Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tweet Inspires New Air New Zealand Campaign


Following on from Air New Zealand's recent success with their 'Bare Essentialls' campaign, the airline has launched a new ad campaign inspired by a Tweet from one of their passenger.

Back in June Tim Benjamin was on a flight with Air New Zealand and tweeted the following message: "Just flown Air New Zealand from LHR to LAX. Best airline I've experienced. Food & IFE great. Staff allowed to have a personality."

Albion have said that it was during their research phase, that they came across the tweet. The particular comment "Staff allowed to have a personality", struck a chord and Air New Zealand's agency Albion immediately recognised that it was the perfect strapline for the new campaign. Air New Zealand runs a policy of trusting its crew members to uphold the company's brand and service values without forcing them to comply with rigorous rules, allowing them to "have a personality".

Benjamin's tweet now forms the basis of Air New Zealand's latest brand campaign, and appears on ads running across digital outdoor and online advertising placements. The online executions feature full rich video and are backed up with standard formats showing the crew's personal opinions of the onboard products and their personal recommendations for places to visit and things to do at the various Air New Zealand destinations. The video executions will appear on digital escalator panels and LCD digital screens at various tube stations across London and will run for four weeks. They will also appear on roadside LCD 48 sheet billboards.

Scott Carr, Air New Zealand General Manager, Europe, said, “This year, the campaign is 100% digital and online, allowing us to fully interact with our audience. By letting the crew shine through the use of video footage, the digital executions really enable us to demonstrate the personality of the airline. In addition we believe the creative executions are a breath of fresh air and break from the traditional style of airline advertising giving the campaign real stand-out and our world-class crew the recognition they deserve.”

This is the making of video for the new campaign:


Albion have been acting as Air New Zealand's lead agency since last April, following a four-way pitch against Adam & Eve, Publicis and Farm. The account was reported to be worth £2 million.

For those that missed it, this is the video for the 'Bare Essentials' campaign:

1 comment:

Ralph Smith said...

Great post, I think a lot of large multinationals could learn from this and allow their staff some flexibility.