This campaign appeared in and around the Hong Kong Stadium during the Hong Kong Sevens tournament. Due to the high profile nature of this event in Hong Kong, there are many people involved in approving work, ranging from the HKRFU, who run the event, to other event stakeholders. Various representatives, including senior police officials responsible for fans’ behaviour, form a stadium committee who in effect ‘regulate’ the work.

The audience were drawn to the content in 2 main ways.On the ground, high profile poster sites advertised the Serious Play content, press ads directed people with QR Codes whilst ambient media, like headbands and beermats, continued to push the message.Online the content was seeded in event related websites, with banners, on Facebook, and promoted on Twitter by rugby star players all pointing people towards the Serious Play content.

This campaign was all about the brand making the right impression during the event, and as such, the measurements are mostly soft ones. There were specifically no hard objectives around product or sales.The objective of creating excitement and awareness around the Hong Kong Sevens was evident in the response of the crowds. Fans cheered the films when they began, hummed the music, and even gossiped about a rumour that the police had banned the film from airing on TV for being a bit violent. The film and story of Serious Play was picked up in numerous blogs, received thousands of tweets and Facebook shares, with close to 500,000 views on YouTube, compared to 30,000 for Cathay’s film.

People were inspired by the film to turn up in the same fancy dress, and cameo stars Jason Robinson and George Gregan, were so into it that they spent the day dressed as characters from the film. Pictures of the creative even featured in fan’s personal YouTube videos as a memento of their 2012 Hong Kong Sevens’ experience. The pride amongst HSBC’s staff was summed up by the Group CEO who described it as “bloody brilliant”.