The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union's (HKRFU) and Caltex's attempts to increase the number of Chinese rugby players have been honoured at the 1997 Excellence in Sports Marketing Awards.
The judging panel named the Caltex Rugby Show, which is broadcast on ATV World, as the Best Newcomer to Sports Sponsorship.
First aired early last year in a 12-part series, the show is aimed at Chinese youngsters with little or no knowledge of rugby. Despite the huge popularity worldwide of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, the game traditionally has been seen as an expatriate-dominated sport.
Since 1988 the HKRFU has overseen a development and scholarship programme to build rugby's popularity among boys and girls in the hope they will continue to play it as adults. The highlight of the programme was Chan Fuk-ping's selection in the Hong Kong team during the 1997 World Cup Sevens held in the SAR.
Apart from the show, which is due to go into a second series, the rugby promotion was supported by materials like calendars in Caltex's 50 service stations in Hong Kong.
It was also featured in the 70,000-circulation WhizKids supplement in Express Weekly, using a panda bear character to help explain the game.
The judges included John Hung, the chairman of the awards' founders, the Sports Development Board (SDB), Vivien Fung, vice-president of the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, Viveca Chan, of Grey China, and Henry Steele, president of the Hong Kong Institute of Marketing.
