The Luckiest Red

During the Lunar New Year, we set out to re-establish a meaningful relationship with Chinese internationals to ensure that when it came to their banking needs, HSBC easily came to mind. Lunar New Year is filled with cliched brand ads and superficial messaging. We wanted to break through by finding a deeper insight behind the holiday. We found our opportunity in the colour red. Red is considered the luckiest colour of the Lunar New Year but there are thousands of shades of red, so no one really knows which shade is truly the luckiest.

Phase 1:

We partnered with the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco to evaluate their 18,000-piece collection to determine the most prevalent shade of red across countless paintings, sculptures, tapestries and artifacts dating back thousands of years. “The Luckiest Red” was determined by using artificial intelligence to synthesize each piece and extract the color values contained within. We then used a targeted paid social media plan to build an audience of internationalists. Once identified, they were served teaser messaging about our quest to find the luckiest red.

Phase 2:

Once we had identified “The Luckiest Red”, we bottled it and sent it to three emerging Asian and Pacific Islander artists to create original works. All three pieces were created and promoted as part of Asian Heritage Month, creating a cyclical loop of prosperity. We then retargeted our internationalists with various works of art we were evaluating and ultimately the luckiest shade of red once we arrived at it.

All the media drove to a dedicated landing page where users could learn more about the partnership between HSBC and the museum, meet the artists and bid on their work.