benchmark report
airline marketing
tv, print, ooh
hello kitty bus
freezing ticket
EVA AIR Outdoor adver tising can be one of the best ways to promote a product or service, especially when it’s done in a creative or novel way. Pop-up shops and restaurants always catch the eye and other types of public installation, for example the giant Louis Vuitton trunk that appeared near the Kremlin in Moscow (2013) also garner plenty of attention. Livery ar t promotion is a great form of outdoor adver tising, utilizing an asset airlines already have. With its growing fleet of Hello Kitty-themed jets, and the tidal wave of publicity each one has garnered, Taiwan’s EVA Airways has proven it’s got the winning formula for successful integration of outdoor (exterior of buses, trams and planes), print (boarding passes), digital (themed website) and experiential marketing (interiors of planes).
JUNE 2015 ISSUE
HK EXPRESS In 2012 and 2013, EVA Airways ‘Kitted’ a city bus and double-decker tram in Hong Kong to generate buzz about its Hello Kitty jets. Now Singapore is getting its very own Hello Kitty public bus as EVA Air readies for the introduction of regular Hello Kitty flights week between Taipei and Singapore.
Hong Kong’s first LCC, HK Express, got travellers all hot and bothered on 31 May 2015 with an uber-cool giant billboard (1.7m height x 6m width) built from blocks of ice containing ‘FREEzing tickets’ and other prizes—to help Hong Kong denizens escape from the stifling hot and humid weather of summer.
For additional social media buzz, the airline par tnered with Coca Cola’s FUZE TEA brand to hand out different flavours of the ‘thirst-quenching’ beverage to those par ticipants who took a photo at the event, and uploaded their pictures to Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #hkexpress.
Singapore’s themed bus is also a doubledecker with Hello Kitty inside and out. The outside is white and decorated with sticker decals showing Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters. Along the outer sides of the bus, one can observe images of the themed Boeing 777-300ER (called Shining Star ) that will operate the new daily flights as it prepares to land over the skyline of Singapore. The bus runs mainly on service 14, which takes riders from Bedok to Clementi.
HK Express invited contestants to sign up on its Facebook page for their chance to win more than HK$1 million (USD 129,000/EUR 117,000) in prizes, including round trip tickets the airline’s destinations, flight vouchers, and HK Express branded merchandise.
On a similar note, the airline’s Endurance Challenge last year also mixed a traditional adver tising platform—a bus stop in central Hong Kong—with an experiential element, encouraging passersby to interact with the adver t, for as long as possible, to win a return flight to one of the airline’s destinations .
During pre-assigned 7-minute rounds, 10 par ticipants were given tools at random to help them crack or melt the ice blocks and claim their prize, before time was up and the next round of par ticipants got to try their luck.
When torrents of rain threatened the contest, the resourceful airline created branded Cheap-Cheap Umbrellas to protect par ticipants.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
