With a budget of just GBP 180,000 and two of Hong Kong’s most famous icons, the two lions that guard HSBC, the bank was able to get an entire city talking about LGBT – a topic which is still taboo in traditional Chinese society.
HSBC commissioned one of Hong Kong’s leading gay artists to reimagine the iconic lions as symbols of LGBT Pride and a united society on one condition: the artist had to design the lions in collaboration with the bank’s Feng Shui master,ensuring traditional Feng Shui principles were applied.
Rainbow lions were projected onto HSBC’s main building, while a tram shelter takeover featuring employee’s names and messages of support combined with social media amplified the campaign further.
Amidst heated debate, and even calls to remove the lions, HSBC stood by its values and was buoyed by overwhelming public support.
The campaign garnered over HK$6,333,000 in PR value. The HSBC Pride employee network grew over 340%. HSBC’s Facebook post engagement rate was 21.2% vs industry average 1-2% and 99.2% of Facebook reactions were positive.
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