CASE STUDY: Kee Wah combines social altruism with social media success

Background:

Kee Wah was competing with rivals in the bakery business, namely Wing Wah, Arome, Tai Pan, Maxim's, and St Honore, in the lead-up to this year's mid-autumn's festival on 12 September.

Execution:

New Digital Noise (NDN) helmed Kee Wah's mid-autumn campaign by integrating multiple platforms: social media with mobile, digital-out-of-home and traditional advertising to drive traffic and consumership. Hong Kong celebrity Eric Tsang was the face of Kee Wah's marketing efforts.

NDN devised two Facebook applications in tandem with the mid-autumn festive period to promote 'acts of kindness' in Hong Kong. One application rallied Facebook users to 'like' Kee Wah's page, which then tabulated the number of 'likes' to free mooncakes that spread mid-autumn cheer to seniors in nursing homes including Foodlink Foundation, Home of Love and Missionaries of Charity. 

To award their altruistic behaviour, fans were eligible to win Kee Wah mooncakes in the second application, a daily lucky draw throughout August. In addition, automated Facebook news feeds and exclusive invites virally marketed the campaign.

The Kee Wah campaign also enhanced consumer engagement with QR code technology. Users could scan the codes located on out-of-home advertisements on the back of bus seats, MTR station billboards, newspapers and digital displays in McDonald’s restaurants.

They were then redirected to a WAP-version of the Facebook applications, which allowed them to join the charity cause.

The bakery's integrated social media promotion added more than 62,000 new Facebook fans, which translated to the same amount of free mooncakes given to the elderly in 15 Hong Kong nursing homes.

The number of Kee Wah fans on its Facebook page jumped from 2500 on 1 August to 65,083 by the culmination of its campaign on 12 September - a 2600 per cent increase.