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.