What many in Hong Kong continue to do is tiptoe around the elephant in the room as to why new international talent and tourists from the West and those from here and educated abroad are no longer interested in being part of post pandemic Hong Kong.
Add to this why more than one thinks in the city are nervous and unhappy living in the city.
What happened to being “Asia’s World City” and where did this disappear?
Has Hong Kong been hobbled by an invisible fear of being punished for breaking national security laws?
Me, I have respect for John KS Lee, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, for focusing on creating a more safe city after inheriting the bumbling wok fried work of his predecessor and Chief Executive housewife Carrie Lam.
This includes the well publicised mayhem linked to the protests in 2018/19 with the question gnawing at me being whether things have been allowed to be misinterpreted and where the ghost of the past and the present might have merged?
Shouldn’t we, therefore, be instilling pride in this city?
Isn’t being in Hong Kong better than living in many other cities?
Maybe there’s a need for a Good News Daily?
Instead of working to help rebuild a positive and forward thinking Hong Kong, there appears to be a constant blanket of negativity hanging over the city.
The government must understand that this will not go away by handing out chubby hearts, vouchers, holding more and more light shows etc and other dim sum.
Instead of these often tacky acts of randomness, there should be more acts of genuine kindness- and MARKET these- EFFECTIVELY.
Has the entire world forgotten to be kind?
It doesn’t have to be corny or something like a Hallmark greeting card.
Having been in Hong Kong since I was nine years old, this once barren rock has been my home for many years.
To borrow a line from the James Taylor Songbook, I have seen fire and rain and an international city often described as “resilient” and with a “Can Do” spirit- a Can Do spirit that actually delivered.
That’s all in the past. It’s a corny and tired group of adspeak that takes today’s Hong Kong nowhere. It’s often Corporate Speak with no soul behind the words.
What we have in these post pandemic times is a very different Hong Kong and with people with an equally different mindset after almost four years of lockdown stress.
At least to me, I look and see an old looking city with many close friends having lost optimism and a city with nothing much that proudly says “Made In Hong Kong”.
Instead, many around me have embraced what’s being shown and said in the online world and working out the meaning of life on mobile phones.
To get Hong Kong back on track, as a longtime advertising and marketing executive, what I find especially lacking is how Hong Kong has been marketed overseas- and locally.
There’s the lack of a USP- Unique Selling Point- and a strong and attractive brand personality.
It wasn’t always like this.
I’m not saying that Hong Kong needs a Don Draper, but, then again, maybe it does.
Working for over twenty years on the McDonald’s business when in advertising and very closely with its very savvy Chairman Daniel Ng, here was someone extremely intuitive and never scared to test those around him- those who worked for him, and those from head office in Oakbrook.
Daniel knew the value of keeping certain executives- despite not liking them as people- and knew how and when to use their strengths.
Daniel and I were friends- and with a mutual respect for each other.
Sadly, Daniel is no longer with us, and everything I learned from him is priceless.
No one around me today in Hong Kong has anything close to the business and intuitive skills and inquisitive mind of Daniel Ng.
He was not the traditional marketing person, but he knew who and what works. That’s what made him special.
His respect for my mentor in advertising- Chairman and creative chief of DDB in New York and the exceptionally talented and knowledgeable Keith Reinhard whose counsel he sought whenever necessary, showed me someone who knew his limitations and whose opinions to trust.
What would Daniel think about today’s world of algorithms, social media “influencers” and the empty and meaningless numbers game?
One can only imagine. But whatever he thought wouldn’t be good, because he loved spontaneity and the company of those who challenged him.
He loathed pseudo intellectuals and those who were pretentious or phoney.
He would challenge the hiring process of many organisations in Hong Kong and what is The Peter Principle.
What would he have thought about the marketing efforts to try and “reboot” Hong Kong?
He would wonder where the city’s international entrepreneurs are and what can bring them back to the city?
He would ask about the Brand Personality of the new Hong Kong and what it is and why.
Frankly, can anyone in advertising and marketing today anywhere in the world answer this question if asked for thoughts about their own respective countries?
With all the different online platforms available, does Hong Kong have anyone with the knowledge and commercial accessibility of someone like CNN’s Christiane Amanpour?
What can we in Hong Kong take away from what has been churned out over the past two years by the government using taxpayers money?
Where’s the relevance and sustainability- the groundwork, or the mothership from which good, new and RELEVANT things can grow?
Has the money spent on these random and Messi games of hopscotch seen a return on investment?
Should there be far more transparency about the reasons for spending more and more of the taxpayers’ money and with some form of approval system in place?
Should we not be showing the world through effective communications how and why Hong Kong is working to create a happy community offering EVERYONE opportunities?
Being able to successfully do this is so key in attracting new overseas talent who can MENTOR the next generation of local leaders.
For example, whatever happened to making Hong Kong’s “ethnic minorities” part the community?
Being an “ethnic minority”, I have waited around fifty years to find out.
Where’s the next Michael Hui, James Wong, Henry Steiner and all the other great creative talent who made Hong Kong what it was and decided to make this city their home?
Why have standards in practically everything dropped so drastically?
Where’s new music- and those who create and produce this?
Who’s guiding this movement and everything more that it can be?
(Bold) Who and what is in Hong Kong to inspire them and also create things that are sustainable?
Why has CreateHK been allowed to carry on for as long as it has with its CEOs being strapped with golden parachutes when many in Hong Kong don’t even know of its existence?
Some of us remember all too well when the then-government’s “man for all reasons”-Duncan Pescod- remembered for his role in the West Kowloon Cultural District stop-start mishaps, was wheeled out to promise the Hong Kong creative community about CreateHK?
Have these promises been delivered- and if not, why not?
The bottom line is knowing what’s next for Hong Kong other than more randomness and the embarrassing misreading of obvious red flags.
What’s needed is even a soupçon of style and relevance, and giving a once great city the objectives to reach what lies ahead.
It’s about how we’re going to need to find Hope that’s seemingly hiding somewhere.
It can be done- but with the right teams in place and getting rid of the roadblocks of useless clutter.
Comments