Air New Zealand Launches Its First Global Brand Campaign in North America

Today, Air New Zealand launches its first global brand campaign to show travelers why the airline is A Better Way to Fly. Launching first in North America, the campaign, which aims to persuade travelers to choose Air New Zealand, will then roll out across Europe and Asia.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170824006163/en/

Air New Zealand's Global Brand Campaign stars a talking kiwi named Pete, voiced by Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill. (Photo: Business Wire)

In the year to June, 325,000* visitors arrived in New Zealand from the US - a 26 percent increase year on year. However, with research showing around 27 million Americans are interested in holidaying in New Zealand, the airline sees huge potential to further tap into this demand.

Recent consumer research has found that despite the desire to visit, one of the greatest barriers to travel is the perception of distance with some consumers thinking New Zealand is 20 or more hours away. A Better Way to Fly aims to bust those myths and reinforce Air New Zealand’s key differentiator – an innovative inflight offering enabling travelers to sit back, relax and enjoy the direct service to New Zealand.

Rooted in innovation and creativity, Air New Zealand’s campaign features “Pete”, a CGI character inspired by New Zealand’s national bird the kiwi, voiced by New Zealand actor Sam Neill, star of Jurassic Park. Pete takes viewers on his in-flight journey to show a little bit of New Zealand in the sky. Air New Zealand is the proud winner of Airlineratings.com Airline of the Year four years in a row so it’s easy to see why the carrier believes it’s A Better Way to Fly to New Zealand, Australia and London.

Examples of what make Air New Zealand A Better Way to Fly include:

• Premium New Zealand Wines: New Zealand is famous for its world class wine, and serves a wide selection of premium New Zealand wine onboard. Air New Zealand’s wine consultants conduct blind wine tastings to select the perfect wines to serve at altitude.
• Chef curated menus: Air New Zealand’s culinary menus are designed to give customers a true taste of New Zealand. Customers in Business Premier and Premium Economy can enjoy dishes created by renowned chefs Peter Gordon (London’s The Providores and Tapa Room The Sugar Club in Auckland, New Zealand) and Michael Meredith (Auckland’s Meredith’s).
• Truly lie-flat bed: Business Premier cabins feature Air New Zealand’s signature chalk colored luxurious leather lie-flat bed, complete with an indulgent memory foam mattress, cozy duvet and two full size pillows.
• Award winning Premium Economy: Reacting to changing customer needs, in 2005 Air New Zealand was one of the first airlines to introduce the premium economy class. In a separate cabin, this business class-lite offering has been showered with accolades and includes its own unique menu, an amenity kit and additional space.
• Economy Skycouch™: Originally dubbed as the "cuddle couch," Air New Zealand revolutionized the Economy cabin by introducing more space and flexible options for passengers in the Economy class – the first real improvement for this class by any airline in more than 20 years. The Skycouch is a row of three economy seats, that together create a flexible space to stretch out and relax, or can be used as a place for the kids to use as a play area.
• Innovation: From its world famous safety videos to the use of advanced technologies including the Airband which allows parents to track the progress of children travelling unaccompanied, and Biometric Bag Drop, Air New Zealand has brought many firsts to the marketplace.
• Easy Transit to Australia: Passengers can transit in Auckland to eight Australian destinations without having to change terminals. Their bags go straight through to their destination too.

Air New Zealand General Manager of Global Brand and Content Marketing Jodi Williams says, “With the help of Pete the kiwi, this new global brand campaign aims to convince North American travelers that Air New Zealand is A Better Way to Fly. We hope travelers interested in visiting New Zealand, Australia or London will choose us once they learn about the award-winning product and service we offer.”

The new global brand campaign comes as Air New Zealand appoints a new Regional Manager Americas, Liz Fraser. Liz says, “Earlier this month Air New Zealand announced a capacity increase for its Vancouver-Auckland and Honolulu-Auckland routes, illustrating the demand for travel. This year, Air New Zealand, along with its JV partner United Airlines, will operate over 40% more capacity into mainland USA than it operated five years ago. That’s an additional 300,000 seats in 2017 so it’s certainly an exciting time to join the region.”

Air New Zealand flies nonstop to Auckland from Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and Houston. Services are operated by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft (Honolulu), Boeing 777-300ER aircraft (Los Angeles & San Francisco) and 777-200ER (Vancouver & Houston) all featuring the airline’s innovative Economy Skycouch™ and award-winning lie-flat Business Premier bed.

The campaign video for A Better Way to Fly can be viewed here.
Campaign hashtag: #BetterWayToFly
*TNZ Active Considerer Monitor and TNZ arrivals data

About Star Alliance:

The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award and Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Avianca Brazil, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI and United. Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 18,400 daily flights to 1,300 airports in 191 countries. Further connecting flights are offered by Star Alliance Connecting Partner, Juneyao Airlines.

For more information about Air New Zealand visit www.airnewzealand.com and for more information about Star Alliance visit www.staralliance.com and/or follow Star Alliance on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn or Instagram.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170824006163/en/