Hong Leong Bank Bets on Real Stories for CNY 2025
"Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" is Hong Leong Bank's Chinese New Year 2025 film campaign, produced by M&C Saatchi Malaysia, that follows two real HLB customers — lion dance troupe founder Kah Chun and race car driver Leona Chin — as they overcome adversity and pursue exceptional achievements, positioning the bank as a partner in personal and financial growth.
Published in Malaysia in January 2025, the campaign launched ahead of Chinese New Year on 29 January 2025, according to marketech-apac.com. The film carries the secondary title "HLB CNY 2025 - Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" and consists of a single media asset built entirely around narrative storytelling. Rather than defaulting to the seasonal tropes of festivity and abundance that dominate Malaysian CNY advertising, Hong Leong Bank chose to anchor the campaign in documented human achievement, using the real-world credentials of its two protagonists as proof of its brand promise.
Kah Chun leads a world-champion lion dance troupe, a feat rooted in years of disciplined training and cultural stewardship within Malaysia. Leona Chin is one of the country's most recognised motorsport figures, a driver who has built her career by competing in spaces historically closed to women. Together, the two subjects embody the campaign's central metaphor: winter as a period of hardship, and spring as the reward for perseverance. The campaign directed audiences to Hlb Com My/cny for further offers and financial planning resources, connecting emotional storytelling to commercial intent. Hong Leong Bank's Clapboard Score for this campaign is 72 out of 100, reflecting strong narrative coherence and cultural relevance within the Malaysian market.
Hong Leong Bank occupies a distinct position in a concentrated domestic market. According to Amequities My, Hong Leong Bank held approximately 8.5% of domestic loans in the second quarter of 2025, placing it in the mid-tier of Malaysian banking by market share. By contrast, Maybank held 18.7% of domestic loans and Public Bank held 17.8% in the same period, also according to amequities.my, establishing those two institutions as the dominant forces in Malaysian retail and commercial banking. CIMB held 12.1% of domestic loans over the same period, per amequities.my. In this competitive environment, brand differentiation at high-visibility cultural moments — such as Chinese New Year — carries strategic weight that extends beyond the campaign itself.
Chinese New Year is one of the most commercially contested advertising periods in Malaysia, with virtually every major financial institution producing seasonal content. The insight driving "Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" moves against that convention. Rather than celebrating arrival — wealth, reunion, abundance — Hong Leong Bank chose to dramatise the journey, specifically the difficulty that precedes achievement. The campaign's use of the winter-to-spring metaphor is culturally precise: in Chinese literary and philosophical tradition, winter represents hardship and dormancy, while spring signals earned renewal rather than passive good fortune.
The campaign extended Hong Leong Bank's "Built Around You" brand platform, introduced in 2019, according to adsoftheworld.com. That platform positions the bank as a financial partner that organises itself around individual customer goals rather than product categories. By casting actual HLB customers — rather than actors or celebrities performing fictional roles — the 2025 CNY film grounds the platform's promise in verifiable reality. In Malaysia, where Chinese New Year advertising frequently trends toward polished sentiment and family reunion narratives, this choice to foreground personal ambition and public achievement represents a deliberate strategic contrast.
"Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" operates as a documentary-inflected brand film, a format that demands a different production logic than conventional advertising. The campaign's creative power rests on the authenticity of its two subjects. Kah Chun's world-champion lion dance troupe and Leona Chin's motorsport career are matters of public record in Malaysia, and the film treats those records as its primary creative material. Production credits for "Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" are not publicly documented beyond the agency attribution to M&C Saatchi Malaysia.
M&C Saatchi Malaysia structured the film around the campaign's central metaphor with deliberate restraint. The winter-to-spring arc functions as a through-line rather than an explicit narration, allowing the visual and biographical weight of each subject's story to carry the argument. Lion dance, as a discipline, is already rich in cinematic potential — its physical demands, competitive pressure, and cultural significance translate naturally to screen. Leona Chin's story adds a different texture: the precision of motorsport, the isolation of being a pioneer, and the visibility that comes with breaking into a male-dominated arena in Malaysia.
The decision to build the campaign around a single film asset, rather than a multi-format content suite, concentrates creative and production investment into one piece. This approach prioritises depth over reach at the execution level, trusting the narrative to earn sustained attention rather than capturing fragmented moments across multiple formats. As reported by Muse by Clio, the campaign was included in the outlet's roundup of Lunar New Year campaigns published on 23 January 2025, alongside work from Nike, Heineken, and Gucci — a selection that signals the campaign's creative standing relative to global CNY advertising output. The film's English-language delivery broadens its accessibility across Malaysia's multilingual market while remaining culturally grounded in Chinese New Year symbolism and tradition.
No verified performance data for "Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" — including view counts, engagement rates, or brand lift metrics — is publicly available at the time of writing. What the public record does confirm is the campaign's editorial reception and competitive placement within the 2025 Lunar New Year advertising landscape.
As reported by Muse by Clio, "Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" was named among the standout Lunar New Year campaigns of 2025 in a roundup published on 23 January 2025, appearing alongside campaigns from Nike, Heineken, and Gucci. Inclusion in that selection by a globally respected creative editorial outlet — without the support of a large global media budget — indicates that the campaign's craft and strategic concept were considered competitive at an international level. Coverage also appeared on adsoftheworld.com and marketech-apac.com, extending the campaign's documented reach within both global creative and regional marketing press.
Structurally, the campaign demonstrates several markers of effectiveness. Anchoring the film in verifiable real-world achievement — a world-champion lion dance troupe and a recognised motorsport figure — removes the credibility gap that affects fictional brand storytelling. The winter-to-spring metaphor creates emotional architecture that aligns Chinese New Year symbolism with Hong Leong Bank's "Built Around You" platform, making the seasonal message brand-specific rather than interchangeable. In a Malaysian banking market where the six largest groups account for roughly 70% of system loans, according to amequities.my, Hong Leong Bank's use of CNY as a brand-building rather than purely promotional vehicle reflects a considered long-term positioning strategy. The campaign earns a Clapboard Score of 72 out of 100, recognising its narrative discipline, cultural precision, and meaningful use of real customer stories.
"Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" is Hong Leong Bank's Chinese New Year 2025 film campaign, created by M&C Saatchi Malaysia. It follows two real HLB customers — lion dance troupe founder Kah Chun and race car driver Leona Chin — whose stories of perseverance and achievement embody the bank's "Built Around You" brand platform in the Malaysian market.
M&C Saatchi Malaysia created the "Beyond Winter, Spring Awaits" campaign for Hong Leong Bank. The campaign was published in Malaysia in January 2025, ahead of Chinese New Year on 29 January 2025, and consists of a single narrative film asset featuring two real Hong Leong Bank customers as its central subjects.
Kah Chun is the founder of a world-champion lion dance troupe in Malaysia, and Leona Chin is a trailblazing Malaysian race car driver. Both are real Hong Leong Bank customers whose documented achievements anchor the campaign's central argument that perseverance through hardship leads to meaningful success.
The campaign extends Hong Leong Bank's "Built Around You" brand platform, introduced in 2019 according to adsoftheworld.com. The 2025 CNY film refreshes that platform through real customer stories and Chinese New Year symbolism, positioning the bank as a partner in individual ambition rather than a provider of seasonal promotional offers.
Muse by Clio included the campaign in its Lunar New Year 2025 roundup published on 23 January 2025, placing it alongside work from Nike, Heineken, and Gucci. The campaign also received coverage from adsoftheworld.com and marketech-apac.com, establishing its standing within both global creative and regional marketing press.
Hong Leong Bank held approximately 8.5% of domestic loans in Malaysia in the second quarter of 2025, according to amequities.my. That places it behind Maybank at 18.7%, Public Bank at 17.8%, and CIMB at 12.1% in the same period, making brand differentiation at key cultural moments a meaningful competitive tool.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
.jpg&w=256&q=75)
