benchmark report
airline marketing
home advantage
#kalaniopuu
AER LINGUS
HAWAIIAN
Aer Lingus is drumming up national pride and gaining press exposure by springboarding off feelings of excitement around the annual Six Nations Rugby tournament.
Aer Lingus has created a micro-site dedicated to Irish Six Nations Rugby and the IRFU (Irish Rugby Football Union) par tnership.
As the official airline of the Irish Rugby team, the airline has painted two of its aircraft with a special Irish Rugby Livery (and re-named them #GreenSpirit) and has created the hashtag #HomeAdvantage, which it is asking fans to use across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in suppor t of the players.
The site prominently features a 90-second video called “#Home Advantage Wherever We Play”, which provides enough imagery of pumped-up fans and poetic words about “national pride” and “green spirit” to make anybody want to cheer for Ireland. The video has been an internet sensation. It has been viewed over 1.2 million times on Facebook and YouTube and has collected plenty of fan feedback in comments.
The idea of spreading the #HomeAdvantage hashtag is to make the Irish team feel that, because of their amazing fans, they always have the “home turf advantage” – whether playing at home or abroad. The hashtag also subconsciously encourages fans to travel to other countries (with Aer Lingus) in suppor t of the team.
MAR 2016 ISSUE
The three-year “official airline” deal with the IRFU will additionally see a player from each of the four Irish provinces act as Aer Lingus Brand Ambassadors, taking par t in various sponsorship activities.
Hawaiian Airlines has reinforced its commitment to the rich culture of the Hawaiian people by helping return cultural treasures lost for over 230 years after they were given to Captain Cook . Cook played a controversial role in history as a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. While he circumnavigated the world and made contact with the native peoples of the Pacific, he did not return the goodwill with which he was originally greeted. Instead, his actions ultimately led to his death and the deaths of many of his crew. Before that tragic end, the chief of Hawai‘i Island (the Big island), Kalani‘pu‘u gifted Cook with cultural treasures: the feathered cloak, Ahu ‘ula; and feathered helmet, mahiole, that he wore. The precious garments were housed in museums in England for years, but in 1912 they were gifted to the
Dominion Museum in New Zealand, where they remained in the national collection. After more than two centuries, through a collaboration with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Bishop Museum, Hawaiian Airlines will return the historical artefacts to their home in Hawai’i. They will be transported aboard a flight on March 13, which marks the third anniversary of the airline’s route between Auckland and Honolulu. Hawaiian Airlines shared a special video of Kalani‘pu‘u on Facebook. Hawaiian Airlines and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs used the hashtag #kalaniopuu to thread the story on Twitter , Vimeo , Instagram and Storify . For an airline known primarily for bringing North American holidaymakers to Hawaii’s beaches, this campaign shows that the airline’s commitment to its home goes beyond a simple name badging and branding exercise.
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