The Campaign

Around the world, Christmas is a Northern Hemisphere-dominated event, synonymous with frosty snowmen and frightful weather. Problem is, for the Southern Hemisphere, those things don’t represent Christmas at all. Down here, Christmas is in the middle of summer, not winter. But our warm, sunny festive identity is never represented. So we set out to give New Zealand a special gift – a chance to ditch Northern traditions and embrace their very own Christmas identity - and put Air New Zealand at the heart of the holiday season in the process.

Creative Execution

Partnering with multi-Platinum artist Ronan Keating and young kiwi Julian Dennison (Hunt For The Wilderpeople), we reworked the iconic Christmas carol Winter Wonderland, and turned it into Summer Wonderland - a carol that the warmer half of the world could rally behind. But Summer Wonderland wasn’t just a song. It was a musically-led tourism campaign, designed to get people dreaming of a summer Down Under. We launched our hero film on Air New Zealand's social channels on December 1 - the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the first day of Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. A video documenting the making of the song was released via Air New Zealand's social channels, and was subsequently released as a commercial track on digital streaming platforms as well as broadcast radio.

- Trending on Facebook and Youtube within 48 hours. - 120 global PR stories with a value of $3.7 million. - Total reach of 500 million+. - 20 million video views (84.4% organic). - 140,000 shares - New Zealand's Most Watched Ad on YouTube in 2016. - #1 on New Zealand iTunes. - #9 on Australian iTunes. - "Helps promote Air NZ on the world stage": +21% - "Makes me proud to be a New Zealander": +21%

Any campaign can follow popular culture, but very few can truly influence it, especially during a time of year dominated by big brands and bigger budgets. But that's exactly what Summer Wonderland did. The campaign was so entertaining, and so embraced by its target audience, that the official track became a Number 1 Christmas hit in New Zealand; the film was the country's most watched ad on YouTube, viewed over 20 million times (with 84.4% of those organic); and was trending on Facebook and YouTube within 48 hours.

Christmas may be a crowded time of year, but it’s crowded with the same exact thing: emotional stories wrapped up in traditional Northern Hemisphere-centric themes. Everything from the ads on TV to the designs on our wrapping paper conveys a Northern Hemisphere Christmas. But for those in the Southern Hemisphere, who celebrate their Christmas at the height of Summer, those themes don't resonate at all. So, as a proud Southern Hemisphere airline with a reputation for bucking traditions, we aimed to stand out in a Northern Hemisphere-dominated occasion by becoming champions of a Southern Hemisphere Christmas.