Hong Kong’s oldest and newest companies take home awards for excellence in brand marketing

Household names such as Arome Bakery and Octopus are among the winners of the Enterprising Hong Kong Brand Awards 2016 on Thursday, highlighting sales and marketing excellence of the city’s vibrant home-grown enterprises.

Entering its third year, the awards, organised by the South China Morning Post and sponsored by UOB Bank, was in recognition of the talent and creative strategies used by outstanding Hong Kong businesses in building up their market presence.

“Hong Kong is home to one of the world’s biggest entrepreneurial communities,” the Post’s chief executive Robin Hu said at the awards presentation and luncheon on Thursday. “This year, we expanded the categories to include publicly listed companies.

Shortlisted finalists for the Awards include brands from the city’s historical and burgeoning enterprises in sectors such as retailing and hospitality, information and communications technology (ICT), health care, trading and storage and property and professional services.

Arome Bakery, formerly a struggling baking business before a branding revamp by its owner and catering services giant Maxim’s Group, netted the privately held firm the award for Best HK Retail and Hospitality Brand.

Having spent two years researching and preparing for the campaign, the rebranding team revitalised the business by repositioning it as a Japanese-style premium baking house.

Scooping the Best HK ICT Brand was Octopus Cards, launched in 1997. It is the operator of one of the world’s most extensively used contactless rechargeable smart-card payment systems.