Friday, September 20, 2013

2013 Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival

Duration of Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnivals is often short. Can’t come to see? Let me offer you a tour for the one held in Victoria Park, Hong Kong then.


I didn't take photos for every lantern. This year, visitors could see many lanterns of good-fortune characters, animals and Hong Kong-styled food culture. The food culture theme is particularly interesting. Thus, you will see many photos of that theme.


Visitors can quench their hunger and thirsty or buy some unique souvenir by going to the line of booths where foods, drinks, lanterns are on sales.

At one end, many visitors queued to get into a special building made of plastic bottles. With special lighting effects, the whole thing looks splendid inside and outside.


Below are the details of this Lantern Carnival.

Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival Date: September 14 - 19, 2013. Time: 8:00pm to 11:00pm. Location: Victoria Park, Hong Kong.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone. Enjoy.

Author’s note:

Mid-autumn Festival is popular in Hong Kong. The atmosphere is strong with the aid of beautiful lanterns and delicious moon cakes. Besides the one held in Victoria Park every year, there are other Lantern Carnivals or Display available in Hong Kong. Read the following article for more details.

Add Mid-autumn Lantern Carnivals to Your Travel Plan

If you plan to visit Hong Kong, come at the times when there are celebrations. Visitors can get more unique experience from a single trip by planning well. Hope the article below will be helpful to you.

Best Time to Visit Hong Kong

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Maximize Business Opportunities

Many companies try to get more attention and sales for their products and services. This is doable if they offer a well-designed promotional event.

Brother Love DIY this marketing and sales function lasted for three days in a famous shopping mall. I will use this event as a case study to illustrate how a company can maximize the business opportunities in a limited time and space. I took all the photos in this article.

Sugarcoated theme

Don't hard sell. Pick an appealing theme and relate it to your product. Brothers used arts and crafts, and DIY as the main themes, which attracted media counting the event as a cultural activity and so, the organizer enjoyed free promotion, for example, event information appeared in the newspaper weekend recommendation column.

Good location

A small open area in a famous shopping mall with high stream of people guaranteed is good enough to hold a promotional event. Book the site in the midst of the mall, at the ground floor, with all four sides accessible. The busy sight can attract the curious shoppers at all floors to squeeze in and learn more.

Adopt square or rectangular layout, and divide the area into different blocks for various activities. The longer boundary, in comparison to the circular layout, maximizes the first-sight exposure. The block-setting creates a rich impression that favors longer span of attention and deeper penetration to the guests.

Attractive Display

Arrange a corner to have a pleasant display. The organizer used big bears in a home-like setting to generate a lovely and warm feeling. The charming display soothed the resistance to the business elements involved.


The displays should have some relations with the products, be eye-catching and appealing enough to lure visitors take photos and spend time within the promotional area. Well-chosen size, color and layout of the displays can enrich the small area and beget a favorable impression.

Appealing varieties

Brothers didn't display its sewing machines solely, but arranged joint promotion with other non-competitive parties to offer a wide variety of DIY products to maximize interests. This could avoid being too hard sell and visitors won't get bored quickly.

Competition

Companies should encourage interactions with all visitors to leave a positive impact. One strategy is to arrange a competition that allows easy participation and legal personal data collection of name and email address, etc.


Brothers invited visitors to be the judge and voted for the most likable DIY clothes. Filled in a simple form, participants gave their vote and got a chance in the lucky draw.

Gifts

Everyone welcomes freebies. To be selective and justify the cost, Brothers set a criterion: only visitors who gave the company a “Like” in Facebook could receive the bag of gifts. Response was good. A laptop computer was standby to help people get the gifts. Some people simply used their cell phone to meet the requirement. A large audience base was built in Facebook within a short period, ideal for future promotions.

Workshop


Using the DIY theme, Brothers arranged two workshops in the middle: one was about using the company's product to make a bag; the other one was about making a map-pattern pendant. The activities produced energetic feel and promoted DIY concept that could boost the sales of Brother's sewing machine.


Demonstrations and sales

Show visitors how powerful your product is. Brothers accepted orders and payments from anyone interested in having a DIY bag with one’s own words sewed on it. The orders kept the machine running, a perfect demo to promote sales of the sewing machines and generate income to offset the cost of the event.



There was another counter allowing customers to decorate their DIY bags by stamping. This free value-added service didn't cost Brothers much, but it made use of customer's creativity to highlight the potential of DIY, and the process was appealing to other visitors.

Pack your promotional event with an appealing theme, well-designed layout, interesting combinations, and a lot of fun activities that provoke guests taking actions. Let everyone who enters your area feel ease and spellbound. The reception of your marketing message, sales generation and future promotions will be made easier.

Author's note:

Picking a special theme for your product may attract so many attentions that you could have free promotions, reaching a large number of potential consumers within a short period of time due to the popularity of social network. Look at the restaurant discussed in the following article see if you would like to give it a try.

Niche Marketing: Will It be Digging One’s Own Grave?

With the advanced development of Internet, barter trade is feasible not only to save money but also get to know more people who may suggest a keen demand on a particular product. It's an economic way to build the customer base and good reputation within a community for the startup of a local business.

Barter Trade with The Use of Internet

Monday, December 24, 2012

Hong Kong Comic Characters

People are familiar with Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc. What about the Hong Kong comic characters? No idea? My photo gallery may be of help then.

Hong Kong is an international city where people can discover the trace of many different cultures, including the local one. I enclose 24 photos taken by me at Hong Kong Avenue of Comic Stars. They will give you an idea on what the local comic characters look like.

Number 1
Number 2
Number 3
Number 4
Number 5
Number 6
Number 7
Number 8
Number 9
Number 10
Number 11
Number 12
Number 13
Number 14
Number 15
Number 16
Number 17
Number 18
Number 19
Number 20
Number 21
Number 22
Number 23
Number 24

















Their comics are sold in newspaper stand or bookshop. Some comics got a copy at the public library and so, they are able to reach more readers at all ages. Some comics are translated into other languages and reach readers beyond Hong Kong. Other comics become more popular due to the movie adaptation.

Some comic characters are so well-received that they play a role in the government promotional videos to convey important messages, for example, the proper way to use the lift and wash your hands.

When you visit Hong Kong, come to see the big figure dolls and take photos with them. They are displaying in the Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui. The exhibition is not permanent as it lasts for three years only.

For those who want souvenirs that are highly representing Hong Kong, they could buy merchandise carrying the image of the Hong Kong comic characters. Merchandise of number 18 and number 24 are the most popular ones, covering many aspects of living. Their merchandise could be easily found in the department stores, or even in convenient stores like 7-11.

Author’s note:

Hong Kong has a big market for comics and anime. The keen interest in the works from Japan is a proof. Many people are willing to spend money buying comic books, anime videos, music CDs, trading cards, and other merchandise. If you are not familiar with Japanese anime, welcome to read the two articles below for some ideas.

Ten Sexy Female Anime Characters

First Five Recommended Japanese Anime Songs