Social media one way to impress flyers

Photo / Supplied

Air New Zealand is flying under the radar using social media and viral marketing to promote itself in China.

Deputy chief executive Norm Thompson says the airline is using the Chinese equivalents of Twitter (Sino Weibo) and Facebook (Kaixin001), which has 15,000 fans signed up.

The airline recently invited bloggers to a party on a plane in Hong Kong.

"Couple of days a week we have an aircraft on the ground for about eight or nine hours, so we invited them to come and have a party on the plane and we gave them an opportunity to taste New Zealand wine and that sort of thing," Thompson said. "They went away and blogged about the interior of our aircraft and the people and the great New Zealand wine."

It was an example of thinking outside the square, which has included campaigns using US fitness expert Richard Simmons and the online puppet character Rico.

"We're trying to get out of the mainstream and stand out to be different from our competitors."

Television advertising could be hugely expensive and did not necessarily hit the target audience.

"What we're finding with the viral activity is that the younger market in China is right into this stuff," Thompson said. "We're trying to get in under the radar."

The airline also wanted to capture the Chinese community in New Zealand using a Twitter-like Sino Weibo account.

"What we've tried to do is capture as many of the Chinese students in New Zealand and market opportunities to them - not only for their own travel but [also] encourage them to get their families to visit them," Thompson said. "We think that's a whole new market just waiting to be captured."