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A jolly good show leads to quick sales of homes for senior citizens

In a bid to overcome the social stigma attached to sending a parent to a home for the elderly, the Housing Authority has developed a campaign with advertising agency DDB Worldwide for its senior citizens' residences at Jolly Place Tseung Kwan O.

The Well-cared Living with Dignity campaign also aimed to make Jolly Place stand out from among 300 elderly care facilities in Hong Kong.

'Our research showed us that all associations with ageing are unpleasant, including a sense of uselessness and irrelevance,' a DDB spokeswoman said. 'We wanted to change that by highlighting the positive aspects of what are often referred to as one's golden years.'

The campaign aims to draw its target audience - those aged over 60 - to visit a show flat at Jolly Place. 'By talking to the end-users directly, we could make them feel good about the move rather than feeling as if they had no say in the decision, and had been forced to move,' she said.

The campaign took a light-hearted approach, showing the elderly playing sports, socialising and enjoying health care and nursing facilities in an independent lifestyle.

Newspaper and radio advertising was supplemented by a three-minute television documentary on TVB Jade, advertorials and other senior citizens' social activities. The result was that 30,000 people visited the show flats when they opened last September. The flats were oversubscribed three times, with 757 applications received for the 243 available units. Almost 85 per cent of the units were sold by mid-March.

The campaign took the bronze prize in the durables category of the Effie Awards this year. No winners for gold or silver awards were named in the category.

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