Airport mall spends dollars 5m on image lift

<p>HONG KONG: The Airport Authority (AA) is relaunching its SkyMart </p><p>retail mall through a HKdollars 5 million (USdollars 641,000) campaign </p><p>to position it as a competitive and attractive alternative to downtown </p><p>shopping facilities. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The repositioning drive includes a revamped logo, a 60-second television </p><p>commercial, press advertisements in local and foreign media and exposure </p><p>in transit media, airlines and hotels. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>J. Walter Thompson handled the campaign for the Hong Kong International </p><p>Airport (HKIA) facility. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The agency's group creative director Poh Hwee Beng, said the logo's </p><p>theme is: "Take the energy of Hong Kong with you", to symbolise the </p><p>energy and dynamism of the city. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The AA's commercial director, Hans Bakker, believes it's crucial to </p><p>expand SkyMart's image. "When people think about airport shopping, duty </p><p>free comes to their mind and that's about it. But at HKIA we have over </p><p>150 outlets which puts us on a par with Hong Kong's premier shopping </p><p>malls," he said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Under the integrated campaign, the AA is introducing branded premium </p><p>items such as clothing and accessories. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The promotional drive will also highlight several initiatives that the </p><p>AA is undertaking. "HKIA was voted the best airport in the world for </p><p>2001 by a UK travel research company, Skytrax. By adopting a higher </p><p>profile we want to get the message across that because of SkyMart and </p><p>our other attractions, HKIA is a destination in its own right." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>An expansion of the airport's east hall is in the pipeline to increase </p><p>the number of retail and catering outlets in the next three years. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>