Air New Zealand - Game of Thrones

The world’s most successful TV series to date, Game of Thrones, finally ended in May. However, the books are not yet finished, with author George RR Martin yet to complete “The Winds of Winter.”

With New Zealand already associated in people’s minds with fantasy literature (The Lord of Rings and Hobbit films were of course filmed there), Air New Zealand saw an opportunity to capitalise on the publicity surrounding the Game of Thrones franchise, by gently teasing George RR Martin about the length of time he takes to release each book.

In a video aimed at the author, Air New Zealand invited Martin to New Zealand at the airline’s expense, so that he could finish the book. The video message to Martin said “you’ve been saying Winter is Coming for ages now, but Winter is already here and it’s petty inspiring.”

Martin responded on his website, thanking Air New Zealand for the offer, and mentioning that he was already going to Wellington, New Zealand in 2020 for the World Science Fiction Convention.

Martin then said that he has enough money himself to make it there, and so suggested instead that Air New Zealand fly 20, 30 or 50 US writers, fans and artists to the country.

According to Stuff, Air New Zealand subsequently agreed to Martin’s idea and will be flying 20 fans to the country for free.

The end result - great PR and media coverage, for the price of 20 flights and the (we assume fairly minimal) production costs of a YouTube video.