In the first of Media's Adwatch series - a fortnightly snapshot of the top television commercials in different markets in Asia by recall - the focus is on Hong Kong, a city with a daily TV viewership of more than five million people.
Media, with the help of Asia Market Intelligence and OMD, commissioned a survey to ask Hong Kong residents which TVCs they remembered seeing recently.
It was no surprise that McDonald's came out on top. As one of the most-recognisable brand names in Hong Kong, it is also home to half of the top 50 busiest McDonald's outlets in the world, underlined by the fact that the hamburger chain cracked 37.8 million eggs, prepared 27 million pounds of French fries and grilled over 4.5 million pounds of beef last year. Coming in at HK$199 million (US$26 million) in the first half of this year, according to Nielsen Media Research, it is the biggest-spending brand in the city.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, more commonly-known as the Moon Festival, also played a major role in a surprisingly good showing for pastry shop brands such as Taipan, Kee Wah, Maxim's, Saint Honore and Aji Ichiban, all of which took out heavy advertising schedules to promote their selection of moon cakes.
According to a spokesperson at E's Concept Communications, the agency responsible for the Kee Wah moon cake spot, the Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the biggest holidays apart from the Chinese New year. "Most people will buy moon cakes for themselves or as gifts to celebrate such a meaningful day."
Interestingly, a significant number of ads, which made the top 20 list, including local karaoke house, Neway, did not employ an agency to promote their products, opting rather for low-cost, in-house production.
