Organized by the Hong Kong Brand Development Council (BDC), a media briefing on the arrangement of this year’s brand awards under the aegis of the Council was held yesterday (22 July), at which BDC Chairman cum CMA Vice President Ms Shirley Chan announced the official launch of 2010 Hong Kong Top Brand Awards and Hong Kong Top Service Brand Awards and the introduction of a brand-new scheme, namely “Hong Kong Emerging Brand Awards & Hong Kong Emerging Service Brand Awards” (the Emerging Awards).
Addressing at the media briefing, BDC Chairman Ms Shirley Chan said, “Incepted in 1999 and 2005 respectively, the Hong Kong Top Brand Awards has embarked on the twelfth running, while the Hong Kong Top Service Brand Awards has entered itssixth year. Through over a decade’s endeavors, the Awards have gradually built up their own ‘brandname’, becoming a cachet cherished by local industries and a symbol of confidence widely-recognized by our citizens. From this year onwards, the BDC and CMA has introduced the ‘Hong Kong Emerging Brand Awards & Hong Kong Emerging Service Brand Awards’, which, targeted at product brands and service brands respectively, aim to give recognition to up-and-coming young brandnames established by Hong Kong companies. Entries into the new Awards should be aged less than eight years, and the number of winners will be capped at five for each category.”
“With more and more Hong Kong companies stepping up their pace in brand-building, the recent years has witnessed the mushrooming of many promising new brands. Due to resource constraints and other factors, it may be difficult for young brands to receive immediate attentions and to gain recognition from the market. In view of this, the BDC and CMA decided to organize an Award Scheme specially catering for emerging brands; and we believe that this new initiative would give a boost to these ‘brand entrepreneurs’ and encourage our industries especially the SMEs to embrace an enterprising spirit and to enhance the value-added attributes and competitiveness of Hong Kong products and services through branding.” Ms Chan said.
“In a sense, the new award scheme would serve as an incubation base for the Hong Kong Top Brand Awards and Hong Kong Top Service Brand Awards, and its reviewing mechanism is modeled after the latter, with deliberate modifications to accommodate the special characteristics of emerging brands. Entries into the Emerging Awards will be assessed mainly based on six factors, i.e. Reputation, Distinctiveness, Innovation, Quality, Image, and Environmental Performance and Social Responsibility, yet with an emphasis on Innovation and Quality. The judging process comprises on-site assessment and a review by the Final Judging Panel; but unlike the Top Brand Awards, there will be no public polling. Besides, Mr Charles Ng, a famous designer has helped to design a distinctive logo for the new Awards, which will then be used by winners to promote the overall image of the winning brands and companies under authorization.” Ms Chan continued.
Finally, Ms Chan added, “To enhance synergy, the working schedules for ‘Hong Kong Top Brand Awards & Hong Kong Top Service Brand Awards’ and ‘Hong Kong Emerging Brand Awards & Hong Kong Emerging Service Brand Awards’are well-aligned. The enrolment period started in early July and will end on 31 August. After preliminary screening in November, shortlisted entries for the Top Brand Awards will enter a public polling at the Hong Kong Brands & Products Expo, and the final judging for all awards will be held in early January 2011. As previous years, the judging panels of the Hong Kong Top Brands Awards and Hong Kong Top Service Brand Awards features a strong line-up of professionals and celebrities, with Director-General of Trade and Industry Ms Maria Kwan and Commissioner for Innovation and Technology Ms Janet Wong taking up the respective chairmanship. And the final judging of both the Hong Kong Emerging Brand Awards and the Hong Kong Emerging Service Brand Awards will be conducted by another judging panel that is led by the Head of Create Hong Kong Mr Jerry Liu. As for the Awards Presentation Ceremony that will be held on 24 January 2011, we are most honoured to have invited Financial Secretary Hon. John Tsang to be the Guest of Honour of the Ceremony.”
Furthermore, Mr Charles Ng introduced the design concept of “Hong Kong Emerging Brand Mark” and explained its symbolic meanings at the media briefing. The Mark features a splendid star emerging from the back of letter “H” to symbolize “enterprising” and “promising”. The asterisk also takes the shape of letter “K” to make the logo a perfect incarnation of “HK”, implying “originating from Hong Kong” and “reaching out to new horizons”. It inherits the primary red and blue from the BDC’s corporate colors, which, together with a touch of shining golden, signify “dignity”, “professionalism” and “vitality”.
Apart from Ms Shirley Chan, guests attending the media conference included BDC Vice-Chairmen Dr Danny Ngai, Mr Charlie Lee; Elected Members Dr Kevin Lau, Mr Aaron Shum, Mr Felix Chung, Mr Addy Wong and Chief Executive Officer Mr Paul Leung.
