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Finn Partners has a $25K monthly retainer contract to supply PR and social media services to The Hong Kong Tourism Board as the city looks to rebuild its tourist trade after China tightened control over the former UK colony in July.
The HKTB reports the number of visitors from the US plunged 99.8 percent to 60,642 in September and 90.9 percent to 80,418 for the first nine months of 2020.
Finn Partners’ contract went into effect on May 1 and could run through March 2022 with the exercise of a one-year renewable option.
The agreement calls for the independent PR firm to “engage with US media, influencers, consumers and trade continually with positive messages and innovative campaigns that align with HKTB’s global communications strategy.”
The firm will promote “mega-events” such as New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year with “aggressive, hands-on pitching support and detail-oriented reporting” and forge relationships with key opinion leaders to “leverage content while cultivating brand ambassadors that provide effective programs over time, not just one-off programs.”
Finn Partners will organize individual press trips, group media familiarization tours and an annual NYC press tour.
The firm will handle “reactive crisis communications & reputation management." That covers alerting HKTB about potential negative stories or issues that arise or offensive activities on social media platforms that may develop into a crisis.
It will separately bill HKTB for any crisis that is of a severe magnitude or requires 24/7 monitoring.
The contract has a non-compete clause that precludes Finn Partners from conducting tourism campaigns in China, Tokyo/Japan, Macao, Singapore, Bangkok/Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, Indonesia, or Australia.
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