Setting itself up with the challenge of becoming the leading airline in the world taking action on climate change, AIR NEW ZEALAND needed to be smart to garner positive feedback in its attempt to become climate conscious.

The sky’s the limit

Air New Zealand’s take on a climate conscious approach is not something new, however it is a passion and commitment the airline is dedicated to getting across.  

Despite not being new, the country’s leading airline needed to approach the decarbonisation marketing strategy as uniquely as possible compared to a general sustainability approach. 

The main challenge Air New Zealand faced was the fact that the aviation industry causes significant impact on climate change. 

However, the mission of achieving net zero emissions aligned with their general message as an airline, Manaaki – taking care, further than any other airline. 

Aware of other airlines making similar announcements, Air New Zealand wanted to ensure a defensible position that demonstrated strong tangible proof points of its plan. 

In order to show consumers its sustainable efforts, Air New Zealand launched the ‘Flight NZ0’ marketing campaign. The goal was to reach the masses in a digestible way to show that the airline is making an effort towards its goal of achieving net zero emissions. 

The ‘Flight NZ0’ campaign focused on five objectives, prioritising people and growing a culture of care from inside and outside the company, shaping its network and fleet to create an excellent experience for consumers, strengthing loyalty, focusing on digitising its messages and advocating for action on decarbonisation. 

As an airline coming out with a sustainability message, Air New Zealand knew the campaign would generate controversy as one of the largest carbon emitters in the country. This created a challenge for the brand to overcome the scrutiny for green washing. 

The concept of climate change is also very complex, giving the airline another challenge to overcome. 

Air New Zealand launched the marketing campaign ‘Flight NZ0’ as a creative platform promoted through various channels. 

The platform was in depth, educational and detailed information of Air New Zealand’s decarbonisation strategy and a timeline to show progress towards its goal. 

Through the platform, Air New Zealand was able to strengthen loyalty with its consumers by providing this information. 

So far, the results of the campaign have demonstrated an uplift in positivity surrounding Air New Zealand. The brand’s corporate reputation has risen up three percent and positive PR awareness is up 11 percent. 

Awareness for the airline’s carbon emissions target and research has seen an decent precentage uplift percent and their ‘Care for Environment’ brand health score has increased too. 

The launch of the ‘Flight NZ0’ was launched in April 2022 is only the first phase and Air New Zealand is now underway with phase two of the initiative.   

Category
Excellence in Travel/Leisure & Entertainment Marketing Strategy

Company
Air New Zealand

Marketing Initiative
Air New Zealand Flight NZ0

Marketing Partners
Bastion Shine; Flying Fish Productions; Kantar

Judges’ Comments
“Well-articulated marketing strategy that is clearly linked to the business objectives. Demonstrates huge courage for an airline at the bottom of the world to take a global leadership status on such a critical topic. Good initial results from the launch of this initiative, we look forward to seeing how the strategy will deliver well into the future. The boldness of the approach clearly required bravery and commitment from the highest leadership levels along with successful stakeholder engagement.”

Finalists
Air New Zealand (Tiaki and The Guardians Safety Video); Great South; Sky Television New Zealand Limited

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This article was originally published in the September/October 2022 issue of NZ Marketing. Click here to subscribe.