McCann Erickson has set out to recreate 'old Hong Kong' as part of a major integrated campaign — the agency's biggest since it began work on the Cathay Pacific account over a decade ago — for the city's flagship carrier.
The through-the-line drive spans television, radio, online, outdoor and print and is expected to run until year-end.
With award-winning film production designer Yee Chung-man, the McCann team, including ECD Carol Lam and integration chief Thierry Halbroth, sifted through the archives of public libraries, museums and film studios to create three television spots in celebration of the airline's 60th anniversary.
"We wanted to recount fond memories and had a good story to tell with Cathay's 60th anniversary," said Vince Viola, senior VP, McCann Asia-Pacific and MD of McCann Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Central Team.
"It's not the usual approach taken in airline advertising and it is our largest integrated initiative to date, covering everything from advertising to merchandising and the uniforms of aircrew."
According to Viola, the key challenge to recreating old Hong Kong was ensuring period authenticity from the '60s to the '80s. One spot shows images of Cathay Pacific planes coming into the old Kai Tak airport over rooftops in Kowloon, while another is set in a housing estate.
"These are locations that will trigger memories for anyone who grew up in Hong Kong," he noted.
The campaign includes an installation project at the city's Hong Kong Station, which saw the agency recreate Kai Tak airport complete with metal hangings representing airport gates, lifesize images of Cathay aircraft and information on the city's aviation history from 1946 to 2006.
A key component of the campaign is an online sweepstake. Internet users can answer questions such as 'Do you know when individual TV screens first appeared on Cathay flights?' to win US$77,000 worth of round-trip air tickets.
