We created two eye-catching TV Announcements in the Public Interest (APIs) using 3D motion graphics for the 2021 Legislative Council General Election. The first API was to promote nominations for the election and the second one to promote the polling day. Both videos show the inside of a ballot box, to let the audience visualise voting could determine how the city runs. The renowned abstract landmarks with local arts, culture, sports and recreation shown make it interesting to watch, but also able to strike accord with the viewers and also attaining their attention to absorb information of the election.

Unlike conventional TV APIs that usually show a person doing the announcements, we used 3D motion graphics to do so instead. We built abstract renowned landmarks of Hong Kong, along with local arts, culture and recreation in 3D to make the videos not only fun to watch but able to strike accord with the viewers, as they receive important information about the election.

The eye-catching APIs demonstrated how a public service announcement could be presented in such a trendy and innovative manner. It managed to captivate much attention and positive feedback from the general public. To further promote this important campaign, our visuals were used extensively offline, including being advertised on buses and trams, shown on giant billboards around Hong Kong such as at different tunnel entrances, and printed out as posters displayed at bus stops, MTR stations, housing estates and government buildings. We made sure to tightly align the visuals to the content, and produced the scripts to the TV APIs bilingually in Cantonese and English, while radio broadcasting trilingually in Cantonese, Mandarin and English to ensure a solid message of the election campaign is communicated to the general public.

Bearing in mind that a good API should be able to bring out the message clearly to the general public, we first developed the script then the visuals so as to clearly explain information of the election, where the audience would also be able to understand quickly.

Creative Director: Mandy Tsang, Art Director: Kat Luk, Storyboard Artists: Ivy Sin, Charmian Cheung, Design: Helen Cheung, Script writing: Wilson LUI, 3D Design & Animation: Sam LEE, Chris NGAN, Ann CHOI and Snoopy HO Music: Anthony Liu

The Legislative Council General Election is held every four years in Hong Kong. It is an important day when the general public decides who would represent them in the council for this period of time. The date set for the election was on 19th December in 2021 and the promotions for nominating candidates and the voting day was scheduled to begin at about 1.5 months prior to the event in late October to early November. We did a full fledged development to the entire campaign, which included the design and styling, TVC and road script writing in both English and Chinese, along with 3D animation and motion graphics and produced two APIs. Using a futuristic approach, we have set the scene to compact just like how the city of Hong Kong is. We wanted to emphasise that each vote mattered and helped to determine the infrastructure and intricate operations of the economy, environment, education and living standards in Hong Kong. The first API was to promote nominations for the election. It showed the inside of a ballot box, to let the audience visualise voting could determine how a city runs. We used light coral as the main colour paired with green to echo the “vitality and liveliness” of the city that is now ready to “start afresh”. The second API was to promote the polling day. Again revealing the inside of the ballot box, this API instead shows the details of everyday busyness and explains the purpose of this election. The rolling balls travelling throughout the animation represent how voting is a process that must be gone through for an outcome of a positive future. Green is set as the main colour in this video to emphasise “bringing on a new start”. As new legislative council members were to be elected, the two APIs clearly spelt out the vital information to help the public to understand about the process, and how their nomination and votes would matter to drive positive changes in the society.

The event started in August 2021 and was accomplished in Feb 2022. We invested HK$300,000 in this project.

To further promote this important campaign, our visuals were used extensively offline, including being advertised on buses and trams, shown on giant billboards around Hong Kong such as at different tunnel entrances, and printed out as posters displayed at bus stops, MTR stations, housing estates and government buildings. We produced the scripts to the TV APIs bilingually, and radio broadcasting in trilingually in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. For social inclusion, the advertisements also included several languages, such as Hong Kong Sign Language, Bahasa Indonesian and Nepalese. This is undoubtedly a refreshing way for the general public to see a different approach used for a government campaign. As Hong Kong society continues to advance, the viewers are also expecting visually attractive ways of receiving information. This could set a new standard for the Government to better utilise the power of branding, and setting trends for the different departments within the Hong Kong government. This would also inspire other governments in the region to know that APIs should provoke interests, and branded well to clearly convey the message across to their target audience.