Ocean Park has collected the scariest Hong Kong ghosts to build eight different haunted houses for Halloween this year. File photo

HONG KONG: More than one month away from Halloween, Disneyland and Ocean Park have already squared off in a battle to create the most ghoulish, the scariest, the most mysterious and especially the most crowd-pleasing Hallowed Eve attraction in town. Ocean Park has just offered a 10 percent discount for advanced booking of Halloween Bash tickets. Hong Kong Disneyland has announced its Haunted Halloween program will open a week earlier than Ocean Park's, in order to beef up visitor numbers.

Thus, the Halloween battle between the two theme parks brings Halloween to Hong Kong early, as the city prepares for the visitation of ghosts from the mysterious East and the mystic West, vampires, ghouls and other denizens of the Netherworld. Hong Kong Disneyland is fashioning a sinister, dark world, like the ones we see in Hollywood blockbusters full of creepy zombies and aliens and patented Disney adventures. Ocean Park promises a legion of incorporeal apparitions straight out of local lore, derived from old tales like the madness at the high street police station and the long-haired girl who is said to haunt a university laboratory.

Behind the battle of western zombies and local ghosts is a full- up, non-fictional, and very real battle for the imaginations of the people between the two theme parks. The campaign has never stopped since Disneyland came to Hong Kong.

As Halloween offers a great business opportunity, the two theme parks lay out their creative campaigns every year around this time. Sometimes they learn from each other: Disneyland started to offer night tickets in 2007 following the lead of Ocean Park. Ocean Park began full-scale marketing directed at university students, trying to grab the market that Disneyland had set out to corner.

This year, as in the past, the Halloween competition between the two sides promises to be intense. Each park has its own way to survive in the competition.

Ocean Park: Play the Hong Kong card

Ocean Park is good at tapping into the local psyche. The Hong Kong suit has been a strong one for Ocean Park. Local elements factor even more heavily this year, as the global economic crisis continues to batter the local tourist industry.

Ocean Park claimed on its official website that it has collected the scariest Hong Kong ghosts to build eight different haunted houses, including the campus of living dead, police station No 13 and high street madness. One exhibit is based on the Pang Brothers Hong Kong horror movie Re-Cycle.

To capture the favor of the Hong Kong market, the park entered into aggressive collaboration with the newest acting phenomenon "Laughing Gor" (a character in a TVB drama). The park has opened a class to teach people to be secret undercover "moles" for a Halloween scare when they come to the park, actor Tse Tin Wah said on his blog.

The haunted house design competition which began in March and the recent "Laughing Gor" mole project have been a hot topic in town. Ocean Park has created some remarkable publicity gimmicks.

Disneyland: Blockbuster effect

Disneyland is going to tell a new and horrifying story of alien invasion this year, in addition to the haunted hotel and the demon jungle. In the new scenario a gigantic spaceship has landed.

Signs of alien life are detected aboard, Alvita Leung of the marketing publicity department of Hong Kong Disneyland says.

With strong western elements, Disneyland is turning to be a full blown interactive version of a Hollywood Sci-fi horror movie employing all kinds of top-notch technology, glowing decorations and creepy special effects. "Thanks to the special effects, guests will experience a quality performance that will make them scream with excitement," said Frederick Chan, director of marketing of Hong Kong Disneyland in a briefing earlier.

To enhance the visual effect, the park has also invited famed Hollywood horror film director Jim Sonzero, who produced scary movies like "Pulse" and "Biohazard 5", to direct the TV commercial, according to Alvita Leung.

Besides the horrific happenings, which may seem very un-Disneylike, Hong Kong Disneyland has not forgotten its trademark family-friendly approach. A Not So Scary Halloween Party is planned for September and October for visitors to enjoy some sweet tricky-or-treat games. You will hear lots of screams, only this time of delight.

Grab the youngsters

"Haunted Halloween, as one of our seasonal events, is an important opportunity to attract more youngsters," said Alvita Leung.

Disneyland will promote the event from many different channels.

"In addition to traditional approaches, such as TVC, printing advertisements and outdoor billboards, Disneyland will also make efforts on online promotion to target teenagers, such as posting the most updated information on Facebook," Leung says.

Disney will also cooperate with convenience stores, telecommunication and movie theaters to increase exposure and sales channels. Leung didn't reveal the total spending on this Halloween event.

The park is looking forward to a significant growth in attendance this year, Leung says.

Ocean Park seems confident. "Our approaches are very creative," it says.

The park invited Master Sze To, the TV presenter of The Unbelievable, to tell four ghost stories that are set in Ocean Park's haunted houses. The videos can be seen on Youtube, Yahoo Video, and even mainland website Tudou. Besides, Ocean Park also focuses on promotion on Facebook. A function called personal live video will be spreading among facebook users. They can put their friends' pictures in a ghost's head, appearing in a scary video.

The total investment in the Halloween Bash event reaches a 7-digit number on the highest end, according to Cheng.

A perennial topic

Disneyland or Ocean Park for Halloween is a perennial topic among young people in Hong Kong every year. "Disneyland vs. Ocean Park" can even be found on Internet forums, blogs, flicker, etc.

Ocean Park fans are excited as they anticipate experiencing local ghost stories and laughing Gor's appearance. Disneyland's fans think Disneyland has better sets, props and costumes.

Ms Chu, who visited last year's Disneyland haunted Halloween, says, "Although there were only two haunted houses, they made everything very detailed, even the makeup of those ghosts."

A Web user in an Internet discussion forum offered that Ocean Park is a bigger venue with better atmosphere. That's what attracts him.

The battle has also spread to the mainland market. Tina Tian, sales manager of CITS Shenzhen, whose travel agency is promoting Halloween packages, says, "The publicity of Disney's Halloween event seems more successful than Ocean Park by now."

The real showdown is yet to come. The competition and the publicity will become more and more intense as Halloween approaches. It won't be long before people step into these sinister locales and the haunting will begin.

(HK Edition 09/18/2009 page1)