Press - Hong Kong Movie Stars Draw Thousands to Major Stamp Show

22-Mar-04

IFSDA Magazine
By: Yossi Malamud

HONG KONG 2004, an International Stamp Show that ran from January 30 – February 3, under the patronage of Hong Kong Post was a delight to attend. Almost 150,000 collectors came during the course of the five day exhibition. Every day, hundreds of school buses brought large groups of students to the exhibition where they were shown around the show and given a fascinating introduction to the hobby of stamp collecting.

On each day, an impressive first day of issue ceremony was staged to arouse the interest of both stamp collectors and curious members of the general public who were attracted to attend by the excellent publicity campaign that included newspaper and broadcast ads, as well as billboard and bus posters.

Our firm, the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation (IGPC), which represents more than 65 government postal administrations and is responsible for their marketing and distribution of their postage stamps around the world, had a super booth where we sold recent stamp issues released by these respective post offices.

On Sunday February 1, IGPC arranged a special first day of issue ceremony for Ghana Post. It was decided by the postal authorities in Accra that Ghana should celebrate HONG KONG 2004 with a special stamp sheetlet that honored the achievements of two world-class Chinese entertainers – movie star Ray Lui and Richie Jen who combines an appeal among younger fans as both a movie and pop music sensation.

Publicity sent to Hong Kong daily newspapers, radio and television stations, resulted in thousands of Ray Lui and Richie Jen fans flocking to the stamp show in order to get a close-up view of their heroes, who attended the special first day of issue ceremony at the exhibition hall.

Both spoke in Cantonese Chinese about how truly thrilled they were to be honored for their entertainment achievements on postage stamps. After the ceremony, Ray Lui and Richie Jen sat for almost three hours in order to accommodate all of the thousands who attended the ceremony and stood in long lines in order to have the opportunity of meeting their favorite celebrity and have them personally autographed.

No doubt, many of these movie fans will give serious consideration to philately as a hobby after this type of introduction to postage stamps as a collectible.
From our experience at Hong Kong, it is obvious that show organizers and post offices have to do more to jointly promote enthusiasm amongst the tens of millions in the general public who may not be aware of our great recreational activity which is not only healthy, but also educational and fascinating.

The children and young adults are the future of our great hobby. “Hats Off” to Hong Kong Post for their efforts and it is my hope that other postal administrations and exhibition organizers follow suit in a worldwide effort to attract new collectors to stamp collecting.

(Yossi Malamud is the Executive Vice Presdient of the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation which is based in New York City. He has traveled to almost every major international stamp exhibition in the past decade and has organized many celebrity first day of issue ceremonies for the government postal authorities represented by IGPC).