NEWS & EVENTS

Ridley Cheung, a COMS alumna, returned to campus to walk students through the branding strategy behind "Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums". The exhibition closed at the Hong Kong Palace Museum on 31 August after a nine-month run.

Ms Cheung is a Manager of Communications and Marketing for External Affairs at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, which develops and runs the cultural district where the museum is located. She spoke to students in PRAO4025 Brand Strategy and Communication, a course taught by Senior Lecturer Dr Vivienne Leung. The guest talk was designed for students in the department's Advertising and Branding concentration.

Ms Cheung outlined the campaign's core strategies. She showed how her team kept the exhibition's brand identity consistent across touchpoints, from branded merchandise and influencer marketing to audience engagement at events. Her account gave students a working example of how cultural heritage can be presented, communicated and branded to engage the public.

The museum and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities jointly organised the exhibition. It brought 250 artefacts from seven Egyptian museums and the Saqqara archaeological site to Hong Kong, and it drew more than half a million visitors. The museum called it the largest, most comprehensive and longest-running display of ancient Egyptian treasures ever shown in the city.

Dr Leung described the session as "a masterclass in brand storytelling" that showed how ancient history could be made "relevant, engaging, and visible across our city".

For Dr Leung, the visit was also personal: Ms Cheung was once her student. "To see a former student take the theories we discussed in class, scale them up to run some of the biggest cultural campaigns in Hong Kong, and then come back to pass that torch to my current students - there is truly no greater reward in teaching," she said.