Browsing: Air New Zealand

News
A bit sketchy: Air New Zealand’s new animated safety video takes flight
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Just as Braniff airways shook up the fairly dull US airline sector in the ’60s by painting its planes bright colours and putting its hostesses in bright uniforms, Air New Zealand changed the way everyone looked at inflight safety videos by making them entertaining and, with its previous agency .99, it basically created a whole new—and quite powerful—media channel. So far we’ve seen painted bodies, All Blacks, lycra-clad, OTT aerobics instructors and puerile puppets. And for the first time the airline has decided to take an animated approach, with a new ’hand-drawn’ safety video featuring the voice talent of Kiwi-born actress Melanie Lynskey and Modern Family’s Ed O’Neill, as well as a range of “cameo appearances”.

News
When commerce meets conservation: Air New Zealand signs $3 million sponsorship deal with DoC
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In keeping with the burgeoning–and some would say, worrying—trend for the Department of Conservation to align itself with corporate benefactors (as outlined in a story about ‘Conservation for Prosperity’ in a recent issue of North & South), and in keeping with Air New Zealand’s environmental push, the national airline has signed up for a three year partnership with DoC worth the equivalent of $1 million annually.

Opinion
Air New Zealand’s rare loyalty miscue—UPDATED
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I fly a lot. I fly a lot with Air New Zealand. It’s my favourite airline in the world and I consider myself an honorary Air New Zealander (the name that Air NZ uses for its employees). Everywhere I go I evangelise my airline (Air New Zealand is owned, in part, by the New Zealand taxpayer so it is, in effect, my airline). So, given all this, it’s a sad day when I’m forced to write a post bemoaning a move that New Zealand’s airline makes.

News
DraftFCB keeps walking the walk with persuasive Koru Lounge campaign
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One of the great ironies of the advertising industry is the fact that advertising agencies, despite dispensing plenty of advice to their clients about the need to continue spending up large (especially during a recession), rarely advertise themselves. But DraftFCB has been the exception to that rule in New Zealand in recent years and it caught our attention with a campaign that showed off some of its remarkable powers of persuasion in Air New Zealand’s Koru lounges.

News
High five
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A fair bit to choose from this week, so, in the spirit of V-Day giving, we’re dishing out gifts left, right and centre in an effort to gain your love.

Who’s it for: 2degrees by TBWA\ and Film Construction.

Why we like it: Rhysie and TBWA …

News
Air New Zealand faces up to misconceptions, spreads the Kiwi gospel to Aussie non-believers
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New Zealanders, with our unusual combination of immense pride and nagging self-doubt, like to be liked (“How are you enjoying your trip? Are you enjoying your trip? You’re enjoying your trip, aren’t you?”). But, just as Aucklanders have certain preconceptions of, say, Invercargill, many Australians couldn’t think of anything worse than visiting their Tasman neighbours. So, as part of a campaign launching today in Australia, Air New Zealand and its Aussie agency Host Sydney attempted to show a bunch of ‘Kiwi Sceptics’ what they were missing out on by tricking them into a trip to the other lucky country. 

News
DraftFCB takes main Air New Zealand prize, but Saatchi & Saatchi also gets in on the act
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In what will be a big blow to incumbent agency .99, Air New Zealand has chosen DrafFCB to be its lead agency after a competitive pitch, starting in March. But there is still some mystery surrounding the set-up of the account because Saatchi & Saatchi, which a few industry big mouths had thought was looking good to take the win, has also been included on the airline’s agency roster.  

Opinion
The Year in Review: Friday O’Flaherty and Andy Mitchell
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2011 was another good year for the indies, which are often playing in the same sandpit as the big boys and occasionally stealing their spades and buckets. And, with a range of experienced big agency campaigners now plying their trade outside the walls of the multinationals, this trend looks set to continue. Running With Scissors’ two main brains Friday O’Flaherty and Andy Mitchell get their freak on. 

Opinion
The Year in Review: Amanda Wilson
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2011 was a fairly challenging year for MediaWorks, with management restructures, debt problems and tax bills. But there were plenty of positives too, with the new dual-channel approach that saw TV3 trying to snatch away some of TVNZ’s wrinklier viewers and FOUR becoming a mainstream entertainment channel seemingly starting to pay dividends. Amanda Wilson, head of marketing at TV3 and FOUR, lets her opinions on 2011 be known.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Wendy Rayner
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Through a series of huge product relaunches and lotteries innovations, as well as great campaigns for Lotto, Instant Kiwi and Big Wednesday, NZ Lotteries has increased its sales by more than $250 million in recent years, an increase bigger than the total chocolate confectionary category in New Zealand. And head of marketing Wendy Rayner has played an integral role in that rise. As a result, she won the prestigious TVNZ-NZ Marketing Marketer of the Year award this year. Here’s what caught her attention in 2011.  

News
Lycra-clad assassin ‘fesses up, as Rico’s puppet master revealed
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There was both joy and despair when Air New Zealand announced it had killed off Rico. And whether or not you liked the fur and fang, the digital trickery employed by .99 and the cute tie-in with Cluedo was a clever way of sending the non-specific spokebeast off. Now his murderer has been found and in a merging of mascots, Richard Simmons is back in front of the camera for Air New Zealand, along with the very talented puppeteer behind/inside Rico, Tyler Bunch. 

News
Death becomes him? Air New Zealand’s spokesbeast goes out in a blaze of mysterious glory—UPDATED
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Rico, the furry, double entendre-loving puppet, was a polarising mascot for Air New Zealand. Some felt his lewd conduct was ‘off’brand’ and a bad look for a premium airline that had lost its marketing way. Others felt it wasn’t aimed at New Zealanders and was a smart, fun way of gaining a heap of international attention via the airline’s social media channels. He was cerainly one of the most talked-about marketing things of the year, but now, in typically dramatic fashion—and with a smart digital tie-in to the boardgame Cluedo—Rico has been killed off. 

News
Nielsen data shows Heineken on top of RWC sponsorship pile, but All Blacks supporters high up the list
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There’s been a lot of chatter about the benefits of sponsorship and the threat of ambush marketing over the past few months. Some believed the All Blacks were a more valuable property to be associated with, others believed the Rugby World Cup was worth the sizable investment. So we were interested to see this Nielsen data showing which brands the hoi polloi perceived as sponsors of the event in June and then again in October. 

News
Air New Zealand extends ABs sponsorship, stocks up on black paint
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As the nation shrugs off its collective hangover and tries to return to normality, many are struggling to remember life before the World Cup… What did we care about? What do I do? But at Air New Zealand it was straight back to business as usual, and first up was ensuring the airline’s continuing support for the All Blacks.

News
Air New Zealand flies the customer friendly skies with big online overhaul
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In a recent Idealog column, David MacGregor wrote: “User experience (UX) is a central thought for marketing today. Products are just stuff. There is no shortage of replacements for yours.” When you consider that more than a third of Air New Zealand’s revenue is generated by its global websites, and nearly half the people visiting go straight to the booking search tool, UX is an especially important aspect of the increasingly digital-centric travel industry. Those figures look likely to increase, so Air New Zealand has heeded the words of the digital soothsayers and made www.airnz.co.nz more customer friendly with the most significant changes to the site’s usability in six years. 

News
Hotfoot Consumer Marketing Award: Air New Zealand
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At the beginning of 2007, Air New Zealand identified that to remain competitive and continue to build revenue and value it had to escape the ordinary and take a leadership position by creating a best-in-class long haul experience—and not just for the front of the plane, for everyone on the plane. Not only that, it also aimed to provide a story of Air New Zealand’s—and New Zealand’s—innovation to the world, build international talkability around the brand and give it a two-year leap on the competition.

News
Retail giants rejoice as Progressive and NZ Lotteries dominate TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards
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The 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards were dished out last night at the Langham in Auckland in front of around 450 industry bods and a host of game changers and bar-raisers—some well-accustomed to collecting such awards, some venturing up on stage for the first time—were announced. But it was Progressive Enterprises that came away with the most coveted award of the night for merging three of its supermarket brands into one and forging a bold new positioning based on an enhanced definition of consumer value.

News
Puns fly as Rico and ‘The Hoff’ meet in latest Air New Zealand viral campaign
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Air New Zealand’s recent marketing win at the Airline Strategy Awards had some of you questioning the actual value of the campaign in regards to the airline’s bottom line. But it has continued its wit-inspired, celebrity-clad Rico videos and, much like Richard Simmons’ in-flight video appearance made some cringe, the latest celebrity to fly the online video skies with Air New Zealand could well have a similar shuddering effect. The latest online campaign sees Rico get Skycouch-cozy with a number of celebrities, first up, David Hasselhoff. That’s two seedy characters in one video folks.

News
A week of heavy human trafficking continues…
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…as ex-Air New Zealander Steve Bayliss heads back to the FMCG realm, MediaWorks says goodbye to one senior player but welcomes another in the radio ranks, Mango adds a duo to the fruit salad and Cannes and YouTube announce the winners of the Young Lions and Goodwork competitions. 

News
It’s appointment viewing, folks…
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… as Air New Zealand brings one of our boys back into the fold; Acumen Republic appoints a new head honcho; TVNZ says goodbye to Good Morning—and up to 12 fulltime staff; Thick as Thieves enlists a new award-winning director; Air Asia hits the runway running and announces a national marketing manager; another All Black endorses something; AJ Park gets a taste for internal promotions; and two films made by the Media Design School strike Hawaii gold.

News
Air New Zealand sets inflight safety video bar even higher with Richard Simmons-led 80s extravaganza
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Air New Zealand is making a habit of creating memorable inflight safety briefings. First it was the tasteful nudes, then came a cast of All Blacks, followed by a rather puerile puppet. And .99’s latest 80s inspired effort, which features Richard Simmons, Paul Henry, Phil Keoghan, Temepara George and, as expected, a little cameo from Rob Fyfe, has continued that trend and looks set to add a few million more views to the seven million the airline’s previous safety videos have already garnered on YouTube.

News
Rico goes gangsta, as Snoop gets his freak on for Air New Zealand
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Air New Zealand’s suave yet moderately offensive travelling mascot Rico has already laid down some beats with a couple of Wellingtonian musos. But he’s taken his music career up a few notches recently after recording his debut track ‘Hello Sunshine’ in Los Angeles. And it features a pretty special guest who’s also earned a reputation as something of a ladies man: Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. AKA Tha Doggfather AKA Snoop Dogg.

Opinion
Forget about satisfied customers
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The CEO looked worried. The share price is down another few cents. Where will it finish up? The revenue figures didn’t look too flash either. A report she received from Sales told her that they had lost 142 customers in the previous month and they gained only 98 new …

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