Christmas is well and truly upon us, and with that comes a wave of Festive Airline videos. Perhaps the funniest of these out there right now comes from social media savvy carrier Air New Zealand. Poking innocent fun of New Zealand’s particular accent, Santa struggles to understand the gift requests.
Titled “A Very Merry Mistake” the video, which has already amassed over 450,000 views in just over a week, is running with the humorous hashtag #MirryChristmus and is yet another of the airline’s evolving portfolio video marketing efforts to generate interest in the product.
Prior to this, three months ago, the airline introduced a new 3-year advertising campaign featuring the country’s national bird. Pete the Kiwi (replacing Dave the goose). Now telling the story of this flightless animal and it’s desire to take to the skies, it also is a great vehicle for showing off the inflight product.
Jodi Williams, General Manager of Brand and Content Marketing at Air New Zealand says “Despite the desire to visit New Zealand, one of the greatest barriers to travel is the perception of distance, with some consumers thinking it’s more than 20 hours away. The new work aims to bust those myths and reinforce Air New Zealand’s key differentiator—an innovative in-flight offering enabling travellers to sit back, relax and enjoy the 12-hour direct service (from L.A.).
Voiced by Sam Neill, this new character is flightless, so of course he’s going to enjoy flying Air New Zealand. “Working with an animated character is always going to have its challenges, the biggest of which is that the main character is obviously not on set when you’re shooting. You still need to ensure you get great reactions from the other talent, that they laugh or smile at the right moments and, particularly with a small bird, that their eye-line is correct. So this is where it becomes really important for the director to paint the picture for the talent and describe the way he moves and how they should react to him,” continued Williams.
Both videos are available on Air New Zealand’s YouTube channel, which is now bursting with campaigns and comedic safety videos. Certainly a good way to keep yourself amused over the festive period.
TheDesignAir 