Comms Innovation Update: Air China Facebook Check - Ins

Summary:
The task for Air China was to communicate to the Swedish market that Air China didn’t only offer flights to China, but to all over Asia. They wanted to tap into the residents of Stockholm and communicate to them while they were experiencing Asian culture. They selected Asian restaurants around the city as brand ambassadors, picking a range of restaurants to represent the airline’s various destinations such as Japanese, Chinese and Thai. At the restaurants, guests were encouraged to ‘check-in’ to Air China right then and there – but on Facebook. Everyone who checked in was featured on the Air China Facebook page and each week whoever had the most votes won 2 tickets to an Asian destination. This generated a lot of interest and enthusiasm from entrants and encouraged them to spread the word. The competition lasted several weeks and results in a reach of over 1.2 million people and increased their Facebook likes by over 3,000%.

Why is it interesting:
This is a great social campaign where the execution is innovative, simple and relevant to the product offering. Based around a competition, the idea is fresh using the Facebook function of the ‘check-in’ both as an entry mechanism into the comp and as a communication vehicle for the brand. Also a clever use of play on words, the ‘check-in’ is a great way to use brand ambassadors. The restaurants who communicated the message experienced a win-win situation of increased customers during the comp.