virtual reality is the core feature of the video and allows the audience to become immersed in the Hong Kong outdoors by seeing it in every angle through dragging and swiping. A first-person viewpoint was adopted to experience a variety of outdoor activities — whether they are hiking, kayaking or swimming — in order to increase the sense of presence for the audience, as well as feature the iconic scenic spots. To engage the senses of the audience, nature sounds like bird tweets and water splashes were added to accompany the stunning views. Top-grade cameras, exceptional film quality and post-production skills were adopted to ensure the video was delivered in 8K quality. The video was advertised mainly on YouTube and Facebook and also local OOH channels, targeting both global and local audiences. The video was launched on 15 October 2020 and the ads are still running.

List the results

As of 14 January, the video has achieved 6.9M impression and 1.7M video views over the 3 months since its launch on official Facebook and Youtube channels. It also drove massive brand success and was widely featured by local and overseas media outlets. Also, it drove double the traffic to the Great Outdoors section of our website. It achieved a page view hit record high of the recent lows due to the pandemic.