Yahoo - Kam Kee Cafe's pDOOH campaign at Hong Kong International Airport

Company Name: Yahoo! Hong Kong Limited

Client: Kam Kee Cafe

Project Name: Kam Kee Cafe's pDOOH campaign at Hong Kong International Airport

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Project Summary

The pandemic was not only a difficult period for Kam Kee, but quite the threat to survival – the numerous waves of infection followed by unpredictable gathering bans and restrictions, and the larger worrisome sentiment amongst general public, all exacerbated the challenges Kam Kee faced as a small player in a cut-throat industry. Any marketing investment was difficult and for every dollar invested, the only real option was to make it worth.

It was however at these intense situation that forced us to scrutinize every decision made was sound and reasoned, and that our priorities were clear.

Kam Kee decided to launch a blitz to capture the blue ocean of inbound travellers with a strategic presence at the Hong Kong International Airport with straight-forward video messages, highlighting Kam Kee’s core offering – the classic tastes of Hong Kong, to make visitors salivate the moment they arrive the city and have their minds made up before being hit by other advertisers.

The two versions of videos served very specific purpose respectively – one was to create interest and drive action via a redemption offer, the other was helping them to fulfil that action via providing directions and sense of traveling time – together, they gave everything the audience needed – the desire, the reason, and the method to visit Kam Kee.

Combined with the strength of Yahoo, Kam Kee created what was the first programmatic DOOH campaign at HKIA, but accompanying this accolade was real business impact, where the milk tea redemption offer was popular and saw an increase in footfall and turnover across all of Kam Kee’s 8 outlets.

Background

The campaign ran from December 2020 to January 2021 – a period deep and thick amidst the impact of COVID-19, where local restaurant businesses suffered massively and literally hanging by a thread due to social gathering bans enforced by the government since the pandemic hit.

Given the unstable situation, we needed a strong combination of appealing content and smart placement, yet at the same time with the capability to react instantly (in case of any crisis), to drive impactful awareness, which in turn, would help drive any business for Kam Kee. 

It is for these consideration parameters and taking into account the target segment that Kam Kee wants to go after that we decided to leverage Yahoo’s DSP and tap into the power of programmatic DOOH. The presence of the Yahoo DSP allowed a small team like Kam Kee to be able to navigate and manage numerous DOOH suppliers on pricing and inventory availability, which would have been too overwhelming otherwise.

Objective

Given Kam Kee’s relatively low awareness and a lack of consideration for the category in general, the priority objective was to squeeze Kam Kee Café into the consideration set of audience and establish it as the go-to casual dining restaurant.

Since a key part of Kam Kee’s offering is the nostalgia of Hong Kong and unique allure of traditional Cha Chaan Teng fare, we felt the biggest opportunity was not to dive into the red ocean of local Hong Kongers, but the blue ocean of inbound travellers or those returning home, and allure them with the classic tastes of Hong Kong that Kam Kee is proud of offering. Since these audiences might be hunger for a tasty local, a unique role of our creative was to provide a sense of directions and traveling time, literally pointing them into our way. 

We believed that this campaign setup would cement the audience’s decision to visit Kam Kee and prevent them from being distracted by other competing options. This should ultimately bring an increase in footfall and business to our outlets around town.

Execution

We decided to hone in on the fact that our audience have just arrived Hong Kong, when the excitement to experience all of Hong Kong is at its highest, and where promotional messages are relatively uncluttered for a clean path to be our audience’s top-of-mind choice.

At pre-planning stage, Yahoo planning team engaged with JCDeacaux and VIOOH to access premium screens that was once only available in large clusters, defined periods, and far in advance, such as those at Hong Kong International Airport.

The campaign featured 2 versions of videos: the first one utilized the larger landscape format to feature the many enticing good eats – baked pork chop rice, curry beef rice, pineapple bun and so on – capturing the imaginations of hungry arrival passengers fresh off the flight. More importantly a QR code for a clear offer to help drive foot traffic into the various outlets around town; The second video was a “follow-up” that focused on reminding where to find us and to show that an authentic taste of Hong Kong is never too far away.

The two worked in the tandem – one providing the reason to visit (good food, great offer) and the other suggesting where to find us (location, time of travel). The beauty of the video lied in the sense that it was direct and straight-forward, there were strong visuals, a clear message, and an offer as call-to-action and reason-to-visit.

Result

The campaign was successful because it followed the basic marketing principle of being at the right spot, at the right time, sharing the right message with the right people, naturally leading to the right outcome.

While admittedly the videos we put out were modest and not of flashy production value, it only showed that the smart and deliberate use of resource is what drives campaign effectiveness.

We began first by identifying a clear and viable audience, and intercepted them at the strategic location of Hong Kong International Airport. We employed DOOH for its visual impact and flexibility, which allowed us to tailor our presence (day parting) and creative and optimize along the way, which ultimately led to great campaign efficiency and real impact on client’s business.

Kam Kee took the leap of faith and ran the first programmatic DOOH campaign at HKIA, and was rewarded with an overwhelmingly positive result – footfall increased and a flurry of offer redemption happened across all of the brand’s 8 outlets. 

This campaign is essentially a David vs Goliath story – David being Kam Kee, a small, humble, unassuming Cha Chaan Teng chain, with Goliath being the unescapable gloominess of COVID-19, but with a strong direct video, and the support of Yahoo’s programmatic DOOH offering, we made it work – we helped put Kam Kee firmly in the minds of travellers, enticed them with the great taste of Hong Kong, found a way to attract them to actually visit the outlets and enjoy the food.