Operation Santa Claus: giant claw game at festive fair helps HKT ‘Unlock the Wonder of Christmas’ and support Hong Kong charities
- Visitors at White Christmas Street Fair donate HK$20 to Operation Santa Claus to play for prizes worth over HK$700,000 at telecoms company’s carnival-style booth
- Firm’s support marks first time it has joined annual Hong Kong fundraising initiative, organised jointly by South China Morning Post and RTHK
Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) teamed up with another of the city’s leading companies, Swire Properties, at this year’s White Christmas Street Fair to help “Unlock the Wonder of Christmas” and support local community charities.
The CHOCOLATE!-themed event – run by Swire Properties over two weekends from November 30 to December 3, and December 8 to 10 – saw Tong Chong Street at Taikoo Place, in Quarry Bay, transformed into a huge vintage chocolate shop filled with stalls offering tasty Christmas food and drinks, carnival-style game booths and other attractions.
HKT’s three-metre-wide “Unlock the Wonder of Christmas”-themed game booth saw players control two giant claws suspended above about 600 multicoloured plastic balls offering more than 5,000 prizes worth over HK$700,000 (US$90,000) while helping to raise money for the Operation Santa Claus (OSC) campaign.
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This year marks the first time that HKT has supported OSC.
“This year’s collaboration with Swire Properties to support Operation Santa Claus has received much positive feedback, and we are already looking forward to supporting the campaign again next year,” said Susanna Hui Hon-hing, HKT’s executive director and group managing director.
Everyone making a HK$20 donation to OSC to play at HKT’s giant claw booth was able to win a prize. The game continued until they had successfully claimed one of the balls containing a voucher that revealed details about the prize. Additional balls were regularly added during both weekends as the balls were claimed.
Prizes offered by HKT and its various business brands, such as 1010, CSL, Netvigator, Now TV, Tap & Go and The Club, included 12 months of free access to local mobile data, home broadband, and entertainment services, a skiing holiday for two, with two nights’ accommodation, in the South Korean capital, Seoul, as well as numerous gift tokens.
Visitors could play the giant claw game every time they made a HK$20 donation, and those who made their donations using HKT’s Tap & Go mobile phone payment system also secured an extra free game.
Players also celebrated by taking festive selfies and group photos inside HKT’s specially created snow globe, located at the back of the game booth.
“To engage the community and promote the HKT Group brand in a very visible, tangible and yet fun way, we reached out to Swire Properties to form a partnership with them at this year’s White Christmas Street Fair,” Hui said.
“We took on the role of their digital solution partner, sponsoring the digital payment solution at this year’s event, while securing a prominent space offering HKT gifts from our various businesses to engage the public and help raise funds for Operation Santa Claus.
“The theme of the HKT booth, ‘Unlock the Wonder of Christmas’, symbolises how visiting our booth allows visitors to fulfil multiple wishes at once – having fun at the claw machine, winning prizes, taking photos inside the snow globe – all while contributing to a good cause.
“It’s about unlocking that sense of wonder and spreading joy during this festive season.”
All proceeds from the donations made to HKT during the fair will go to OSC – an annual fundraising initiative organised jointly by the South China Morning Post and public broadcaster RTHK.
Since 1988, the campaign has raised HK$369 million to support the Hong Kong community through 338 charitable projects.
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HKT community initiatives in recent years have also included providing fixed wireless and mobile broadband network services to more 3,000 community isolation facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
