Tigerair compares its customers who don’t fly often with chickens in new ad
Tigerair has unveiled the second phase of its Infrequent Flyers campaign created by McCann Melbourne with the airline’s first cinema spot which sees passengers who might not fly as much as they would like to compared with chickens.
The new ad sees a group of chickens in a barn encourage one chicken to fly by clucking along to the song ‘Wind Beneath my Wings’, with the chickens hushing as a Tigerair plane flies past outside the barn window.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HT2pPfre9M
McCann Melbourne ECD Pat Baron said: “The Infrequent Flyer program represents exceptional value for Australians who don’t fly all that often. And who better than the chickens of Australia to represent those who just don’t fly that much? It’s a deliberately fun and unconventional spot, just like the program itself.”
After a near and dear one’s SABNA* experience with Tiger, I’m too chicken to ever fly with them.
SABNA: such a bloody experience, never again.
Really? Equating birds that barely fly with Tigerair?
Equating your customers with being chicken?
Brave.
I hope the focus groups testing this were more positive than my immediate reaction.
A chicken for not flying with Tiger? What were they thinking?
It’s hard to imagine a more damaging creative premise.
Next they’ll be buying ad spots in “Air Crash Investigations”.
@Mike sounds to me like you’re taking both the headline of this article and the premise of the ad a little too literally (twice, no less!) One of my team just sent it to me now and I had a laugh. It’s a good ad, but I especially like the differentiation strategy for the Infrequent Flyer club that Adam Rowe has outlined above.
I can’t imagine a Virgin, Qantas or Jetstar ever taking such a unconventional and anti-category approach, as they ‘are’ the category. Seems to me Tiger is proving that it’s something else entirely and I commend them and Adam for that. He is clearly a marketer who is properly – and creatively – executing to his strategy.
We’re going to make a point of discussing this strategy at our team meeting today. I’m intrigued to see how we could creatively turn some of our own category conventions on their head the way Tiger has. My industry is awash with these sorts of loyalty perks and programs (including our own, I’m ashamed to admit). We’ve probably fallen into the trap of following the crowd a bit ourselves, but I think we can have a lot of fun seeing how we could ‘be a Tiger’ in our own category.
More of the same please Adam!
@Impressed – There are two Mikes here and I am only one of them – the first of the two on this posting.
I work in the media business but not in advertising so freely admit that I only look at this from a consumers point of view and without your obvious level of expertise. I am interested to see whether in the airline business you can be ‘anti-category’ to this extent. For a business that thrives on safety and reliability, I think this is a ‘brave’ move.
But what do I know? It will be interesting to see how other consumers react.
Infrequent Flyer program > Chickens
An airline that gives people who couldn’t have afforded to fly in the past the opportunity to occasionally fly.
Not that hard to work out is it? Nor is it that offensive.
Really great ad! However much like Qantas, it will take a whole lot more than a great ad to fix their problems…For Tiger, they need to completely overhaul the company’s entire operations to improve their customers overall experience. Too many Aussies have been stung by Tiger in the past.
Great, great ad.
Of no use whatsoever to tigerair, i’m afraid.
If you were briefed to advertise the infrequent flyer club on a budget. This is probably better than anyone could have reasonably expected.
But based on what i know about the category and tiger’s positioning in the category…. it doesn’t address their strengths or make any attempt to combat their weaknesses.
So. Ultimately. Great ad. Poor strategy.