To promote the use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) for innovation and marketing, the Department of Marketing and International Business at Lingnan University hosted the Hong Kong Quant Marketing Conference 2025 at the Hong Kong Gold Coast Hotel today, 14 May. “Data-Driven Quant Marketing Insights for Business Impact” shares fresh research findings within the industry, and examines how quantitative approaches can solve real-world marketing challenges in healthcare, e-commerce, legal policy, and digital experimentation. The conference was attended by over 180 scholars, industry leaders, and postgraduate students from Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and international institutions.

Two important keynote speakers, editors-in-chief of top-tier international academic journals, were Prof Chan Tat, Professor of Marketing at Washington University in St. Louis and Senior Editor of Marketing Science; and Prof Kapil R. Tuli, Deputy Dean (Research) at the Singapore Management University and Co-Editor of the Journal of Marketing Research.

Prof Raymond Chan Hon-fu, Vice-President (Academics) cum Provost and Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Scientific Computing at Lingnan University, said Lingnan was honoured to host the conference for the first time, aims to foster closer collaboration between academia and industry in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area by facilitating knowledge transfer and transforming research insights into practical business applications, and “With the rapid development of big data analytics and AI technologies, the marketing field is undergoing a major transformation. These powerful tools offer unprecedented opportunities for businesses to better understand consumer behaviour, forecast market trends, and optimise decision-making processes. This conference provides a platform for academic exchange, with the long-term goal of promoting innovation and driving economic growth.”

The conference also mentioned Lingnan's groundbreaking research, and Prof Victor Li Yiwei, Associate Professor of the Department of Marketing and International Business at Lingnan University, presented interesting findings about online review management. His analysis of 168 hotels worldwide shows that while responding to customer reviews improves ratings, it often limits the number of reviews. However, having more reviews has a greater impact on sales than perfect ratings. This provided helpful guidance for businesses, which should focus on encouraging more customer feedback rather than higher scores.

Prof Chan Tat described how digital seminars for healthcare professionals have transformed pharmaceutical marketing in China. His study of the cardiac drug Verquvo shows an increase in target drug prescriptions and a reduction in competing prescriptions, and also how speaker prestige and peer examples within hospitals create impressive marketing results without traditional sales tactics. 

Prof Kapil R. Tuli explained how legal protection affects marketing budgets. His study of US companies shows that stronger trade secret laws have led to significant increases in advertising spending, and that intellectual property policies directly influence marketing investment decisions. 

Prof Huang Shan, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Hong Kong, presented a radical solution for more reliable digital experiments. Her innovative framework for A/B testing, dynamically adjusted for participant timing variations, solves a major problem in online research, and has already proven effective in WeChat trials, helping businesses to make better decisions from test results. 

In her closing speech, Prof Peng Ling, Head of the Department of Marketing and International Business at Lingnan University, emphasised the high reference value and influence of these research findings, emphasising that such information serves to translate academic knowledge into practical business applications, equipping enterprises with the necessary technologies to maintain a competitive edge in today's data-driven business environment, adding “Lingnan University’s research team will continue to harness the power of big data and AI technologies to develop marketing solutions that address real-world business challenges. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr Anthony So and Mr Colin Wong, BBA (Hons) Marketing alumni from OnMyGrad for their generous support as the Exclusive Sponsor of this Conference.”

The Hong Kong Quant Marketing Conference is hosted annually by different universities in Hong Kong, and is a useful platform for scholars from Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area to discuss their latest research in quantitative marketing.

Please click here to learn more about the Hong Kong Quant Marketing Conference 2025.