30 June 2025 

The Department of Marketing at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong (HSUHK) organised the HSUHK Marketing Hackathon in collaboration with PARKnSHOP of AS Watson Group and the Hong Kong Education Equipment Industry Association on 27 June. Students were required to submit innovative and feasible digital marketing proposals for PARKnSHOP’s new marketing initiative in under an hour. Students then presented and explained their plans to a judging panel composed of scholars and industry experts.

The competition aims to cultivate creativity and innovation among younger generations in digital marketing. Nearly 40 secondary school students from various schools in Hong Kong, including Tsang Pik Shan (Sung Lan) Secondary School; TWGHs Sun Hoi Directors’ College; Diocesan Girls’ School; S.W.C.S Chan Pak Sha School; Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School; Heep Yunn School; Heung To Middle School; Law Ting Pong Secondary School; and Hong Kong Teachers’ Association Lee Heng Kwei Secondary School participated in the competition.

Professor Joshua Mok, Provost and Vice-President (Academic and Research) at HSUHK thanked the co-organisers, PARKnSHOP and the Hong Kong Education Equipment Industry Association, for their strong support, which made the competition a success. He said “Our School of Business is committed to cultivating talent with a global mindset, national aspirations, and the ability to leverage technological innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to actively equipping our students with these attributes inside and outside the classroom, we provide a platform for Hong Kong secondary school students to exercise their creative thinking, while increasing their opportunities to engage with the business world and enrich their practical experience. This is the goal for hosting the Marketing Hackathon.”

HSUHK signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with AS Watson Group to provide HSUHK students with diverse learning support, including scholarships, internship opportunities, early career programmes, applied research projects, etc. The first cooperation project was held with PARKnSHOP Supermarket last year, where HSUHK students were invited to participate in a marketing strategy competition.

Ms Freda Ng, Managing Director of PARKnSHOP (Hong Kong & Macau) stated “We are delighted that following the signing of the MoU between AS Watson Group and HSUHK, PARKnSHOP has been able to collaborate with the University for the second consecutive year to co-organise the Marketing Hackathon. This year, the competition was expanded to include secondary school students. Through this hands-on competition, we have witnessed the boundless creativity of the students. We are also very pleased that PARKnSHOP was able to provide students with valuable learning opportunities and practical business experience, allowing them to gain deeper insights into the retail industry and become the future leaders of the sector.”

Dr Marco Wan, Founding Chairman of the Hong Kong Education Equipment Industry Association, was very pleased to see the high level of performance of the students. He said “Students were able to prepare marketing proposals and presentations in real time, immediately after the topic was announced– without prior knowledge of the topic — and within less than an hour. This was really a challenging task.”

The competition was fierce, the champion, representatives of Diocesan Girls’ School said “We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Marketing Hackathon hosted by HSUHK. This was our first time in such a competition, and we gained significant practical skills and learned a lot throughout the process. We are honoured to have won the championship and sincerely appreciate the judges’ insightful feedback and recognition. We hope our proposed digital marketing plan will prove useful to PARKnSHOP. A special thank you also goes to DGS for the Principal’s and teachers’ exceptional guidance, which was instrumental in our success today.”