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Emirates A380 New Zealand Launch

From March 2008, when Emirates confirmed it would bring the A380 to New Zealand, a sustained A380 public relations programme was activated by PPR, peaking in February 2009 when the inaugural flight arrived.

Our overall objective was to maintain media attention in the build-up phase, the launch phase when the inaugural flight arrived, and post-launch. A creative programme was devised with strong media angles to gain pre-launch, launch and post-launch coverage across a range of media including print, magazine, television, radio and online targets.

The programme included an “airside” A380 reception to showcase the A380 to selected media and travel industry contacts, with a tour of the aircraft and, for some media, inaugural flights to and from Sydney. Guests included a Cabinet Minister, government officials, sporting personalities, travel industry representatives, media, and airport/tourism representatives.

The event attracted 250 guests, with strong coverage achieved through the year followed by very strong coverage for the launch. Sixteen media travelled on the inaugural flight. The launch featured on TV1 and was streamed on the NZ Herald website. This helped forward booking sales, particularly trans-Tasman, with some customers adjusting their days of travel in order to fly on the A380. The success of the photo angle (contrasting the super-jumbo with a small historic aircraft) was such it was replicated by Airbus Industrie at the 2009 Paris Air Show and by Emirates in a one-off A380 flight to Birmingham.

The programme also won a PRINZ Award.

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