We wanted to give the world a uniquely Kiwi take on Christmas. Unable to outspend our competitors, we needed an idea that would earn media attention.

2018 saw extensive coverage of International Summits - Kim Jong Un and Trump meeting; Trump’s first UN address; Trump’s dealings with NATO.

We created a Christmas campaign we knew would attract global media coverage, basing our narrative around a Summit of Naughty Kids with a US delegate modelled on Trump.

January is Air New Zealand’s busiest travel period. Unable to outspend their competitors, they needed to build an engaged audience at Christmas. They needed an idea that would earn attention and build a cookie pool that they could use to retarget with a sales message.

2018 was a particularly naughty year in global politics. So, as an airline that’s famous for being nice (Nice enough to win Airline of the Year five years running) we thought we’d do our bit to help get the world be a little nicer. The Nicest Christmas Ever was a PR-led campaign that intentionally leaned on global media themes in order to earn consideration and awareness from a global audience. Lead by a group of Kiwi kids and assisted by Air New Zealand, the idea was to launch a movement to ensure that Santa’s Naughty List was shorter than it’s ever been before.

Over the past decade Air New Zealand’s Christmas strategy has been to spread to the world a uniquely Kiwi take on Christmas. They’re also a brand that has historically celebrated the “underdog story” as illustrated in their own success as a small airline from the bottom of the world making it big on the world stage. The Nicest Christmas Ever reflected this story by showing a bunch of kids from little old New Zealand doing their part to make the world a better place.

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.

The Nicest Christmas Ever went live on the 30th of November 2018 across owned social channels – YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Being intentionally provocative, over the following weeks

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.