Why is this work relevant for PR?

The Nicest Christmas ever combined two unlikely themes - International politics and heart-warming Christmas tales. By applying the absurdity of international politics to small-town New Zealand we were able to create a narrative that attracted the attention of the international news media. This earned Air New Zealand an audience that allowed them to compete in the January sales, growing their revenue by 20% year on year, whilst competing against much larger competitors that consistently, and significantly, outspend them.

Background

January is Air NZ’s busiest sales period. In order to fill seats, they needed to raise consideration and awareness from a global audience. While they are well-known at home, outside of New Zealand they’re not on travellers’ radars. Competing against much larger competitors, with much larger budgets, they needed an idea that would thrive through social, build them a cookie pool, earning them an audience that they could then retarget with a sales message.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

2018 saw extensive coverage of International Summits. We created a Christmas campaign based around a Summit of Naughty Kids with a US delegate modelled on Trump A film - launched online- introduced the Summit of the Naughty Kids. Through social, we repurposed a well-known slogan, and encouraged audiences to vote for their naughtiest friends.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

The campaign launched on November 30th 2018 across Air New Zealand’s owned social channels: including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. The target audience was Australian, New Zealand and North American travellers.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We created a Christmas campaign we knew the world’s media would pay attention to, basing our narrative around a Summit of Naughty Kids with a US delegate modelled on Trump. After featuring in our online launch film, we repurposed Donald Trump’s slogan to Make Christmas Great Again, giving away iconic red hats emblazoned with our new slogan to our fans on social. Then through online promotions, we encouraged our audience to rat out their naughtiest friends in return for flight deals and merchandise. Finally, a partnership with New Zealand’s favourite cookie manufacturer sweetened the deal – we created bespoke Christmas cookies, complete with copies of naughty and nice lists, and gave them away to our social audience and those flying with us over Christmas.

List the results (30% of vote) – must include at least two of the following tiers:

With a media budget of just $200,000 our online film received 11.3 million views, PR coverage generated 3 Billion media impressions and $20 million in earned media, a return on investment of 2500%. Remarketing audiences then contributed to Air New Zealand’s most successful January Sale ever, with revenue up 20% year on year.