Governmental promotion campaigns are usually conventional, formal and boring. We had seen the Hong Kong SAR Government using prime time television for preaching – from the Basic Law to giving tips on how to keep ourselves clean.

The television as a channel for promotion is expensive, traditional and getting outdated. They are losing appeal to the younger generation who has now diverted to online channels, so there are calls for an innovative approach to get them back fold.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) in Singapore recently launched a video with the most senior officers rapping to urge for creativeness of the community. This video had sparked up much controversy and generated much noise as many Singaporeans rushed to publish comments on their own blogs, which in turn generated even more noise.

The MDA video was casual and funky yet at the same time portrayed a government body image. The comments from the public were diverse. Some Singaporeans thought that the rap video made their government looked silly and unprofessional, others (and a majority of them) thought this 'out-of-the-box’ approach, did reach out to the younger generation at least.

In the UK, Downing Street is steering away from its conservative image too. In May 2007, the then Prime Minister – Tony Blair, set up a ’10 Downing Street’ channel on YouTube and it has, ever since, became one of the official channels to broadcast messages to the younger audiences. Blair’s congratulatory message to the new French President was one of the most-viewed clips.

Following the success, the Queen has also established her own channel on YouTube – the Royal Channel. (www.youtube.com/the royalchannel)

The HK Tourism Board is also catching up on promotion technology. They are also on YouTube (http://youtube.com/hongkong) and have begun utilising Facebook – the most popular social network platform, to promote Hong Kong to a world-wide audience with a relatively low budget. In addition, they are using MSN emoticons to facilitate downloading of Chinese New Year e-cards.

There is also a strategic partnership with YouTube and Baidu (「 百 度 」– the most popular search engine in China), and possibly also Google and Flickr – the online photo album website.
When will we see the Hong Kong government catching up with the fad? Soon, as the grape vine said they are scouting for unconventional promotional ideas.

Every business needs a persona for it to be identified by customers. Logos and slogans are the vehicles for businesses and brands to catch the eyes of the public. They are the first point of contact in the chase for customers, so well designed logos with distinguishing styles and colours and slogans conveying appropriate messages can bring forth direct competitive advantage and marketing success. Companies are willing to invest heavily for that success. Now, this need is not confined to businesses.

Public organisation such as educational establishments, research organisations and professional institutions are seeing that they have customers too, so they need to seek for recognition of their presence and the value of their work.

Universities and professional institutions see the advantage of having support from their stakeholders – students, members, employees and the government. They also need recognition from other businesses and employers.

Visual Identify programmes have to be designed with a strong fashion sense. They have to be in trend and should not be restricted to local applications. As the world has become closer (thanks to technology and communication advancement), styles and designs must have global appeals. The HSBC slogan of ‘The World’s Local Bank’ is an excellent example of designing with an international and local flavour.


‘Tradition’ has always been a symbol of quality – that the products or services have stood the test of time. The royal crests in Britain are symbols of respect and authority, and used for selling the values of history and ‘tradition’. However, crests are now being seen to be somewhat complicated for the eye and symbols of being out of touch. University of Warwick, among other traditional universities in the UK, felt that their crest does not reflect well on their modern and innovative philosophy so they have now updated their image with a modernised, ‘clean-cut’ visual and typography.

ACCA have had several logo changes in the last two decades. In 2007, they were criticised for spending £85,000 on a new logo. Neil Stevenson, the Marketing Director of ACCA explained that the new logo is more suitable for the internet age. Besides the logo, the professional body refreshed their advertisements and publicity materials. It was claimed that the new approach to publicity could be a major reason for the 6.1% increase in membership in 2007.

In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKICS) also revamped their visual identity. Along with a new logo, they also have a new tagline – ‘More than meets the eye’. By these new images, HKICS hopes to enhance their professional profile and the value of their members in strategic decisions within an organisation. Although quantifiable results are still unknown, professional recognition and contribution of HKICS is strongly felt in the community.

Visual Identify is only a part of any Corporate Identity programme. For any effort for corporate image refreshing to be effective, updating of the logos and slogans must be carried out in sync with other publicity plans. Corporate communications experts and writers T.C. Melewar and Sibel Akel, have stressed that corporate imaging projects need to be approached with serious consideration being given to Communication and Visual Identity, Behaviour, Corporate Culture and Market Conditions. Without these, organisations’ corporate communication plans will not be effective, and money involved would easily go down the drain.