Jetstar game hits the target in New Zealand

by Marketing ON 21 December 2010

Jetstar has launched a new brand campaign in New Zealand featuring an online branded social game, Happy Landings.

Developed by branded game specialist, 3RD sense, the game sees players guide a little bird (apparently name Manu, very Kiwi), through 45 levels of flying adventure across five destinations in New Zealand (extensive procrastination possibilities), Australia and Singapore. Happy Landings encourages players to share and compete with their friends using Twitter and Facebook.

Colin Cardwell, CEO of 3RD sense said, “Happy Landings incorporates all the elements that make a branded social game a successful marketing tool. Designed to appeal to Jetstar’s broad target audience, the fun and challenging gameplay meets Jetstar’s ‘Good Times’ consumer positioning. With the Facebook and Twitter integration, we’re promoting competition between friends which will encourage viral recommendations, repeat-play and longer brand interaction times.

Once registered, players can link Happy Landings to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, enabling them to share their scores and trophies with their friends. A social graph allows players to instantly view which friends have logged scores and won trophies.

It all sounds like pretty complicated stuff for a simple idea, but it works, and has got a few of the folk at the Marketing mag offices interacting with the Jetstar brand, even if theyre not buying flights, yet.

Play the game here.

iPads available on Jetstar Flights

by Marketing ON 1 June 2010

Jetstar will be one of the first airlines in the world to trial iPads on their flights.

Due to be available on selected domestic flights in June, iPads will be offered for hire at $10, providing passengers with in-flight entertainment such as movies, television programmes, eBooks, music videos, games and CDs.

“We are really excited to commence the trial of the iPads, as were always looking for ways to enhance our customers Jetstar experience. Given the demand for the iPad so far, I anticipate it will have strong appeal amongst our passengers, said Jetstar CEO, Bruce Buchanan.

If the demand on flights is high enough, Buchanan mentioned that Jetstar would be looking to include the devices across their entire domestic and international network later in the year.

Jetstar is working with in-flight entertainment specialist Bluebox Avionics and Stellar Inflight to implement the trial.

Moments with marketers: Cameron McPherson

by Marketing ON 2 November 2009

Marketingmag.com.au chats to Cameron McPherson – general manager of Rodeo Agency. If you would like to see a certain
marketer profiled, please email your suggestion to Sean Greaney on sean.greaney@niche.com.au.

What do you do?

I have recently joined Rodeo Agency, part of the Mitchell Communication Group, as general manager.

Rodeo is not a traditional creative agency. Our team offers full service graphic design and production, advertising and marketing know-how and limitless online and interactive digital capabilities.We create highly engaging campaigns across online, print, outdoor, mobile and more, and are lucky enough to work with a brilliant range of clients including ANZ, Renault, Jetstar and Heinz.

What was your first job?

As soon as I was old enough to work, Mum sent me off to the local Red Rooster as she was sick and tired of forking out pocket money.

My first professional job was working in inside sales for Macromedia in the UK, which is how I got started in online marketing.

What did you study?

Bachelor of Business Administration at Monash University.

Describe a typical day?

I am generally woken up at 5.45am by my girlfriend going to the gym, promising her that I’ll go for a run around the Tan. I actually get up at about 7am after she’s back from the gym throwing a pillow at my lazy arse.

Rodeo is at a very exciting time in our short history so at the moment my days are very full working on new and exciting projects for our clients, which could include developing a tailored micro-site, creating an online game or producing a print booklet for clients.

In addition, I’m spending a lot of time planning and executing key strategies to drive growth.

After work I’m either getting active – I’m passionate about tennis and part of a social volleyball team Supfoo – or relaxing and unwinding with a movie and a glass of wine.

What is on the agenda for 2009?

A lot! Many organisations are shifting budget from traditional media spend to online, and we are experiencing significant demand for our creative and interactive services.

2009 will be a year of growth and my time will be heavily spent going to market with our new service offerings, promoting the work of our talented team, such as the 200 Year Anniversary campaign for Australia Post. I’ll be establishing a solid framework to underpin our continuing growth. We’ll be adding to our existing team in the second half of the year.

Despite all this hard work, there will also be time for a bit of fun with a trip to Europe to show my better half around Germany and Italy, which basically means a lot of good beer, wine and pasta.

What brand do you love the most? Hate the most? Why?

It’s hard to go past Apple with the way they combine innovation, design and technology in such a use friendly way. It’s very inspirational especially for an agency such as ours, who try to deliver this day in and day out for our clients.

I wouldn’t say I hate any brands, but there are organisations and agencies with good brands who do a really poor job at creating effective and targeted campaigns and that’s frustrating. You don’t need big budgets, you just need to spend a little time to know your audience and make the most of the tools available. That’s what online does so well: targeted, effective campaigns within a very achievable budget.

What do you believe has been the most significant moment in the history of marketing?

The ability of brands to use digital marketing tools has been one of the biggest transformations for marketing departments. Tools such as SEM, banner ads, electronic direct mail and m-sites can be used to create targeted campaigns that are measurable and produce significant ROI.

Working in online marketing, my view point is a little biased, but the statistics are amazing when you look at just how effective the revolution of the digital mediums has been for businesses.

Where can people find you?

Jetstar wins Best Advertiser award in Japan

by Marketing ON 28 May 2009

Australia’s low fares airline Jetstar has been selected as one of the 100 Best Brands in the ‘Breakthrough Advertising’ category in Japan at the 20th annual Japan’s Best Advertisers Awards Ceremony.

This is the first time any Australian company has been recognised in Japan in these awards. Previous winners have included Coca-Cola, Proctor and Gamble, Apple and Nestle.

Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan said that winning the award was a tremendous achievement and demonstrates the significant impact Jetstar has made on the Japanese market.

“Winning this award is a real testament to the strength of the Jetstar brand and our ongoing commitment to developing a strategic position in Japan as part of our pan-Asian expansion,” Buchanan said.

“It’s a real honour for our brand to be recognised on a global scale and for Jetstar to be now seen in the same company as some of the world’s leading brands.

“Being recognised with this award is another sign that our direct to consumer strategy in the Japan market is delivering real results, helping to increase visitation of Japanese customers to Australia,” he said.

Since the start of flights between Australia and Japan in March 2007, Jetstar has commitmentted to establishing and growing its brand presence in the Japanese market.

Jetstar launched an advertising campaign featuring one of Japan’s most popular celebrities, Becky, demonstrating Jetstar’s fresh personality while celebrating low fares to Japanese consumers.

The award is presented to the top-100 companies who achieved enhanced brand value over the previous year with effective outreach to their targeted audience through impactful, creative, and high quality television advertising.

The awards are conducted each year by Japanese research organisation CM Databank following the review of more than 17,000 television commercials from 9,472 brands.

The period of eligible advertising material for this year’s awards was April 2008 to March 2009, during which the organisation reviewed all television commercials on air in Japan from more than two thousand companies.

Feedback was also gathered from thousands of Japanese consumers in order to present an integrated review of the advertising.

Tiger and Jetstar big winners online

by Marketing ON 26 March 2009

Discount flight carriers Tiger and Jetstar are one up on Australia’s major airlines when it comes to website performance.

Tiger is reported to have the highest ranking flight search functionality, while Jetstar claimed fastest homepage load time, according to a report from Nielsen Online.

The report, which assessed Australia’s leading airlines’ websites for performance and availability, found Tiger Airways’ website flight search function performed better than any of its competitors, primarily as a result of its high performance search engine and low page weight, both of which directly related to the site’s low loading time.

Jetstar’s recently revamped website saw vast improvements to response time, with a 28% faster loading homepage, ranking it first among the websites assessed by Nielsen Online.

The website upgrade also resulted in 30% faster flight search times, earning the site fifth place in the flight search ranking.

“The performance of these two sites, Tiger and Jetstar, is raising the expectations of Australian consumers, and this will in turn raise the bar for airline and travel sites. In this industry where every click is critical, website availability is a key business success metric. If consumers can’t reach you online, it won’t take long before they start looking to your competitors instead,” explains Megan Clarken, managing director, Pacific, Nielsen Online.

The Nielsen report also looked at availability of airline and travel websites, using homepage uptime percentage over a two-week period to rank the key industry players.

During the two weeks that the study took place, four sites maintained 100% uptime – travel.com.au, Total Travel, Qantas and Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand also topped the list for flight search function availability, followed by Flight Centre and Virgin Blue.