Hong Kong parties to welcome new San Mig

When brewing giant San Miguel launched a new beer brand it chose a trendy Hong Kong bar to host the launch party and generate media exposure. By David Johnson Beverage giant San Miguel launched its new product, San Mig Light, with considerable fanfare in Hong Kong. San Miguel's entry into the light end of the beer market was marked by a completely new strategy that was intended to reinvigorate the brand and make the new light beer a trendy drink among young people. San Mig Light is aimed at an audience aged between 18 and 25. The advertisement campaign, centered on a cartoon character called Sammy, lay at the core of the new drive. Sammy characterises the brand with his naughty antics. The fun of the brand had to be communicated equally at the launch of the beer, which took place with 250 delegates, the task for which fell to Hong Kong-based firm, Octagon Prism. Armed with a maximum budget of US$38,500, the company went looking for a suitable venue. It searched in the traditional entertainment area of Lan Kwai Fong and the new booming café and bar heartland in Hong Kong, Soho in Central. Ironically it chose neither of those districts, but opted for the trendy open sided outlet Oh Bar in the Sun Hung Kai Centre in Wan Chai. "The place is up and coming for young people and there was nowhere suitable in Central or Lan Kwai Fong," San Miguel Hong Kong assistant brand manager Ms Alice Tai says. "It is trendy and a new place on the scene. The atmosphere suited our requirements. We didn't want a hotel which would also be too large for people to mingle." In its relatively short lifetime, Oh Bar has quickly gained itself a reputation, hosting regular photoshoots for magazines and promotional events. "They do a lot of this kind of promotion and we found them very good to work with," Ms Tai adds. The "naughty" side of the brand identity was also to be communicated by the choice of venue. "As Sammy is a bit naughty we thought Oh Bar was suitable it has a bit more of a naughty image, compared to a hotel," Octagon Prism account director Ms Geneviève Hilton adds. An 180cm life-size board of Sammy was placed in the bar, along with a TV screen running the San Mig Light television commercial and UV lighting decoration. Sammy proved a great draw with guests at the launch. "People waited to have their picture taken with Sammy," says Ms Hilton. "The launch was about rejuvenating San Miguel's image. The overall campaign brief was to create a fresh, more youthful look. This was all quite new for them." The programme kicked off at 5pm with a media launch, before guests from the trade such as distributors and retailers came along half an hour later. Octagon Prism handled the names for the media, providing a full media service, and the industry database was supplied and selected by San Miguel. The programme started with table dancing Ms Tai says, followed by the unveiling of a giant bottle of San Mig Light, mocked up by wrapping it in metallic paper, to mirror the silvery white look of the actual bottle. The rest of the event highlighted the fun style of the brand by playing a series of games for different prizes. A number of the games involved testing the product, such as a beer-drinking contest where participants were timed over how quickly they could drink and others involving giant coasters of Sammy. "The party was successful in terms of the overall set up with 'A Little Bit Wild' as the main theme, with good ambience and the presence of celebrities and press, followed by exciting programmes and games," Ms Tai adds. The main achievement for San Mig Light was the extensive media coverage the event produced, says Ms Tai. But she admits it was not without challenges along the way. "The main difficulty was finding the right venue and choosing the day because we wanted it to tie in with the unveiling of the television commercial, but the timing was quite difficult," she explains. "As the launch party was in a trendy bar, it is in quite high demand. We had to confirm two to three weeks before the launch, which meant we then had to prepare all the decorations very quickly, organise the production and bring the right people together with Octogan Prism. Octogan were very professional," she adds. "We have worked with them since early this year and will continue to do so." The audience partied hard until the end of the event. "Audience feedback and participation was good. The atmosphere was ideal, with the right mixture of media, trade, staff, consumers, celebrities and trendy, young girls and models who we invited to take part in the games." Ms Tai was unable to disclose celebrity appearance fees. With the objective set to maximise exposure of the product in media read by their targeted audience, Ms Tai said the event was a "definite success". "There was extensive media coverage after the San Mig Light party," she adds. The main challenge of the event for Octagon Prism was to fulfil the brief of creating a memorable occasion people would talk about afterwards and, as a result, further increase brand and product exposure by word of mouth. "The whole programme was not just centered around one event, introduce something once and expect people to remember it," says Ms Hilton. "The challenge for us was to do something that would make a lasting impression. "So we fed editorial and information to the media about the filming of the TV commercial which we launched on the night, giving it a marketing angle," she says. "The media played a big part in the success of the event, along with distributors, retailers and general consumers."