Sphere
#36
2014
11
>>
he planning for a single
event can take as much as
seven years. From retail to
travel to power,
Sphere
looks
at how HWL firms do the
work so everyone else can enjoy the party.
Olé! Olé! Olé!
Hutchison and the World Cup!
The World Cup is one of the most
viewed events around the world. This
year,
3
Hong Kong and Hutchison Global
Communications Limited (HGC) joined in
on the fun while making sure their mobile
and broadband networks stayed secure for
its Hong Kong customers.
Historically, most football fans only
watched matches live on TV. Recently,
however, younger people watched the
World Cup on their mobile phones, over
the Internet or on any one of a range of
mobile devices.
Brave newWorld Cup
The World Cup experience, in the modern
era, isn’t just waiting for a televised event.
3
Hong Kong’s mobile network was used
for viewing matches, highlights, instant
updates, and replays on demand, around
the clock. Instead of using satellite, HGC
deployed advanced Radio Over Fibre
technology to help a TV station deliver World
Cup content live. HGC’s abundant bandwidth
enabled the content to be transmitted over
an optical fibre dedicated to the World Cup.
Make way for fans
Still, game time is the most exciting and
the time of highest demand. Thanks to
the time difference, much of the mobile
usage was in the early morning, avoiding
normal peak usage. It meant that routine
network upgrades and maintenance work,
usually carried out from 2 am to 5 am,
were rescheduled to days without matches
during the World Cup.
To fully take advantage of the World Cup,
a host of initiatives was introduced to
3
Hong Kong service subscribers. Fans
could check out World Cup content through
the Planet
3
mobile portal, in addition to
playing games and winning prizes.
3
Hong Kong didn’t just take care of fans
in Hong Kong. It even launched a special
phone plan for fans who were visiting
Brazil during the World Cup. How they got
there was another question. If you want to
get off your phone, on to a plane and into
the stadium, you need another star World
Cup player.
Playing towin – for tickets
Hutchison-Priceline (Travel) Ltd also
gets on the field for this football fiesta
every four years. It is approached by
VIP customers to get them – and their
guests – to the games. The company uses
extensive and carefully cultivated industry
connections to work with select business
partners of FIFA to ensure that clients can
access the best of the contests.
Time is the biggest challenge for the
company, says CEO of Hutchison-
Priceline, Tony Ma. The team can make
a little magic happen, but not full-blown
miracles. For global events like the World
Cup, preparation begins a year in advance.
This is true not only for travel, but also
for special World Cup promotions and
marketing efforts with valued partners.
For example, Hutchison-Priceline was hired
by an international credit card company
to manage its promotional campaign for
the 2014 World Cup Brazil. The highest
wintertime spenders at a high-end
Hong Kong shopping mall were offered
a package to travel to the World Cup.
Hutchison-Priceline was responsible for
the planning and execution of the travel
programmes, making sure the winners
made it to the World Cup! The staff may
not have been able to go, but they shared in
the excitement by sending other people.
“One of the major advantages for Hutchison
of taking part in the World Cup is to make
our staff happy. The staff are so engaged,
happy and feel proud to be a part of it,”
says Mr Ma. If the staff in Hong Kong are
enthusiastic to be taking part in a FIFA
World Cup happening on the other side
of the world, imagine the electric feeling
from being in the middle of the action,
playing host to the world. When the
Olympic Games arrived in London and
Beijing, Hutchison’s teams were behind
them 100 per cent.
Powerlifting at the Olympics
The London 2012 Summer Olympic Games
were a majestic spectacle. 10,820 athletes
from 204 national teams competed at
34 venues. The games were alternately
spectacular, heartbreaking and sometimes
simply breathtaking.
Much less visible to the public, yet
absolutely essential to the sporting
extravaganza, were the services of UK
Power Networks. Their efforts in powering
most of the Games garnered them the
prestigious Utility of the Year title. As a
contractor and not a sponsor, UK Power
Networks was intended to remain unknown
to the public. The group unrolled seven
years of groundwork, just to stay invisible
when the whole world was watching.
The hardware: Substation Central
The electricity distribution networks of
UK Power Networks were responsible
ESDlife: FIFAWorld Cup
Storefront to the World
In 2006, ESD Services Limited
(ESD
life
), a company focusing on
e-commerce, was selected by
FIFA to operate its official online
shop in Asia for the 2006 World
Cup Germany. The company was
responsible for the whole online
sales process, from designing the
website to merchandising, delivery
and inventory control.
The biggest challenge, according
to Tony Ma, CEO of ESD
life
and Hutchison-Priceline, was
countering the scourge of
counterfeiting that supplied shoddy
replica paraphernalia and dented
the legitimate business of FIFA and
ESD
life
. The firm had to be vigilant
to identify and discourage online
fraudsters by alerting the relevant
authorities to their presence.
Mr Ma says, “We had to design
the website, source the products
and merchandise goods from
licensed suppliers. And we had
to determine what to order, the
quantity and manage the inventory
control ... it was an interesting
experience and we were all excited
about it.”
T
