Customer connection and brand loyalty matter more than ever today.
The reason: Shoppers are open to switching retailers, but those who feel connected to a brand and who are loyal to it can help the brand grow profitably.
A recent report shows that a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profitability by 75%.
In Hong Kong, brands have caught on to that business insight. They’re multiplying their ROI by building a loyal customer base.
To grow lasting customer connections and profits, brands in Hong Kong have turned to the AI-powered platform that draws in the most audiences with engaging content — YouTube.
Indeed, Hong Kong consumers say they spend more time watching YouTube than any other online video platform.1
Here’s how brands like HSBC and McDonald’s Hong Kong have successfully used YouTube’s rich audience experience and AI-powered campaigns to build brand loyalty and drive profits.
How HSBC used YouTube’s myriad capabilities to gain loyal customers and business results
A household name in Hong Kong, HSBC was looking for new ways to grow its business by expanding and deepening customer connections.
It had already enjoyed success on YouTube. Its channel is viewed by consumers as a trusted source of financial information. So it aimed higher.
Its goal was for its YouTube channel to be highly relatable to customers — a place they’d return to not just for financial information but also everyday inspiration and fun.
To resonate with its diverse customer base and win their loyalty, HSBC tapped into YouTube’s powerful capabilities as an online video platform in three ways:
1. Use a creator-led approach to storytelling to increase connection. YouTube creators are skilled at humanising stories and HSBC followed suit in two ways.
The bank told human-interest stories about its employees on its YouTube channel and also partnered creators like 3 Uncle Park for storytelling. Such day-in-the-life content helped people relate to the financial institution in a personal way.
HSBC also did what creators do — collaborate and create content on other YouTube channels. Its content partnerships with popular lifestyle YouTube channels like 100 Most and Mill Milk helped it reach beyond the finance audience segment and broaden its customer connections.
2. Use YouTube’s multiformat capabilities to deepen engagement. By using a mix of long and short format videos, HSBC catered to the viewing preferences of its diverse customer base.
For example, its videos on Shorts helped it connect with younger audiences who prefer bite-sized, fast-paced content.
3. Use AI-powered campaigns to drive customer loyalty. HSBC turned viewers into loyal customers with its AI-powered marketing strategy.
It grew its reach and viewership using the AI-powered Video reach campaigns and Video views campaigns with in-feed ads. It then turned interested viewers into loyal subscribers with Demand Gen campaigns.
The AI-powered Demand Gen campaigns used audience insights to find and engage highly interested viewers with ads that had a click-to-subscribe button. Not only did that drive subscription and loyalty, it also shifted brand perception.
HSBC’s campaign drew 11X likes and 2.8X shares compared to its previous commercial videos, and it clinched the Best Brand Channel honours at YouTube Works Awards Hong Kong 2025.
How McDonald’s Hong Kong used YouTube to fuel online and offline customer connections
Anniversaries are an occasion to celebrate relationships and McDonald’s Hong Kong is doing just that for its 50th birthday in the city.
The popular restaurant chain is marking the milestone by deepening its ties to generations of customers in Hong Kong, and it’s choosing to do so with YouTube.
Not only is YouTube the No. 1 place for viewers in Hong Kong to go deep with what they love,2 it is also the one platform that lets McDonald’s run a seamless campaign to connect with customers through its online and offline celebrations.
To win the love and loyalty of customers, McDonald’s tapped YouTube’s rich ecosystem of content and campaigns in three ways:
1. Use YouTube’s immersive storytelling to fuel customer connection online and offline. A highlight of the anniversary campaign is the installation of McDonald’s iconic bench, featuring a seated Ronald McDonald character, in 50 spots around Hong Kong.
People can hunt for the benches and use the McDonald’s app to scan QR codes at the sites to win prizes such as food and drink giveaways in-store.
To excite the public and encourage participation in the hunt, McDonald’s partnered the popular Hong Kong rap duo SoftHard to create YouTube videos teasing the locations of the benches.
2. Use YouTube’s extensive reach across devices to deepen engagement. The anniversary campaign includes ads that reference festive moments such as Chinese New Year, when people gather in homes around the big screen.
Because YouTube is available across devices, from mobile to connected TV (CTV), McDonald’s Hong Kong could reach audiences wherever they were during those festive moments, on both the big and small screen, with YouTube.
In particular, by using YouTube on CTV and First Position Moments, McDonald’s Hong Kong was able to show up front-and-centre during festive primetime.
It had a high share of voice and strong brand association in those key moments of cultural connection, and a six percentage point jump in view-through-rate compared to the year before. Its success earned it the Best Content Takeover title at YouTube Works Awards Hong Kong 2025.
3. Use YouTube’s myriad video and ad formats to sustain customer connection. To maintain campaign buzz, McDonald’s has been using everything from YouTube Shorts to six-second bumper ads and TrueView video campaigns to continuously raise awareness and drive engagement in fresh ways.
McDonald’s marketing strategy on YouTube helped it connect with customers online, in app, and in-store. And this drove not just 120,000 new registrations for the McDonald’s app but also record sales growth.
The customer loyalty and ROI gains that McDonald’s Hong Kong and HSBC enjoy can be yours too when you tap into YouTube’s powerful platform capabilities.
From its rich creator and content ecosystem to myriad video and ad formats and AI-powered campaigns, YouTube is the one platform that lets brands in Hong Kong win loyal customers and fuel profitable growth.
Contributors: Dora Cheung, YouTube Specialist, Large Customer Sales; Fung Choi, Senior Account Manager; Carol Chan, Industry Manager, Strategic Accounts, Large Customer Sales
