Norwegian-Norwegian Tail Fin Heros

NORWEGIAN - NORWEGIAN TAIL-FIN HEROES

One of the things that really stands out when looking at a Norwegian Air Shuttle plane are the tail-fins, which includes pictures of historical figures.

These are the airline’s so-called ‘tailfin heroes’, which Norwegian says are personalities who have embodied its own brand values in that they have “pushed the boundaries, challenged the established and inspired others.

Covering architecture, art, sport, literature, science, entertainment and with a category for “freedom fighters”, the first tail-fin heroes were of course all Scandinavian.

This changed as Norwegian branched out into other markets. In particular, the airline’s growing network of mediterranean and long-haul routes out of London Gatwick Airport has led to a series of British tail-fin heroes joining the fleet.

Footballer Bobby Moore, airline entrepreneur Sir Freddie Laker, pilot Amy Johnson, and author Roald Dahl can already be seen on Norwegian aircraft. In September, Norwegian unveiled a fifth British tail-fin hero.

Coinciding with what would have been Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury’s 71st birthday, the airline announced that

Mercury’s face would first of all adorn the side of a B-787 Dreamliner, followed by a B-737-800 later in the year.

Every tail-fin hero provides Norwegian with a PR opportunity. Last year the Roald Dahl announcement got Norwegian a good spread of UK press coverage.

Similarly, the Freddie Mercury unveiling has meant that Norwegian is getting exposure in media outlets that would normally not cover the airline, with ‘Team Rock’ and ‘Planet Rock’ being just two of the music focused websites covering the announcement.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

While lots of other airlines paint the side of their planes inPR-able livery (see the JTA article in this edition), ‘tail-fin heroes’is something that has become something unique to Norwegian.

It’s a concept that has longevity (the list of possible heroes is almost endless), it supports the airline’s expansion into new markets, it gives Norwegian excellent press coverage every time a new hero is unveiled and as the Freddie Mercury example shows, it gets Norwegian in publications/ websites where it wouldn’t normally appear.