In almost every place you find crowds in Hong Kong the presence of folks standing in the streets handing out promotional leaflets is unavoidable. These marketing staff are paid to either distribute sheets of paper containing offers of cheap three-in-one breakfast set, cheap massage services or affordable office spaces for lease.

Many are polite and are gracious even when met by disinterested pedestrians. Some are pesky and try to make sure you get one copy. Others are rude and block your way so the only way to proceed with the journey is to grab one sheet.

I have always wondered how effective are these marketing strategies. For one, I guess deploying a leaflet distributor each in Mong Kok, Causeway Bay, Central and Wan Chai is cheaper alternative than posting ads on a newspaper. But maybe the number of eyeballs they attract to read the ads is low, not to mention the effectiveness.

Is this done to make an employee busy? Just for example, if a noodle shop opens at 10am, its servers report to work at 9am. But since they can’t serve meals until the next hour, they are put to use by distributing papers.

A more subtle yet cluttered way of promoting a guitar lesson, loans or rooms for rent comes in the form of bills posted on walls, lamp posts and just about every place where paper and glue would stick. I often notice sneaky middle aged men and women or fast moving teens armed with a taking this job. They typically frolic in the street finding the right lamp post, wall or even advertising frame on bus stops and stick pieces of paper on them, one at a time.

Despite apparent low yield (or so I think), these strategies somehow work for certain businesses. Many leaflet distributors continue to crowd the streets offering freebies (which Hong Kong people are fond of collecting) despite annoyance they bring to people.

Photo credit: superlocal