ONE Asia Creative Awards
ONE Asia Creative Awards celebrates the best creative work of the year from the Asia Pacific region. Formerly known as the One Show Greater China Awards, which was founded in 2014 by The One Club for Creativity, the awards were established because of the tremendous growth and evolution of creativity in the Asia Pacific market. It presents an unparalleled level of prestige and honor for creatives, designers and innovators in the region. The awards are a fusion of culture where East meets West that brings the creativity of the region to the global stage.
Category
Creative Use of Data
Annual ID
OA25_CAI004M
Background
The work uncovered the deeper societal Hong Kong insight into why the Paralympics get so little fanfare, even though Hong Kong Paralympians have won 139 medals; that the Paralympics throughout history have been covered so little that their actual history doesn’t exist.
By twisting this insight on its head, interviewing 4 decades of Paralympians and “re-creating” a history that was sorely missed, we also overcame Ai’s disability bias. Ultimately, we wrote back Paralympians into digital history, got the media to cover our Paralympians, and helped achieve the highest interest and viewership in Hong Kong’s history.
By twisting this insight on its head, interviewing 4 decades of Paralympians and “re-creating” a history that was sorely missed, we also overcame Ai’s disability bias. Ultimately, we wrote back Paralympians into digital history, got the media to cover our Paralympians, and helped achieve the highest interest and viewership in Hong Kong’s history.
Creative Idea
To challenge Hong Kongers’ misconceptions, we used their love of medal-winning highlights to create a Trojan horse. We featured a compilation of never-before-seen medal-winning moments, narrated by our Paralympians, from 1984 and onwards. The reveal shocked everyone: none of those moments you saw ever existed because none of them were ever recorded. From hundreds of hours of interviews and collecting priceless rare photo keepsakes of these Paralympians, we used technology to create synthetic footages to regenerate them as close to reality as possible. On social media, this was viral because our call to action showed that we had missed all of these glory moments already. Do we still want to go down this path? It appealed to Hong Kongers’ opportunity to make up for our wrongdoing right now. People tuned in at home and even gathered around large digital screens at malls to watch our Paralympians for the first time.
Insights & Strategy
This was born from a cultural observation. Hong Kongers can name all 13 Olympic medals (monumental for a small city). We can all name who we thought was Hong Kong’s first gold medallist - Li Lai Shan. Although Hong Kong's Paralympians have won over 139 medals, if you asked any average local they’d assume that number was 0. How can Hong Kong cheer for our Paralympians if they’re so oblivious to the feats of the past?
Through interviews, Paralympians echoed the same insight. Benny Cheung, 1996 Gold Medallist in wheelchair fencing, stated, “There were no Hong Kong fans or media there…I had to ask a European reporter if he could call my mom and tell her, her son won a medal.”
By specially targeting the sports community, this generated a viral movement, from athletes, Olympians, content creators and celebrities who spread the word - making the invisible Paralympians visible.
Through interviews, Paralympians echoed the same insight. Benny Cheung, 1996 Gold Medallist in wheelchair fencing, stated, “There were no Hong Kong fans or media there…I had to ask a European reporter if he could call my mom and tell her, her son won a medal.”
By specially targeting the sports community, this generated a viral movement, from athletes, Olympians, content creators and celebrities who spread the word - making the invisible Paralympians visible.
Execution
Through hundreds of hours of interviews and scarce old keepsakes of photos, we regenerated synthetic images of the highlights we wanted to feature for the past 4 decades. Through constant iteration to overcome Ai’s disability bias, we could digitally recreate a close-to-reality launch film.
We first launched on Instagram, YouTube and Metta, key social platforms where Hong Kongers have conversations and watch highlights. Capitalising on the viewership of Paralympic’s Opening Ceremony, we launched our social film, creating viral conversations within 24-hours. We collaborated with 55 social influencers, from Olympians to local celebrities, to spread the word. Special targeting (honing on sports, Olympic and Paralympic competition categories) based on post content ensured quality reach.
We are still working with social editorial pages to write back 4 decades of Paralympians into digital history. Cathay’s social channels and the Hong Kong Paralympic website are home to content about our Paralympians' successes.
We first launched on Instagram, YouTube and Metta, key social platforms where Hong Kongers have conversations and watch highlights. Capitalising on the viewership of Paralympic’s Opening Ceremony, we launched our social film, creating viral conversations within 24-hours. We collaborated with 55 social influencers, from Olympians to local celebrities, to spread the word. Special targeting (honing on sports, Olympic and Paralympic competition categories) based on post content ensured quality reach.
We are still working with social editorial pages to write back 4 decades of Paralympians into digital history. Cathay’s social channels and the Hong Kong Paralympic website are home to content about our Paralympians' successes.
Results
For the first time, Hong Kong Google search interest in the Paralympics was 7.1X (vs 2021), and there was 40% more viewership in the Hong Kong Paralympians (vs 2021).
Online video: 12 million views (in a city of 7 million people)
Mainstream Hong Kong media: Over 54 media reports (in a week) and +3 million in PR Value
A total of 24M reached at a cost-effective CPR (a fraction of an average of $60 for worldwide campaigns), all due to the thought-provoking content created.
Ultimately, we strengthened our connection to our home market and even saw a +4% Brand Affinity, the highest jump compared to any campaign we’ve done all year.
Chief Executive John Lee is in talks of the next Paralympics, Hong Kongers, for the first-time, would be able to watch on all the free television stations: TVB, ViuTV, HOY TV and public broadcaster RTHK.
Online video: 12 million views (in a city of 7 million people)
Mainstream Hong Kong media: Over 54 media reports (in a week) and +3 million in PR Value
A total of 24M reached at a cost-effective CPR (a fraction of an average of $60 for worldwide campaigns), all due to the thought-provoking content created.
Ultimately, we strengthened our connection to our home market and even saw a +4% Brand Affinity, the highest jump compared to any campaign we’ve done all year.
Chief Executive John Lee is in talks of the next Paralympics, Hong Kongers, for the first-time, would be able to watch on all the free television stations: TVB, ViuTV, HOY TV and public broadcaster RTHK.
2025 Awards
Total Points: 2
Merit Award
Credits
Agency
Leo / Hong Kong
Chief Creative Officer
Christopher Lee
Copywriter
Abbie Chan
Creative Director
Miriam Yip
Executive Creative Director
Halo Cheng
Strategy Director
Garron Chiu
Account Director
Kale Ng
Account Executive
Gertie Tsang
Business Director
Kenneth Poon
Head of Technology
Laurent Thevenet
Managing Partner
Dennis Yeung
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