捍衛天星 FIGHT FOR OUR STAR
4 months Prankvertising Campaign for Star Ferry Company Limited
The Star Ferry Company Limited (Star Ferry) was founded by Parsee in 1888 as the Kowloon Ferry Company, adopting its present name in 1898. It is a typical Hong Kong icon and famous among the world.
During our research, we found out that there are three main factorys affecting
the Star Ferry company.
1/ Weak promotion
2/ Star Ferry's interest continues to drop
3/ Hong Kong residents don't appreciate what they have but care and fight for
keeping when something is losing
Object is to get more local people cherish Star Ferry.
INSIGHT You don't know what you've got until it's gone.
GET - Hong Kong local people,
who have contradiction toward the presence of Star Ferry and don't appreciate what they have
TO - 1/ Cherish and increase awareness on the Star Ferry
2/ Increase the popularity of Star Ferry's passengers
BY - Telling them that Star Ferry is irreplaceable.
IDEA Prankvertising:
To pretend the Star Ferry will be closing very soon, in order to let people cherish it from the bottom of their heart. There is similar advertising campaign that happened in Michigan called “Troy Library burning book”.
Plant a seed
A little white lie if you will. We would tell the people of Hong Kong that The Star Ferry was being sold to a wealthy conglomerate from Mainland China, who intended to demolish the site, decommission the ferries and erect premium apartments with unparalleled views for residents for Mainland China. This would generate interest which we would fuel using posters, articles, flyers, setting up of a micro website, Facebook page, twitter, Instagram etc. This would involve local bloggers, activists and artists who we would encourage to write about ‘inside information’ and therefore forming a community within the Star Ferry.
1. Micro website & New articles
Message: “ Star Ferry is not only transportation, it represents something important and irreplaceable in Hong Kong’s heart.” It also provides the updated news and related media to keep it looking fresh to our audience. It provides a clear timeline to let people know the event details like the date, location and content. As well as providing all the useful information of Star Ferry and the campaign, it is also become a platform for our audience to share their feelings and opinions, showcasing great photos about the Star Ferry. There are also links with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to gather more support.
2. Facebook page
Asking the public to protest and attent sit in events
3. Instagram
Post some photos to create noise and hashtag #fightforourstar
4. Flyers
We would dispatch flyers providing the closing date of the Star Ferry and implement the hashtag “#FightForOurStar”. Our objective is to encourage people to actively support and fight for the Star Ferry. The closing date will be held on 21st August 2015. The reason we chose this date is because it is in the summer holiday period, when people have more free time. This would attract more students and people to go out showing their support. After all the events and the campaign has ended, it may increase passengers to take the Star Ferry when they return to school and work in September.
5. Installation
For count down and people can leave a message on the wall outside pier.
In order to develop the idea and continue growth we would monitor social activity, buzz words, slang, emoticons and feed these back making the interactions more personal. We would organize sit in’s, events, petitions, articles, interviews and protests. This would open the eyes of the local people to see the impact this would have on the city.
Star Ferry Photo booth's photos & Events
After gathering interest and local support to ‘saves’ the Star Ferry from decommission, we would organize a grand
re-opening and instate an arts council hiring people to perform on the vessel. The new app features launch, social media, events and information would closely follow this to retain interest after the event has finished. Once the Star Ferry has been ‘saved’, the events set up by the arts council will continue to run every Friday night with regular pop up events throughout the week. This will be further promoted through push notifications on the app, reminding people what they fought for and what’s continuing to happen on board. All the events would also be promoted through the microsite and Facebook. For more, registration for performance on the ferry is welcome to the public.
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Hire a good PR company
As we are using a prankvertising strategy, Hong Kong people may feel unhappy and mad if they find out that “Star Ferry is closing” was a lie. Therefore, to reduce the negative backlash of the local people, we should cooperate with a good PR company, in order to run our campaign successfully.
Set up puppet buyer
To make our campaign more realistic, we will set up and even portray the puppet buyer from China, ensuring the Hong Kong people will believe and join our campaign, to support and fight for the Star Ferry.
Create good relations with media sources
Our campaign needs lots of media support to reach our target audience, so it is necessary for us to maintain a good relationship with media sources.
Micro site, Social media, and Apps development
Most of our information will be posted online to reach our target audience, therefore, we have to keep updating and monitoring the micro site and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram in real time. For the retention part, we have to develop the mobile app to keep people using our services and to keep people’s interest in the Star Ferry.
Reach out to local bloggers
To spread the message of the Star Ferry closing, we need to ask and reach out to bloggers, who have substantial influence and a large number of fans or followers, so the message will spread faster and wider.
Re-open launch party
After the ‘official closing day’ to grab and keep people’s attention, we have to celebrate the ‘win’ of the local people by holding a grand re-opening party. Meanwhile, we will apologize for the lie we told and make local people to think the possibility of closing the Star Ferry in the future.
Launch art council
To maintain the number of passengers after the campaign, we will hold continuous events. The art council will be launched, so that we have better organization.