Celebrity campaigns fall out of favour with HK viewers

HONG KONG: Splashy celebrity-laden campaigns are losing their popularity to muppets and special effects animation among viewers. At the ATV's 7th Annual Most Popular TV Commercial Awards 2000, Grey's "Three Little Pigs" commercial for Property Street, a Sun Hung Kai website, blew away celebrity competitors, including Leon Lai and Faye Wong to win the Highest Distinction TVC Award. The M&M chocolateTVC which used special effects animation also took home a prize. Meanwhile, the number of celebrity commercials which were big hits - as determined by Hong Kong residents who voted for their favourite television ads by mail, fax and email - fell to two from three last year. The only two to win are Andy Lau appearing for an Ericsson campaign and Tony Leung for San Miguel. The declining power of celebrities has been attributed to overuse and high costs. Agencies say this isn't a bad thing - money that would have gone into the pockets of the stars can be used for other marketing and promotional activities. Grey creative director Simon Fung said that the production cost for the "Three Little Pigs" TVC was more than HKdollars 1 million (about USdollars 129,000). "By not employing a celebrity to participate in the TVC, we produced significant savings for the client." "Three Little Pigs" made its debut in a crowded market, with more than 150 sites launched three months ahead of it. McDonald's was another big winner, pulling in two prizes. According to McDonald's Hong Kong marketing director Amy Tang, the two television commercials, "traffic jam" and "button up", successfully used a "friendly mood" to promote the brand name. Other winners included Kowloon Motor Bus' "Popularity" TVC, Vitasoy's "Getting into conversation", "Welcome" for Hardee's and PCCW's "IDD0060-Kisses".

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