HSBC Hong Kong has just launched their new homepage on April 1, 2009. There are noticeable minor changes to the main content section on the right in the homepage, but it definitely lags far behind in Web 2.0.

HSBC new homepage is still old fashioned

Compared to the old homepage above, the new homepage does offer users with the followings:

• A more interactive layout
• Timely promotion updates and exclusive offers
• Introduce commentary video on HSBC website, which it is the very first time I’ve seen in local consumer bank.

HSBC has not started to leverage the power of social media to benefit itself in viral marketing, nor enabled users to share and discuss the information more easily through any Web 2.0 applications. As one of the biggest corporations and the largest online service provider in Hong Kong , I am quite disappointed to see HSBC has not taken any step to adopt Web 2.0 in their online strategy.

HaveMyBank.com – Social Media Marketing Tryout by Citibank

It reminds me about a recent social media marketing tryout by the most active online advertising giant, Citiank Hong Kong. It has worked with Publicis to launch a digital campaign, HaveMyBank.com, in December, 2008. They experiment the use of social media to promote their latest mobile banking service by publishing video clips of Vivek Mahbubani, Fu Wing (苦榮) and Siu Hak (小克), and hope people are convinced and will share them with their social networking platform.

Seems like either they have not carried on with idea or the campaign does not go well, there was no comment for 5 weeks on the website and just moderate video views on YouTube. But at least we have a start for both advertisers and agencies to try out a social media marketing for financial institutions. I look forward to seeing  more Web 2.0 usages by banks and hopefully some Banking 2.0 ideas in Hong Kong soon.

Related Posts

• Ignite Your Game in New Media
• Ocean Park Embraces Interactive Marketing
• Pixazza: Crowdsourced AdSense for Images