KUALA LUMPUR – With Chinese New Year just around the corner, AirAsia has launched its latest ad campaign to usher in the Year of the Dog, and the star of the campaign is none other than ‘Ah Boy’, the cute and playful Beagle dog in AirAsia’s ‘Pawsperous’ Chinese New Year video.
Created by Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), the video tells the story of a family reuniting in their hometown for the festive celebrations, through the eyes of the family’s pet dog, ‘Ah Boy’.
‘Ah Boy’ longs for his owner’s return just as much as the mother yearns for the whole family to make it home for Chinese New Year. Shot from the dog’s eye-level, viewers experience from the dog’s point of view of waiting at the doorstep, looking out to the gate and the road ahead, and hanging around at the nearby taxi stand, in anticipation of the return of his owner, referred affectionately as ‘Papa’ in the story.
When ‘Papa’ finally returns, ‘Ah Boy’ runs joyfully towards him, bringing viewers in on the special bond they share, as the two make their way home to join the rest of the family, personifying the message of “the ties that bind us lead us home”.
Championing the AirAsia-DAN collaboration, Yap Chee Weng, CEO of Dentsu X Malaysia said, “True to its innovative spirit, AirAsia once again takes the unconventional approach of presenting a typical story but from a different perspective. To this end, we’re very much aligned in that we share the same vision of wanting to be differentiated in our respective industry.”
“Besides this hero video, we’re also working with them on other features in its overall Chinese New Year campaign, including both online and offline media planning & buying for branded content pieces and tactical airfare promotion. DAN’s collaborative operating structure enables us to leverage our network capabilities to deliver integrated marketing solutions to AirAsia, ultimately strengthening the AirAsia-DAN partnership,” Yap stated.
As the largest low-cost carrier in Asia in terms of fleet size and number of passengers carried, AirAsia boasts of having an extensive network connecting over 130 destinations worldwide.
“We are in the business of connecting people, so stories of family reunion resonate well with us. By providing travel convenience, we’re glad to play a role in connecting people with their families across geographies, more so during festivities like Chinese New Year,” Spencer Lee, Head of Commercial, AirAsia Berhad commented.
Lee further shared that the story idea was conceptualised and well-executed by working closely with its agency. “I suppose you can say that we’re taking the Year of the Dog quite literally! Seeing the world from a dog’s point of view is certainly not common for a festive campaign. We’re glad to have a good client-agency partnership with DAN to enable us to bring this whacky project to life!”
In less than a week, the AirAsia ‘Pawsperous’ Chinese New Year video has garnered 1 million views on its Facebook page and YouTube channel to-date.
