Live updates from the stock exchange are displayed on a backdrop resembling the front panel of a car, to play up the idea that HSBC can assist customers on the "road of investment". Supplemented by light box spreads behind the tracks and stickers on the platform doors, the innovative presentation is running in selected platforms in Central and Admiralty stations in the SAR's commercial hub.
Maxus, the media planning and buying agency of this campaign, and JC Decaux Pearl & Dean, which handles advertising sales for the MTR, wanted to develop a new advertising format on the subway. Said Ada Tong, Maxus' business director: "People tend to stop for longer in front of platform screen doors."
J. Walter Thompson handled the creative concepts. "HSBC's Investment Service brand campaign calls customers to 'invest in professional planning', and the projection with stock market information highlights the tools HSBC provides to investors to help them make decisions," explained Candas Yeung, JWT's business director. JWT's CEO Desmond So believes that the MTR platform doors provides an effective way to reach the target audience in the financial hub for a client such as HSBC. The new format has proven to be an eye-catcher, going by JWT's observation. "We found that passengers were quite interested in the display. Some thought it was a plasma TV at first; others were actually watching the live information feed," said Yeung.
The projection and the background panel cover nearly 100 per cent of the area between screen doors, the only area where a near-complete coverage of the transparent safety facility is allowed by the MTR.
The investment services push is supported by TVCs, print ads, online, radio, outdoor promotions and below-the-line elements.