Big brands cash in on popularity of social networking websites
Online marketing in Hong Kong is becoming more popular with big brands such as PCCW and McDonald's developing applications that can be downloaded by users of social networks such as Facebook and Xanga.
PCCW has developed a small program to promote its online music subscription service MOOV on Facebook. Users download the application and put it on their Facebook personal profile pages. Other Facebook users will then be able to listen to the new hit songs being promoted by MOOV.
Media Eye has learned that MOOV on Facebook was initiated by a team of young product executives and engineers who became addicted to the social networking website and figured out a way to make the music application serve the online community.
'In the two months since the launch, we have already attracted more than 20,000 users who have joined MOOV on Facebook. The result is very encouraging,' a PCCW spokesman said.
Other companies such as McDonald's, Nokia and Nike have also developed Facebook applications. For example, Nokia has several applications on its N82 and Xpress series handsets.
However, not all applications are generating hot responses from Facebook users. PCCW's MOOV application has 783 daily active users while one of Nokia's applications has only 90 daily active users.
'The increase in popularity of social networks such as Facebook and Friendster in Asia has prompted advertisers to take a serious look at how to capitalise on this growing trend to create loyal brand followers through the deployment of branded applications, official profiles and pages and through advertising,' said Kevin Huang, the chief executive of Pixel Media, an online advertising agent. 'We predict that it will grow substantially over the years as marketers tap the unique attributes of social networks.'
Market survey firm COM Score said Facebook in Hong Kong had total monthly page views of 995,000 in January, with 31 per cent of users aged 15 to 24 and 29 per cent aged 25 to 34.
Meanwhile, Facebook will sell banner advertisements in Hong Kong through Pixel Media this month. Media agent Carat Hong Kong says Facebook will sell banner advertisements on the homepage, profile page, groups' page and photos page. Details are yet to be finalised.
Cash and creativity join forces
Hong Kong film director Stanley Tong is partnering with Malaysian-Chinese billionaire Cheng Heng Jem to jointly develop a 17 billion yuan (HK$18.94 billion) movie base in Kunming, Yunnan province. Dream City will be one of the largest film and television production bases on the mainland and will offer Hong Kong filmmakers a better choice of studio.
Mr Tong is the director of such films as China Strike Force and The Myth, which have all performed well at global box offices. While in Hollywood, he had a dream of bringing the studio and resort concept to the mainland.
William Cheng's Lion Group will be the single largest shareholder of Dream City, while Mr Tong will also invest in the project.
'The first phase of funding worth 3 billion yuan is in place to kick off the project, and Lion Group will continue to fund the project over the next five years,' Mr Tong said.
'Kunming has 268 days suitable for film and drama production. It has clear skies, warm weather and is not much affected by dust storms.'
Lion Group is the controlling shareholder of Hong Kong-listed Parkson Retail Group, a mainland store operator.
