Hongkong Land drops 'Central' identity, boosts own retail portfolio

In 2000, Hongkong Land introduced the 'Central' identity to promote the CBD district, enhanced with the slogan 'Are You Central? 'in 2006.

When new developments in the Central district such as One and Two ifc (owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties), Pacific Place (owned by Swire Properties), and Cheung Kong Center (owned by Hutchison Whampoa Properties) sprung up, Hongkong Land decided to refresh its location-based brand.

"Most of what people refer to as Central [used to be] owned by Hongkong Land, so when we promoted Central, we promoted ourselves. But now, we couldn't trademark Central unfortunately," Martin said. The property developer's refreshed campaign narrowed from promoting the whole Central district to defining its own retail portfolio of The Landmark, Alexandra House, Chater House and Prince's Building.

In order to solidify this new perception, the company combined its four retail locations under one collective brand umbrella.

Y K Pang, chief executive of Hongkong Land explained, "We selected the name Landmark because this is the signature building in the company's superlative luxury retail portfolio, and the word itself has strong, authentic associations with luxury."

The brief to London-based design firm Pentagram for the 'Landmark' campaign was to create an elegant and timeless logo. After 25 revisions, Pentagram settled on a new symbol using the letter 'L' - associated with the 'Landmark' identity and with luxury - in classic Bodoni typeface. The horizontal lines that run in the background of the letter symbolise the buildings of Hongkong Land. 

Hongkong Land has also collaborated with Rankin to photograph seven key fashion-driven images for the campaign's advertising visuals. They hit the streets of Hong Kong today in a traditional set of media channels, bought by Mindshare Hong Kong: in-mall lightboxes, outdoor billboards, bus shelters; also in the SCMP, Financial Times, Economic Times, Apple Daily and Oriental Daily.

"We felt that this has longevity and was quite adaptable; we can easily do a Christmas or food & beverage campaign," Martin added. The 'Landmark' campaign is meant to survive another decade in Hong Kong's retail landscape.