23 October, 2014

The Hobbit inspired Air New Zealand Safety Video is Marketing Genius

By B&T Magazine

Have you seen The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made?

Do yourself a favour. Grab a cup of tea. Clear your desk for the next five minutes and watch this. Now.

The latest safety video for Air New Zealand titled The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made is a piece of marketing genius.

The four-and-a-half minute clip somehow manages to promote the airline, New Zealand as a tourism destination (bungy jumping, anyone?) and the upcoming third instalment of The Hobbit trilogy, which my partner is going to drag me to the cinema to see when it is released on Boxing Day. I know this because he’s spent the last four months bringing me up to speed on the Peter Jackson cannon of Tolkien films. Entire dinner parties are spent dissecting scenes from the films. But I digress.

Featuring actors from the film, as well as a cameo from Jackson himself, the video was directed by another star Kiwi, Taika Waititi. Waititi is the director of the 2010 film Boy and vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, which he directed with Flight of the Conchords’ Jermaine Clements. Waititi has also directed commercials for brands including Carlton Dry, New Zealand Transport Agency and NBC in the US.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the video was produced by Jackson’s Weta Workshop and Weta Digital where all of the LOTR/Hobbit films have been made. It was shot in six days.

The airline’s head of global brand development Jodi Williams told The Hollywood Reporter she’s “confident our final Hobbit-inspired on-board safety video will delight fans as much as the first one and inspire even more people to consider a visit to Middle-earth.” In a statement, Jackon called The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made “yet another fantastic video to celebrate The Hobbit films,” adding that he, “had a lot of fun on the set with Taika and the team and look forward to seeing the video on board”.

The video, which is sure to go viral given it has already had 31,000 views since being uploaded to YouTube yesterday, is a follow up to another LOTR inspired safety video from 2012 titled An Unexpected Briefing.

An Unexpected Briefing has clocked up more than 12 million views so it’s little surprise the airline is giving it another shot.

It’s safe to say that Air NZ has established itself as the market leader for creating clever on board safety videos that become viral online hits.

Watch some of the airline’s greatest hits below:

Safety – Old School style

This video from last year featuring Golden Girl Betty White has had more than 2 million views.

Safety in Paradise

The airline teamed up with Sports Illustrated earlier this year and got hot models in bikinis to tell us all about the beauty of safety. This one has had a cool 6.5 million views. Eyes here, gentleman.

Mile-high Madness

American fitness personality Richard Simmons wasn’t quite as much of a hit as the Sports Illustrated models. Shocker.

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