Air New Zealand-A very merry mistake

AIR NEW ZEALAND - A VERY MERRY MISTAKE

Type in “New Zealand accent” into Google and one of the auto-suggestions from the search engine giant is “do people speak English in New Zealand?”, indicating there is at least some doubt about this online.

The answer is naturally yes, but the New Zealand accent is a fairly unique one, especially when pronouncing certain vowel sounds. This is the basis of Air New Zealand’s Christmas based campaign, “A very merry mistake.”

In the campaign video, Santa is first of all seen taking a call from China where he speaks fluent Mandarin, after which he is congratulated by the elf sitting opposite him. However the board on his wall then tells him it is time to start taking calls from New Zealand, after which things start going wrong.

In call after call, Santa misinterprets what the Kiwi on the other end of the phone is telling him, and these nonsensical present suggestions are then relayed down to the elf factory.

For example, a book of “magic tricks” is heard as “magic trucks”, a “new bed” becomes “a new beard”, while the factory is told to make a “biscuit ball” instead of a “basketball.”

Finally, after being harangued by an assistant with a heavy Scottish accent about the bizarre toys being produced, Santa summons a group of Air New Zealand flight attendants to help him out, who explain that “A’s are E, E’s are I’s, I’s are U’s, and O’s are O’s”

According to the airline’s Chief Marketing and Customer Officer Mike Tod, “while it’s no secret the Kiwi accent has been misunderstood at times, it’s also a signature part of our service. In fact, for many Kiwis, being welcomed onboard an Air New Zealand flight by crew after being offshore for some time makes them feel instantly back at home.”

So far the hash-tag that Air New Zealand is using to support the campaign, #MirryChristmus is reaching around 750k Twitter users a week.

The campaign has also received acclaim in different media outlets worldwide. For example, Mashable uses the Air New Zealand Christmas campaign as an example of how New Zealanders have been making “superb advertisements recently” (Mashable cites a Police recruitment video released by New Zealand Police which also got a lot of pickup in November).

Australia’s SBS News talks about the “viral Air New Zealand Christmas ad”, while the world’s largest English speaking newspaper online, the Daily Mail, called the spot “hilarious.”

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Getting cut-through at Christmas is hard. You are expected to do a seasonal campaign, but how can you stand out when every single one of your competitors is doing the same?

Air New Zealand has succeeded thanks to a few very important elements. The video is funny, it is the sort of thing you want to watch over and over and also share. It plays on something that everyone ‘gets’ - how do you understand accents and dialects different from your own?

It of course un-mistakenly says ‘New Zealand’, and more importantly by bringing in the Air New Zealand cabin crew as the ones who save the day, it showcases the people behind the brand (and their accents).