AirAsia is welcoming in the year of the dog by telling the, now widely used, story of reunion at Chinese New Year, but with a twist, it’s told from the dog’s perspective.
The ad starts out in a very recognisable storyline of a mother awaiting her family to return for Chinese New Year. For the majority of the ad it’s unclear who she is talking too, though the film is shot from a lower perspective.
The mother frequently references to ‘Ah Boy’ that his ‘Papa’ will be home at some stage, creating the illusion that it may be a small child.
As ‘Papa’, one of the sons, arrives back, ‘Ah Boy’ is revealed to be a dog, a cute beagle, who welcomes his owner back.
Spencer Lee, head of commercial, AirAsia Berhad, commented: “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."
The message of the ad is ‘the ties that bind us lead us home’, which helps segue into AirAsia’s wider brand messaging.
Lee further shared the importance of having a strong tie to an agency when going against the norm for storylines.
“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!”
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 added.
To see other Chinese New Year Ads from brands across Asia Pacific, The Drum has created a roundup.
Dentsu X: AirAsia 'Pawsperous Chinese New Year'
