Mall uses festive sell to hone edge

The "art-astronauts", who previously performed in New Zealand and Canada, transferred their entire lives to a specially-built glass pod, drawing 4.5 million visitors to Langham Place and generating an online audience of more than 110,000 webcam viewers during a three-week stint that ended this month. Under the relentless gaze of visitors, the foursome cooked, ate, showered and interacted with visitors. Locals responded in a variety of ways to the group's surreal take on everyday activities. School girls came daily to teach them Chinese writing, while others auditioned for a place in the group. "UDC helped us increase daily traffic on top of the very high traffic we usually get during the weekend," said Yvette Ng, senior marketing of Great Eage Holdings, which owns the mall. "We wanted to do something big and impactful that would reflect our brand personality as original, edgy and creative." UDC's appearance was supported by a print and outdoor advertising campaign -- 'Christmas Special: Private Lives Exposed' -- as well as an ambient marketing component, created by M&C Saatchi. The agency placed performers going about their 'private lives', including taking a bath, in high traffic areas such as Causeway Bay and Tsimshatsui MTR stations. "Langham Place is not your usual shopping centre; it's always tried to break the mould to present itself as original and edgy, as can be seen from its animated launch campaign (by Ogilvy & Mather) to its architecture, interior design and tenant mix," said Janice Chan, M&C Saatchi Greater China managing director. Malls across Hong Kong pulled out all the stops to capture the festive shopper amid the strengthening of the local economy. Langham Place spent HK$10 million on its promotion, including $2 million to build the glass pod, which was equipped with email, phone and fax to allow visitors to communicate with UDC members.