Case Study: Hong Kong Airlines turns a crisis into a PR win with Talkwalker

How to turn a crisis into a soaring success

Hong Kong Airlines, a full‑service carrier based in Hong Kong serving nearly 40 destinations, faced an emerging crisis in August 2018 when a Los Angeles–Shanghai business-class fare was mispriced at $561, sparking a fast-growing wave of social conversation and the risk of negative PR.

Using Hootsuite and Talkwalker dashboards and alerts to catch influencer mentions and sudden spikes, the team monitored the situation, benchmarked competitor responses, and decided to honor the fares within 24 hours while actively engaging across social channels. The proactive strategy turned the incident into a PR win: engagements surged (reported as a 4,900% increase in one week), mentions and reach rose sharply (including a 268.1% increase in US mentions and a 105.5% global reach increase), business-class conversations grew to 35.1% of brand talk, and net sentiment remained positive with no negative spikes.

Hong Kong Airlines

Dennis Owen

General Manager, Branding and Social Media