Lee Kum Kee reinvents iconic premium oyster sauce for everyday cooking

Lee Kum Kee has launched a relaunch campaign for its iconic premium oyster sauce, premiumising the brand by spotlighting its heritage craftsmanship as the reason for its distinctive taste.

With the tagline “A century of craftsmanship, boundless umami” (百年工藝 百般鮮味), the two-year campaign is done in collaboration with creative agency Hungry Digital and media agency Wavemaker. It spans markets including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore.

The campaign stems from Lee Kum Kee’s insights as a leading home-cook sauce brand, with oyster sauce as its flagship product. While it has become a kitchen staple, it's rarely reconsidered beyond its usual uses, especially among younger cooks who may not fully understand its versatility. With the original oyster sauce absent from advertising for decades, this relaunch serves to reintroduce it with renewed relevance. 

The campaign aims to re-establish oyster sauce as an essential everyday ingredient for an instant umami lift and to broaden perceptions of its versatility in daily dishes, particularly among home cooks aged 30 and under, positioning it as the quickest way to enhance umami in cooking.

To make a staple feel new again among the audience, Lee Kum Kee has launched a 30-second hero film that connects time-honoured making with the instant payoff in the pan—showing how one dash unlocks deeper flavour in everyday home cooking, across generations, with its iconic premium oyster sauce made by a century of craftsmanship.

To rejuvenate interest in its oyster sauce, Lee Kum Kee has launched a 30-second hero film that connects time-honoured production techniques with the immediate flavour enhancement in cooking. The film illustrates how a simple dash of its iconic premium oyster sauce, crafted over a century, unlocks deeper flavours in everyday dishes across generations.

The campaign has adopted a digital and social-first strategy, sharing content on Lee Kum Kee’s Facebook and Instagram pages. This includes everyday meal ideas centred on the theme of "instant umami uplift," featuring various scenarios to broaden usage without turning it into a recipe lesson.

To further engage a wide audience, the campaign is promoted through out-of-home ads on 12-sheet posters and digital billboards. These feature bold, appetite-led key visuals that hero the bottle and the transformation of food, pairing craft cues with simple copy that reinforces premium quality and everyday versatility.

Erin Lin, general manager, Lee Kum Kee (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan), said: “With over a hundred years of heritage and craftsmanship, Lee Kum Kee’s iconic premium oyster sauce has become the irreplaceable sauce for creating delicious moments every day in millions of families. We’re delighted to see that across generations, more families are using Oyster Sauce than before.” 

Don’t miss: Lee Kum Kee partners with UNESCO to preserve global food heritage

Recently, Lee Kum Kee has launched the “Forever flavours project” in partnership with UNESCO, inviting people from around the world to join a living archive of food memories and cultural stories.

Instead of just a campaign, it is a movement to preserve, carry on, and celebrate culinary heritage under the belief that every flavour carries a story. Whether it’s a father’s stew, a grandmother’s dumplings, or a friend’s loaf of bread, these stories are the taste of our time, and Lee Kum Kee is committed to curating and sharing them with the world.

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