Airline Marketing Monthly - August 2018

Last month we covered Air New Zealand introducing the (meat free) Impossible Burger on flights from LAX to Auckland.

Though most of the reaction was positive, some politicians and farming groups in New Zealand accused the airline of harming the country’s beef industry by stocking a product which claims to be a vegetarian alternative that tastes, smells and even sizzles like the real thing.

Enter Virgin Australia, which capitalised on the controversy by launching a search for New Zealand’s best beef, which will be served on all NewZealand to Australia flights.

Virgin Australia says that the end result will actually be a bespoke dish, “designed to showcase the quality of local New Zealand produce.”

The aim is to make the winning dish available to passengers on trans-Tasman flights as soon as October.

As well as running its search for the best New Zealand beef, Virgin Australia has been taking its “Battle of the Burgers” (the New Zealand Herald) to the streets of Auckland. On August 1st, it teamed up with iconic burger bar “The White Lady” to give away 500 burgers.

Virgin Australia has even managed to get Kiwi politicians sounding off about the beef issue (again).

MP Mark Patterson, who had originally expressed outrage at Air New Zealand’s “Impossible Burger” move, came out supporting Virgin Australia. In a press release he is quoted as saying:

“Good on the Aussies for recognising our world class beef and lamb, and I am delighted that our produce is being promoted by our closest neighbours. It’s great to see an airline backing our Kiwi beef farmers.”

“A win-win”

In an interview with New Zealand news website The Spinoff, Patterson admits that the whole thing is something of a marketing stunt. The whole thing is “potentially a little bit opportunistic, but it’s a win-win. If they’re prepared to showcase our top-quality premium New Zealand red meat, then who are we to argue against it?”

A win-win is how we see it as well. Virgin Australia has come up with a clever campaign, that must have been a lot of fun to develop.

We liked how Virgin Australia reacted quickly but also thought about how to bring the campaign to life outside of social media, for example through the burger give-away in Auckland.

There are also a number of further exploitation opportunities, from when the winning farmer / supplier is chosen to when the dish is unveiled on-board. As a result, Virgin Australia can keep on getting value from this campaign for months to come.

Meanwhile it’s not necessarily a bad thing for Air New Zealand either. By now your mind will be made up - you’ll either love or hate the fact that the airline is stocking a meat free burger.

However what this does is keep the Impossible Burger / Air New Zealand collaboration in the public eye.