Tiger’s ‘Infrequent Flyer’: ‘Fantastic’ or run of the mill?

Tiger Air’s humorous new campaign ‘Infrequent Flyer’ has divided the ad community with some labelling it “fantastic” while others are writing it off as “not particularly ground breaking”.

The campaign was created in partnership with McCann Australia and will be promoted across YouTube and other paid media channels, outdoor, radio, social media, airport advertising and at-airport and on-plane activation.

Bodog Olah, director of systems at Createur, believes that while the style of the campaign isn’t surprising, the humourous take is more appealing to consumers.

“For someone who follows advertising, it’s not particularly groundbreaking,” he said.

“But as a consumer who might watch ads, they [humourous ads] are always way better than standard ads.”

Damian Damjanovski, strategy director from creative agency Common Ventures, takes an opposite view, believing the humour is an “incredibly powerful” tool and declares the Tiger Air campaign “fantastic”.

“This campaign seems to further dig-in the knife these value-based carriers have been sticking to the premium brands for years with a simple message, simple site, all beautifully done,” he said.

The tongue-in-cheek approach the campaign has BMF creative director, Carlos Furnari, understanding why the budget airline would be tempted to take a “pretty direct swipe” at Qantas.

“Given the current state of the Flying Kangaroo, I can see why they’d be tempted to take an indirect but pretty direct swipe,” he said.

“I’m guessing they had bugger all money, but loads of enthusiasm for getting them to air.”

“At the end of the day, it’s so difficult to get anything out the door these days, I’m happy for those who do.”

While not seeing the campaign as directed purely at Qantas, Bodog Olah, director of systems at Ceateur, believes it does take a stab at frequent flyer programs in general.

Antony Neeson, managing partner and creative director of agency Habitat, doesn’t believe the campaign will cause any negative industry response.

“I'd be surprised if there was any industry backlash for this campaign, sure it’s cheeky, but it’s funny and I predict the target market will embrace it.”

The cheeky take on frequent flyer programs is also bringing a smile out on some around the industry.

“The campaign doesn't take itself seriously and for a low cost airline that's had a few problems, I think it's a good approach,” Neil Mallet, executive creative director from Melbourne-based advertising agency Marmalade, said.

“This campaign uses the old Hans Brinker Budget Hotels strategy, but without the 'Now with more dogs shit in the corridor' attitude. It takes what is perceived as a weakness and makes it a point of difference. A strength even.

“Consumers tend to like that self-effacing tone.”

With 18 different levels of membership which appear to mean nothing, the campaign and pokes fun its absence of any lounges or any real perks.

Check out the campaign here and below.

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