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ANA ‘Is Japan Cool? Season 2’ | While ANA is not the ofcial flagcarrier of Japan, the airline has engaged in a variety of nation-as-abrand initiatives over the recent years, including its 'Inspiration of Japan' in-flight experience and its 'Is Japan Cool?' campaign. The latter has been expanded to a series campaign, with Season 1 featuring Japanese cultural traditions, and with the recently launched Season 2 focused on showcasing actual places, attractions and juxtapositions of old and new Japan.
'Is Japan Cool?' Season 2 features a dedicated social website whose key element is to give visitors the option to choose what aspects of Japan are 'cool' and 'not so cool' in three categories – Tokyo, Okinawa and Cosplay. For each category, a number of characteristics of that category are presented for voting through short videos and descriptions. Upon voting, users have the option to share their opinion and the category characteristic (for example, beaches in Okinawa) to Facebook or Twitter. Additionally, the site features a competition whereby entrants have a chance to receive round-trip tickets for two to Okinawa. After the launch of the 'Is Japan Cool?' campaign, ANA has gained over 23,000 “likes,” as well as a following of nearly 2000 on Twitter. The campaign is an integrated, social branding effort between an airline and a location, giving users the power to decide positives and negatives for themselves, while framing Japan as a viable tourist destination and ANA as the airline of choice.
Air New Zealand ‘The Great Walker’ | Having earned quite a reputation for innovative marketing campaigns over the past years, Air New Zealand's latest campaign aligns the airline brand with that of its country in a contest that spans celebrities, social media and government agencies. Created in collaboration with the New Zealand Department of Conservation (NZ DoC), 'The Great Walker' campaign sheds light on the country's opportunities for eco-tourism with a social media-based contest. The contest, announced on Air New Zealand's Flying Social Network blog, looks to select four participants from around the world to complete all nine of New Zealand's 'Great Walks' (550 km of natural treks through the country's hinterland) in nine weeks, accompanied by celebrity guests and staff of Air New Zealand and the NZ DoC. The campaign begins with entrants demonstrating why they deserve the prize by submitting videos to Air New Zealand via YouTube or creating a pinboard on Pinterest using the hashtag #greatwalker. Upon completion of the contest on October 22, Air New Zealand will make a decision based on entrants' “personality, creativity and skills that could be useful for the trip.” An explanatory video of the contest, released by Air New Zealand on YouTube, has got over 2000 views. The campaign received extensive coverage across the social web as one that aligns Air New Zealand with conservation and environmental consciousness while simultaneously highlighting New Zealand’s natural beauty.
6 | Airline Marketing Benchmark Report | October 2012
