It’s not everyday that someone tells the Hong Kong Jockey Club what it could perhaps do better, but in 2022, and when no one knows what the hell’s coming up next, there’s really no point standing on ceremony. If it’s a bitter pill to swallow, why not swallow it, anyway? It just might be a miracle cure for everything.
In an angry, frustrated, confused and questioning Hong Kong, there’s a cry for help from the public for the Club to look at rebuilding their home and giving them the confidence and mental healing needed.
The “racing bubble” that’s been mentioned ad infinitum is of no interest to the general population.
In a weird way, all this “toil and bubbling” is starting to sound elitist, and as if protecting some special species whereas the general population is left to look after themselves.
The “bubbly” narrative has run its course. Bubbles need to be popped at some time so that people can escape and start enjoying life in the real world.
What’s more important to realise is that with all types of restrictions, zero tourism and severe social distancing measures, Hong Kong is on life support.
Also, the Club’s image as “the world’s leading racing jurisdiction” is tottering under its own weight just as is that of Hong Kong being “Asia’s World City”.
Hong Kong doesn’t seem to know whether it’s coming or going or on one of Mr Toad’s Wild Rides.
For Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, these are tough times. If it’s not one thing, it’s something else- and then this something else becomes something new. It’s not exactly smooth sailing and the ship has entered choppy waters.
The man known as E.B. is a very popular leader with the people of Hong Kong. They trust him and he is someone with a proven track record, and someone very much respected and needed. He is most definitely needed, especially at a time when leadership skills in the city are pretty thin on the ground.
Personally speaking, and knowing the German-born CEO well enough, he is very much a proud Hong Hong Belonger who has not forgotten everything the city has given him- those things other than what money can buy. His heart is in the right place.
Now, more than ever, is the time for him and a team of New Thinkers to come together and chart a different course for the Club- something relevant and new and which just might help shine a light and show Hong Kong a way forward.
What Hong Kong people desperately need is to feel confident- confident in the future of the city and trust and confidence in its present.
Having always been proud to describe the Hong Kong Jockey Club as being “more than a racing club” because of its USP that is the Charities Trust, this incredibly important extension of the Club needs, I feel, a complete overhaul in how it’s being marketed.
A few paid “advertorials” in the South China Morning Post with some happy pics go nowhere whereas the line about “Riding high together” is meaningless. Time to change the frequency.
One hears how the HKJC Charities Trust has done this and that and everything else, but who knows? Very few. They should.
Imagine for a minute if the Charities Trust was divided into 3-4 different divisions. Each focuses on what is being done, or will be done for the elderly, education, the technology sector and all aspects of the arts.
Each of these divisions must have its own “tone of voice” to be understood by its specific customer group instead of serving up one mixed up corporate buffet- as it is has always been done.
It’s all about introducing a horses for courses strategy- and not losing sight of one’s audience when it comes down to what is being communicated in what language and to whom. It’s showing, for example, how the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Charities Trust is something very different to the Hong Kong Community Chest. How many even understand this? Guess.
What each of these different Charities Trust divisions can bring to Hong Kong should be made known through relevant content and whatever medium complements the message.
The holistic story of how and why the Hong Kong Jockey Club has come up with this initiative is something of news value for Bloomberg, The Financial Times, CNN etc. And let’s not forget that all these brands have their own social media outlets and which reach millions.
When in advertising and E.B was the Director Of Racing, we were courting the HKJC account. Presented to whoever was then looking after Marketing was a two-pronged strategy led by a simple illustration showing what Hong Kong would look like if everything the Club had funded through their Charities Trust was taken away. It would be an empty city.
The idea was rejected for looking “too empty”. Duh.
Hearing that, I sang “Send In The Clowns” to myself and Moonwalked out of the conference room.
An organisation as complex as the Hong Kong Jockey Club and built upon layer upon layer needs to perhaps streamline things and somehow start to look more multi dimensional, international and forward thinking.
It’s a business, yes, and part of this business is the business of improving the lives of Hong Kong people. All Hong Kong people.
Of course, for this to happen, E.B needs a good team with the experience, knowledge and passion to deliver and enhance and expand on the agreed strategy- without fear of failure.
It’s much to do with accepting and embracing accountability and being given the freedom to create as we did when building the Happy Wednesday brand.
Working with some in the Club given “marketing” roles in their titles, things were driven personally by E.B.
Created and then constantly enhanced, Happy Wednesday became a successful global brand. It was a game changer and we learned much from making this everything it became.
It was also a fun project to work on and see it become more than we ever thought it would be.
This fun and camaraderie is something lacking these days inside the walls of 1 Sports Road. There’s almost a fear factor at work with too much second guessing about not following “corporate guide lines” and “getting into trouble”. Please.
This approach to work stunts growth and just continues to recycle work that looks tired and patched together by committee so that every box is carefully ticked. Lost is any emotional attachment with the consumer. In its place is Corporate Speak.
What this negativity does, especially in times like these, is show up weak hires and malleable Yes people who bring no value nor objectivity to the table.
This modus operandi doesn’t take anything anywhere. It just goes around and around in circles until there’s the realisation that this isn’t helping any one. It’s like living in that Circle Game Joni Mitchell wrote and sang about.
As has been said many times, once a vibrant and healthy city full of opportunities for everyone starts to fall apart and with tourism stopped in its tracks, it- and everything in it-is discarded into the nearest rubbish bin.
From here, the media takes a sledgehammer to it. Bad news travels fast and sells faster.
Right now, it certainly looks as if Hong Kong has had its golden era and is on a downhill slide.
Those who saw the cracks starting to appear years ago, and others who knew that Igor was ringing those bells of doom in 2019, are sighing huge sighs of relief for getting out in time.
Who can blame them? But what about those who don’t have the luxury of leaving Hong Kong? What about those who love this city and don’t want to pack up and desert it?
While the rest of the world is quickly and cautiously understanding the new abnormal and the need to get back to living instead of surviving, Hong Kong continues to stutter, dithe and live in some weird self imprisoned lockdown mode seen as being “normal”.
This is how many children see their parents behaving. Think this isn’t affecting their psyches? This is also how the international world and international media sees the city.
Why would tourists even consider visiting Hong Kong even if they could? And without tourism...
Of course, all this affects the image of the Hong Kong Jockey Club which has always been the master of its own domain going back to the pukka Members Only Club it’s been since the colonial days of Noble House and Taipan and when known called the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Today known as the Hong Kong Jockey Club, it has never ever had to deal with something like what it now faces- an invisible enemy with different heads and multiple personalities.
At the same time, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has to continue helping the people of Hong Kong while having to keep in step with a government continually on the back foot and regularly tripping over itself.
Despite these hurdles, the Hong Kong Jockey Club needs to work and help make the bogeyman disappear and offer the city what it sorely lacks- Hope.
Easier said than done. But under the leadership of E.B and a Charities Trust whose image needs to be rebooted and not continue to be seen as a soulless corporate entity, this can be achieved by the Club. I am sure of it. It might even be its biggest winner applauded by a global mainstream audience.
As for what I have written, this isn’t a horse racing story as I am not a racing writer. I write and therefore, I am.
Written is something very personal and hopefully helpful as I am fighting the best way I can for a city that’s been my home for pretty much all my life. It’s taken me on some wonderful life journeys and different career paths.
When leaving Hong Kong recently for an extended break and walking through a deserted airport at midnight, I felt I had entered the Twilight Zone. I have never been more scared.
There were different songs going through my head, and a helluva lot of memories, especially of those who are no longer in my life.
I took a breather before reaching my boarding gate, sat down and sent messages to some I have locked out of my life.
I then wrote some lines about what Hong Kong means to me and said a quiet Thank You to my home.
Perhaps if everyone in the city, including the Hong Kong Jockey Club, makes the time to thank Hong Kong for everything it’s given them, there will be an answer.
When this answer becomes clear, don’t just it be. Do everything possible to make good things happen.
The result just might be everyone in Hong Kong coming together to give this city a healthy dose of optimism in all ways possible.
Optimism trumps negativity all the time.
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