Airlines seem to be pushing the bar of video advertising higher and higher. Whether it be Air New Zealand’s star-studded and hilarious safety videos, or Etihad’s truly cinematic and visceral experience of their First Class product, The Residence, featuring Nicole Kidman (see both below), high production values and celebrity endorsements seem to be the way forward:
Air New Zealand’s epic The Hobbit safety video:
Etihad’s The Residence Promo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXlmF3eI9R0
It seems that Emirates have taken heed of this new trend and released their own commercial in this style. As with the previous instalment, it features Jennifer Aniston, playing the bemused American celebrity tourist, in awe of Emirates’ First Class Suite. If only she knew what Etihad had to offer, eh? 😉
Anyway, the ad follows her as she meets a very cute little friend, and they explore the plane together. The ad showcases all three cabins, and pulls on the heartstrings of anyone who dreamed of being a pilot as a child (yours truly!). It seems Emirates have taken a leaf out of both Etihad and Air New Zealand’s books; the advert itself is highly cinematic, but also magical and entertaining. Here it is in full:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz_qZQbiZuA
The ad reminds me of another recent airline ad in which two kids discuss which Business Class is best – BA or AA. BoardingArea’s OneMileAtATime did an in-depth article on that very ad here. As seems to normally be the case with BA/AA on most fronts, their efforts, whilst meaning well, were very much second best to the market leaders, and the advert is no different.
Final thoughts
As you can see, the ad is a great ambassador for Emirates’ A380, which is proclaimed in the video as being ‘the best plane’. Clearly, Emirates want to highlight their flagship plane, because it is clearly the best configured of their fleet. By that logic, I really wonder why their 777 and A330 products lag so much behind their market-leading A380 products. Even when Emirates announced a refresh of their 777 seats, their Business Class remained in a 2-2-2 configuration, lagging significantly behind competitors such as Singapore Airlines, Qatar and Etihad. I’m concerned that passengers seeing this advert will be a bit underwhelmed if their route turned out not to be operated by an A380. Either way, as airlines continue to push the bar higher and higher, I think we can expect increasingly entertaining and extravagant commercials.
What are your thoughts on this ad? What do you think the future holds for airline commercials?
“Either way, as airlines continue to push the bar higher and higher, I think we can expect increasingly entertaining and extravagant commercials.” I think this is only true for first class and to some extent business class. In coach, airlines continue to push the bar lower and lower in a race to the bottom. As recent examples, British Airways cutting included food and drink on intercontinental flights and Cathay Pacfic’s announcement that they will change from 9 across to a claustrophobic 10 across seating in coach on their wide-body planes.
I was actually talking about airlines pushing the bar higher and higher in regard to advertisements. I agree that Economy passengers are bearing the brunt of an astronomical slashing in quality, product and service, while Business/First are relieving improvements all over the shop…
The Emirates ad was different and super, the Etihad one being a bit “regular”. I showed the Air NZ safety video, and though she kept on making skeptical statements, she saw the whole thing. Really interesting. Thanks
Showed the Air NZ one to who? Yep – three remarkably different ads!
sorry, showed it to my daughter. She didn’t say so, but she liked it. And more importantly, watched the whole clip
Great!
That’s a great commercial! I’ve always liked Jennifer Aniston and she does this particular type of thing really well. Can’t see me moving to Economy to hang out with kids though! haha!
I’d defo play pilots with that guy! And yeh Jen is good value!