| Title | MARRIAGE IN THE AIR |
| Brand | CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS |
| Product / Service | CATHAY DRAGON & CATHAY PACIFIC |
| Category | E03. Innovative Use of Social or Community |
| Entrant | McCANN HONG KONG, HONG KONG |
| Idea Creation | McCANN HONG KONG, HONG KONG |
| Media Placement | McCANN HONG KONG, HONG KONG |
| PR | McCANN HONG KONG, HONG KONG |
| Production | McCANN HONG KONG, HONG KONG |
| Additional Company | MRM//McCANN Shanghai, CHINA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Martin Lever | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Executive Creative Director |
| Rick Kwan | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Creative Director |
| Agnes Lee | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Associate Creative Director |
| Fanny Lau | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Associate Creative Director |
| Guilherme Pecego | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Creative Director |
| Dan Jacques | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Associate Creative Director |
| Daniel Cheong | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Senior Art Director |
| Ping, Wai Wong | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Art Director |
| Brandon Cheung | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Managing Partner |
| Victor Lam | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Group Account Director |
| Karen Chan | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Planning Director |
| Eva Cheung | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Account Director |
| Venice Choy | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Senior Account Executive |
| Mok, Ting Ngo | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Art Director |
| George Cheung | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Visualiser |
| Debby Yung | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Copywriter |
| Leo Pang | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Senior Account Executive |
| Prashant Galani | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Digital Manager |
| Kwoksum Pun | MRM//McCann Hong Kong | Senior Developer |
| Kat Pau | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Creative Services Manager |
| Doris Law | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Project Executive |
| Wing Tam | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Agency Producer |
| Bernice Lam | McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong | Account Executive |
| Tianit Ng | MRM//McCann Shanghai | Chief Creative Officer |
| Fiona Zang | MRM//McCann Shanghai | Deputy General Manager |
| Animesh Narrain | MRM//McCann Shanghai | Planning Director |
| Kevin Deng | MRM//McCann Shanghai | Associate Account Director |
| Edith Wang | MRM//McCann Shanghai | Account Manager/Media Manager |
| Justin Zhang | MRM//McCann Shanghai | Technical Director |
| Ricky Chen | MRM//McCann Shanghai | Creative Group Head |
Unique weddings are big business in China – couples constantly try to outdo each other with outlandish weddings. This insight led to our idea: Marriage in the Air – China’s first premium wedding at 35,000ft! Designed to symbolise the union of two airline brands and create excitement across the whole of China. We searched China’s most popular travel platforms for three travel influencer couples who were engaged to be married. We then invited them to compete for a chance to be married onboard a Cathay Dragon aircraft from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Next we co-created original branded content with the influencers for the three main phases of the campaign: The Invite, The Venue and The Wedding – to engage fans across China to watch, share and vote in each of the phases – with the chance to attend the wedding as added incentive.
We searched China’s most popular travel platforms for three travel influencer couples who were engaged to be married. We invited them to compete for a chance to be married onboard a Cathay Dragon aircraft. We co-created branded content with the influencers for three campaign phases: 1. The Invite: Influencers invited the whole of China to vote through a series of “invitation videos” seeded across a variety of social and travel platforms, driving followers to the campaign site. 2. The Venue: Participants who voted had a chance to attend the wedding and could explore the Cathay product world through each couple’s wedding plan videos – from the food and drinks to the seats and decorations. 3. The Wedding: The winning couple was married onboard a Cathay Dragon flight with their reception in Cathay Pacific’s award-winning Business class lounge — followed by a honeymoon to Europe with Cathay Pacific.
The results show Marriage in the Air to be one of the most successful social engagement content campaigns China has ever seen. With over 638 million hashtag impressions, it rose to #1 hashtag in Weibo’s Travel category. The campaign saw 1.77 million positive interactions, with 372 million total impressions. Earned media soared to $2,577,473, Cathay Pacific’s website received over 1 million new visits, and package sales sold 47% over target. And thanks to Marriage in the Air, Cathay Dragon’s brand awareness in China increased by 123% — with 117% increased brand consideration (BAT survey). We’ll toast to that.
China has the most outbound travellers in the world – with 117 million outbound tourists in 2015. But how do these travellers research and purchase their flights? Through online travel platforms. These platforms have created an ecosystem of travel influencers and bloggers who have developed enormous social followings through their rich travel content. We saw the opportunity to create original branded content with these influencers on their travel platforms to inspire all of China to travel with Cathay. How? We knew that China travellers look for unique and memorable experiences, so to really highlight our differentiation, the content would showcase the premium inflight products and service that Cathay offers – all packaged within China’s first premium wedding at 35,000ft!