In a bid to rescue flagging consumer and investor confidence before
it goes for a public offering this month, Hong Kong
marketing-cum-celebrity management organisation StarEastNet is striving
to revamp its brand.
Aided by its agency of record Lowe & Partners/Live, the HK$15
million (about US$2 million) above-the-line burst sees
StarEastNet make a maverick move by dissasociating the corporate brand
from its celebrity owners.
The likes of co-founder Jackie Chan and the 150-plus stars StarEastNet
represents were deliberately scrapped from the campaign after it was
found that they were hampering brand recognition, according to Lowe &
Partners MD Mateo Chien.
"When you mentioned the name StarEastNet, consumers only thought of
celebrities without knowing the context of the company.
"Brand awareness was overwhelmed by individual stars," he said.
He added: "They (the public) lacked the market perception of the brand
in totality, so we opted to reposition it as a totally new brand of
entertainment marketing".
The resulting burst entitled "Make a wish. Make it come true" highlights
the aspirational, emotional appeal of stars in a night sky.
This stellar blanket is then depicted hand-in-hand with StarEastNet's
own varied, but largely unknown, portfolio of services.
These services include event management, sponsorship, consultancy,
merchandising, licensing and helping stars build their image and
celebrity cachet in the marketplace.
"When people think of event marketing or promotion we wanted them to
seriously consider StarEastNet as a conventional media avenue akin to
print or TV," said Mr Chien.
The revamp also extends to the StarEastNet website, www.StarEastNet.com,
amid reports of plummeting hit rates only nine months after launch.
Redesigning the site in-house, a sub-site for celebrity crooner Leon Lai
also rolled out in May at www.leonstareastnet.com, although Mr Chien
pointed out that as a celebrity sub-site it would not strictly adhere to
the rebrand.
Set for a three week June run, the 60-second TVC will be followed by a
cut down 20-second version airing on TVB and ATV. The campaign is
supported by a print burst running in the local press.
