Hong Kong Brand Threads Case Studies: From SC Storage to McDonald's HK — 5 Common Rules Behind Every Success

Why Study Case Studies? Because There’s Too Much Theory and Too Little Replicable Practice

Over the past six months, 10Lab has received plenty of inquiries from Hong Kong brands: “We know Threads matters, but we don’t know where to start.” “Can those Taiwan case studies just be copied to Hong Kong?” “Does Threads actually work? Are there any Hong Kong success stories of our own?”

These questions reflect one fact: theory around Threads marketing is everywhere, but Hong Kong-specific case studies are seriously lacking. Most Chinese-language resources are Taiwan-centric — and the market environment, user behaviour, and language conventions in Taiwan and Hong Kong are very different.

This article unpacks five real Hong Kong case studies on Threads — including the execution details, results data, and most importantly, what you can learn from them.

Case 1: SC Storage — The Shocking Personal-vs-Brand Account Experiment

Brand background: SC Storage (a self-storage brand, one of Hong Kong’s leading mini-storage providers)

The case: CEO Kevin Shee posted identical coupon offers simultaneously from his personal Threads account and SC Storage’s official brand account.

The contrast:

Personal account: Almost every coupon was claimed by users
Official account: Not a single coupon was redeemed

To verify this wasn’t a fluke, Kevin repeated similar experiments multiple times — and reached the same conclusion every time. Same content, same offer, same timing, same hashtags — yet the personal account drastically outperformed the official one.

Why? Three Structural Factors

First, algorithmic trust scoring. The Threads algorithm evaluates a poster’s “credibility” — and personal accounts are inherently rated higher than brand accounts. A coupon from an account named @KevinShee is interpreted by the algorithm as a “personal recommendation”; the same coupon from @SCStorage is read as “commercial advertising,” triggering the algorithm’s ad-like content suppression mechanism.

Second, user-perception bias. For Hong Kong users, what “a person” says and what “a brand” says are two completely different categories of information. Research shows 68.4% of Hong Kong Threads users prefer following personal accounts over brand accounts — and this preference translates directly into action when it comes to claiming offers.

Third, the naturalness of interaction. When Kevin posted the offer from his personal account, the comment section quickly filled with replies like “Thanks, Kevin!” “Just used it, much appreciated!” — interactions using real names and personal voice. The same kind of replies under the official account would naturally be far fewer — because no one wants to say thank you to a logo.

What Can You Learn?

If you’re a founder or CEO, your personal Threads account may be more valuable than your company account. Invest time in building your personal brand rather than dumping all your resources into the brand account.
Brand accounts aren’t useless — but their function should be repositioned: from “sales channel” to “customer service + brand presence.” The actual selling motion should be executed by accounts with a personal voice.
If the founder isn’t willing to be visible, you need to think about how to “personify” the brand account — exactly the persona design we covered in the previous article. Brand accounts without personification are doomed to underperform on Threads.

Case 2: McDonald’s HK × Edan Lui — An Accidental 15,000-Like Viral Moment

Brand background: McDonald’s Hong Kong

The case: MIRROR member Edan Lui posted a phone-shot photo of McGriddles on his personal Threads account, with a short caption sharing his thoughts after trying them.

The result: The post received over 15,100 likes, becoming the most viral post on Threads about McGriddles.

The most critical detail: This was NOT a paid sponsorship.

Why Did This Post Go Viral?

Hungry Digital founder Rudi Leung described this case as “engagement money can’t buy.” He analysed several success factors:

First, this was a real moment, not a marketing campaign. Edan didn’t style the post for any brand, didn’t use professional lighting, didn’t write a polished caption. He just snapped a photo on his phone, casually wrote a sentence, and posted it. This “unpackaged” quality is exactly what Threads users value most.

Second, the post triggered Edan’s fan community. MIRROR’s fan base is already highly active, and the Threads algorithm prioritises pushing this kind of high-engagement content to users in related interest clusters. One fan commented, more fans joined in, deep conversation chains formed — triggering the algorithm’s viral spread mechanism.

Third, McDonald’s didn’t try to control or “optimise” this organic moment. If McDonald’s social team had immediately reposted, added hashtags, or tried to convert it into an ad — the organic magic would have evaporated instantly. Instead, they let the moment ferment naturally.

What Can You Learn?

The most powerful brand moments are usually NOT created by brands themselves — they’re generated by fans and KOLs spontaneously. The brand’s job is to set up the conditions for these moments to happen.
Don’t over-produce KOL collaborations. If you’re a Hong Kong brand commissioning KOLs to recommend your product on Threads, give them as little brief as possible and maximum creative freedom. A KOL post that looks “ad-like” performs terribly on Threads.
The production value of authenticity is “no production value.” Phone photos, grammatical errors, casual tone — these “flaws” in traditional marketing textbooks are advantages on Threads.

Case 3: A Local Everyday User’s 570,000-Reach Miracle

Subject: A regular Hong Kong woman with only about 300 followers

The case: She casually posted a slice-of-life entry about buying feminine care products, accompanied by a photo taken at the supermarket shelf and a receipt.

The result:

570,000 views
700+ likes
2,100 reposts

This case has no direct brand connection — but it reveals an extremely important phenomenon on Threads: everyday users can outreach major brands.

Why Could a 300-Follower User Reach 570,000 People?

This is the Threads algorithm at work again:

The post’s authenticity triggered strong resonance — female users saw it and thought “this is exactly my daily life”
Early commenters shared their own purchasing experiences, sparking second-layer conversations
Female users started replying to each other and recommending other products, forming multi-layered conversation chains
The algorithm identified this as a “highly active female interest topic” and pushed it to non-followers in related interest clusters
The topic spread to adjacent interest clusters — beauty, lifestyle, hygiene
Secondary spread: users took screenshots and shared them on Instagram Stories and other platforms

What Can You Learn?

Follower count means almost nothing on Threads. A user with 300 followers can outperform a brand official account with 50,000. The single factor that determines reach is: conversation depth.
This mechanism is a massive opportunity for SME brands. You don’t need years to build up followers — you just need to create one post that sparks deep conversation, and the algorithm will push it to hundreds of thousands of people automatically.
Women, lifestyle topics, consumer decisions — the cross-section of these three topics is especially prone to viral spread on Threads. If your brand sits in this cross-section (beauty, home goods, F&B, health), your organic opportunity is the largest.

Case 4: MORE Digital — An Agency’s Own Threads Education Content Strategy

Brand background: MORE Digital, a Hong Kong digital marketing agency

The case: MORE Digital uses the @moredigitalhk account to share online marketing knowledge on Threads — including Threads ad performance data, Hong Kong social platform rankings, and more.

What’s distinctive: This case demonstrates how B2B service brands should run on Threads — a completely different playbook from consumer brands.

Several Observed Characteristics

First, leading with data and insight as the hook. Many of MORE Digital’s posts open with a specific data point — for example, “Threads ad CTR is THIS much lower than IG?” — an insight with immediate value, then short text explaining the implication. This format is especially effective for B2B audiences (marketers, business owners).

Second, avoiding hard-selling services. Most of MORE Digital’s posts don’t promote their own services. Their strategy: by consistently sharing valuable industry insights, they build thought leadership and let prospects who need their services find them naturally. This is the Threads version of inbound marketing.

Third, building niche authority. MORE Digital doesn’t try to serve every audience on Threads — they focus on marketers and business owners as their niche, so their content, tone, and examples are all calibrated for this group.

What Can You Learn?

The best strategy for B2B brands on Threads is thought leadership, not lead generation. Publish high-value industry insights, build your authority, and the results will come naturally.
“A platform with poor ad performance” is not the same as “a platform with poor marketing performance.” MORE Digital’s own case proves it perfectly: even though Threads ad CTR is low, organic content marketing on Threads remains extremely effective.
Niche down. If your B2B brand wants to be effective on Threads, don’t try to serve everyone. Pick one specific audience segment and become the authority voice for that segment.

Case 5: Hungry Digital — Building Thought Leadership Through Original Survey Data

Brand background: Hungry Digital, a Hong Kong digital marketing agency, founded by Rudi Leung

The case: In 2024, Hungry Digital published the first in-depth survey report on Hong Kong Threads users, polling 212 local users and revealing multiple findings that have shaped the industry’s understanding of Threads.

Key Findings from the Report:

70.3% of users open Threads at least three times daily
62.5% of users follow no brand accounts at all
68.4% of users prefer following personal accounts over brand accounts
87.5% of users only use the algorithm-recommended For You feed
51.4% of users feel Threads reflects local Hong Kong culture
96.2% of users access Threads via smartphone

This report reshaped industry understanding of how to operate Threads in Hong Kong. Several of Rudi Leung’s key quotes are continually referenced by peers, including: “Social media platforms that are primarily text-based have rarely succeeded in Hong Kong, but Threads has broken the mould.”

Why This Case Matters

This case demonstrates a key marketing strategy: building industry authority through original research. While Threads was still in its early stages, the market was extremely starved of reliable data — any agency with the resources to conduct original research could establish industry-authority status in a very short time through this kind of report.

What Can You Learn?

If you’re a B2B agency or consultant, original research is the most effective thought leadership tactic. The perceived value of a 100-respondent local survey far exceeds 100 ordinary blog posts.
A new platform’s early stage is the golden window for building authority. While others are still trial-and-erroring, whoever can provide reliable insights will be seen as the authority.
The ROI of data-driven thought leadership is usually much higher than imagined. The PR exposure, industry citations, and potential client introductions Hungry Digital gained from this survey far exceeded the survey’s cost.

5 Common Rules Across All 5 Cases: What Are Successful Threads Brands Actually Doing?

After reviewing all five cases, five common rules emerge.

Rule 1: Personal Voice Always Beats Brand Voice

From SC Storage to McDonald’s × Edan Lui to the everyday user with 570,000 reach — every successful case validates the same principle: on Threads, users trust “people” more than “brands.”

If your brand only has an official account, refuses to let founders or employees be visible, and clings to a corporate tone — you’ve already lost 80% of your potential on Threads.

Rule 2: The Production Value of Authenticity Is “No Production Value”

McDonald’s × Edan Lui’s phone photo, SC Storage’s casual tone, the everyday user’s grab-shot at a supermarket shelf — these content textures that would be rejected by traditional brand guidelines are exactly what works on Threads.

Conclusion: Drop the perfectionism. Your Instagram can keep its polished aesthetic, but your Threads should be “unrefined.”

Rule 3: The Algorithm Rewards Conversation Depth, Not Followers

A 300-follower user can reach 570,000 people. A 50,000-follower brand account can reach 0 people (if no one comments). This asymmetry is a fundamental feature of the Threads platform.

Conclusion: Stop obsessing over follower count. Focus on the first hour after publishing — replying to every comment, sparking deep conversation — that’s the single action that determines reach.

Rule 4: B2B and B2C Playbooks Are Completely Different

McDonald’s × Edan Lui’s playbook (KOL × organic moment) might not work at all for SC Storage. MORE Digital’s playbook (thought leadership content) would feel deeply strange for McDonald’s.

Conclusion: Pick the archetype that fits you. Consumer brands should focus on personification + KOL organic moments + sea-patrol-style engagement; B2B brands should focus on data-driven thought leadership + niche authority building.

Rule 5: First-Mover Advantage Still Exists, but the Window Is Narrowing

All five cases are from 2024 to early 2025. At this stage, no brand has yet fully dominated the Threads platform in Hong Kong — competition isn’t saturated, there’s still huge room for brand awareness, and organic reach is still far higher than on other social platforms.

But Meta launched global advertising on Threads in April 2025, and the industry expects Threads’ ad business to expand rapidly across 2025–2026. As advertising monetisation matures, today’s organic reach advantage will gradually compress.

Conclusion: If your brand still hasn’t started taking Threads seriously, now is the last low-cost window for entry.

3 Things You Can Start Doing Today

If you’re ready to act after reading these five cases, here are three things you can start today:

1. Register a Threads Account With Personality

You don’t need a complex brand strategy — first, just establish presence. It can be your personal account, the founder’s, or a personified version of the brand. The most important thing: it must have a voice.

2. Post 3 Times a Day, for 30 Days Straight

The Threads algorithm rewards frequency. What you’ll learn in 30 days will be more than what you’d learn from reading 30 blog posts. Set a commitment: 3 posts a day, 30 days straight, no excuses.

3. Spend 1 Hour Studying 5 Successful Hong Kong Threads Accounts

Not limited to brands — they can be KOLs, everyday users, or thought leaders. Observe their tone, frequency, reply patterns, and posting times. Threads’ best practices will become obvious within that hour.

Conclusion: Hong Kong’s Threads Story Has Only Written Its First Chapter

These five cases are only the beginning of the story. Hong Kong’s Threads market is still in an extremely early stage — no brand has yet reached the level of dominance held by Taiwan’s “Hachiyo Tea.” This vacuum is a massive opportunity for any Hong Kong brand with vision.

The next brand to appear on this case studies list could be yours.

Want a more comprehensive, in-depth Threads marketing playbook? 10Lab has compiled the 5 Threads Viral Strategies PDF guide — covering the algorithm, persona design, sea patrol, reply strategy, and every other key tactic. Free download.

Already downloaded by over 1,000 Hong Kong brand owners and marketers — currently the most complete Threads playbook for the Hong Kong market.

Get the Free Guide →

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Hong Kong Brand Threads Case Studies: From SC Storage to McDonald's HK — 5 Common Rules Behind Every Success

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