TBWA Hong Kong relaunches The Bostonian without showing people in the restaurant

The Bostonian Seafood and Grill restaurant, part of The Langham, Hong Kong hotel, has relaunched the restaurant brand with a social media campaign called #NothingToSeeHere as well as an interactive cocktail bar experience.

“We wanted to unveil the venue’s transformation in a different way, creating curiosity and interest through social media,” said Jenny An, director of marketing communications, The Langham Hong Kong.

VIEW THE VIDEO

While the norm for restaurant brands is to share photos of perfectly edited food, interior decor

and even restaurant staff on social media, An said the campaign focused on ‘FOMO’, the fear of missing out on “delicious moments and good times”.

“We didn’t disclose where all the fun was being had initially but introduced visual snippets of the location, laughter and finally the grand reveal of the new Bostonian as the campaign reached a climax,” she added.

The campaign kicked off with a slow-motion food reaction video of Bostonian customers, which

downplayed the food and focused on the people. From there a series of bite-sized content of

other reactions to the restaurant were promoted on social media in the lead up to the official

launch event.

At the launch, guests were given RFID bracelets assigned with a unique cocktail ingredient.

Their social interactions with other guests generated a special recipe combination that was sent to the Bostonian bartenders, who would then craft tailored cocktails for the guests and serve them at the bar.

By drawing attention to the craftsmanship behind the drinks, the cocktail experience also aimed to highlight the Bostonian’s new food menu, cocktail list, craft beer bar and private champagne room.

“The technology is nothing new but the novelty was in how we used it to facilitate social

interactions and create a fun atmosphere at the restaurant and to turn that into a shared cocktail making experience,” said Jan Cho, general manager, TBWA Hong Kong.

The overall campaign for the Bostonian ran for a month. TBWA Hong Kong’s social media and

creative technology team drove the campaign.

“We used a very lean but multi-skilled team for the project. We did the campaign ideation and

execution, video and content production, as well as creative technology for the bar experience,” said Karen Cheng, director of social, TBWA Hong Kong.

For over a decade, the Bostonian had been serving guests with a signature menu of American style seafood and steak and a classic restaurant interior with white-linen table cloth, and burgundy coloured walls. The Bostonian rebrand and restaurant renovation aimed to grow its loyal customer base while attracting a new and younger audience.

Credits –

Digital Creative: Scofield Lai