McCann HK is Flying High With Cathay Pacific's 'Marriage in the Air'

McCann Hong Kong and MRM//McCann Shanghai have launched ‘Marriage in the Air’ symbolising the closer relationship between Cathay Pacific and the newly rebranded Cathay Dragon.

In partnership with three of the largest travel platforms in China – Ctrip, Mafengwo and Qyer – a competition featuring three travel influencer couples trying to outdo each other for a chance to wed at 35,000 feet has been launched. 

The campaign began this month with videos of the couples dressed in wedding gowns and suits running through the streets and airports in China. The videos invited the public to vote for their favourite couple to win a wedding on a Cathay Dragon flight. The winning couples’ voters also get a chance to attend the wedding on January 6th.

The campaign leverages China’s travel vertical sites’ content hub, and their powerful influencer network to create a conversation with today’s young Chinese consumers. The partnership maximises brand and campaign awareness, and enables end-to-end consumer engagement on platforms that consumers trust. 

This is evident when #空中婚礼_为爱翱翔#, the campaign hashtag, hit No. 2 on the Weibo Travel Hot Topic Board organically on the second day of the launch. Social posts with the hashtag have also gained over 25 million reads within the first week of the launch.

Grace Cheung, Manager, Global Marketing Communications, Cathay Pacific, said “The campaign is the result of a truly innovative approach to consumer-centric communications and content planning. This is our first time to tap into a partnership of this nature and scale with travel platforms and influencers in China. The result is highly targeted content in a media environment where Chinese consumers are already engaged. In a world where media and creative can no longer be thought of as separate disciplines, the travel platforms and the integrated team at McCann have been working seamlessly in Hong Kong and China to bring all this together. Although in its initial phases, ‘Marriage in the Air’ shows that content-driven campaigns are often the ones that resonate best with consumers.”

The campaign is supported by a website, digital media, social media and PR. From creative concept to media planning, buying and execution, McCann Hong Kong and MRM//McCann Shanghai collaborated closely along every step of the campaign. 

"It's a big challenge to help brands break through the media clutter in China. Our creative challenge was not just to create an advertising campaign that delivered a brand message, it was to create a social conversation that placed our client's brand at the centre of something meaningful in people's lives”, commented Martin Lever, Executive Creative Director Cathay Pacific team, McCann.