Finnair - Five Hour Stopover Challenge

Finnair - Five Hour Stopover Challenge

Finnair is one of the airlines featured in SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam’s new book ‘SOAR’ , in particular for its success in positioning itself as a bridge to and from the Far East via Helsinki. In recent years Finnair has extended this idea in two ways. It has built its brand among Asian travellers wanting to fly West. And it has promoted Finland as a stopover destination in its own right, with a dedicated micro-site suggesting ideas ranging from a visit to an ‘ice sauna’ to a trip to see the Northern Lights.

A collaboration with Chinese Top Chef Steven Liu touches on both of those points. To celebrate the fact that Liu has created a business class menu for passengers departing from Shanghai and Beijing, Finnair teamed Liu up with Finnish counterpart Sasu Laukkonen in a ‘five hour stopover challenge.’ The challenge sees Steven Liu arrive in Helsinki on his way from Shanghai to Paris, where Laukkonen collects him and drives him to a forest outside Helsinki. Laukkonen tells Liu that instead of going to a restaurant where someone else has made the choices for them, “on this stopover we will make our own choices”, thereby neatly reinforcing a key marketing message. The two then do everything from pick wild mushrooms to catch fish before preparing their meal at the side of a lake. Finally, with an hour to spare, Liu is driven back to the airpor t to catch his connecting flight.

When appealing to international audiences it’s of course important to take account of regional differences in social media consumption. As YouTube is largely unaccessible in China , Finnair has published the Stopover Challenge film on Chinese video hosting service YouKu, where it has so far notched up over 165k views . Further videos on the microsite are dedicated to different ‘food stories’ where Liu and Laukkonen look at the different menu creations from the beef to the lobster.