Air New Zealand: "BARE ESSENTIALS" Promo / PR Ad by 99

Category: Travel, Entertainment & Leisure
Advertiser: AIR NEW ZEALAND
Product/Service: AIRLINE
Agency: 99
Date of First Appearance: Jun 1 2009 12:00AM
Entrant Company: 99, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Entry URL: http://www.besafetyviralvideo.co.nz
Executive Creative Director: Craig Whitehead
Deputy Creative Director: Craig Pethybridge
Art Director: Janelle Herrick
Copywriter: Lara Phillips
Agency Producer: Vicki O'leary
Account Director: Matt Dickinson
Client: Jules Lloyd (Air New Zealand)
Production Company: (Exposure)
Media placement: Bare Essentials Safety Video-Video - On Flight Safety Video - 1st June 2009

Results and Effectiveness
YouTube: 5,239,470 views. International media coverage including the US, Australia, Asian and Europe (our four main markets) estimated in the million’s 51% of New Zealanders saw the campaign through word of mouth. YouTube #1 position in Travel and Events. 78% campaign awareness – double that of any previous campaign. 95% Correct brand attribution. 220,000 YT viewers visited airnewzealand.co.nz 93% were ‘first-time visitors’. Twitter posts: 80 to 26,000 in one day.

Creative Execution
This idea relied on the authenticity of using real staff in real roles. This would be challenging enough for most non-talent but to do it naked added huge impact and relevance. We wanted to create talk ability in order to maximise as many free media dollars as we could muster. Using the official safety video as a media channel was completely unique to Air NZ and the resulting YouTube ratings and views (once posted) reflected the strength of the idea. Further international media coverage from TV to newspapers to online, again justified what was a brave decision to utilise something which is typically viewed as a sacred cow of the airline industry.

Insights, Strategy & the Idea
Air New Zealand faced turbulent times in 2009. Global travel was suffering from the recession, swine flu, skyrocketing fuel prices and (back at home) budget airline Jetstar was about to enter the domestic market. The New Zealand market had never seen this sort of competition and Air New Zealand was justifiably nervous. With vital market share at stake, Air New Zealand needed to win the hearts of travellers (customers and non-customers alike) by showing that unlike the competition, their fares had no hidden extras. So we asked real Air NZ staff to prove that their fares had nothing to hide by asking them to wear nothing but body paint in a cheeky and irreverent in-flight safety video. We took advantage of their captive audience, showing them the airline’s unique attitude and promoting their transparent, all-inclusive fares whilst significantly raising their profile worldwide via the method of communication.