Air New Zealand Pink Flight

Gay Market News reported recently on the plans for Air New Zealand to promote a gay market themed Pink Flight to this month's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras from San Francisco. Want to find out how the flight went? Read on.


Ian Johnson, Out Now
March 15, 2008

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TOPICS: Gay and lesbian travel market. Gay marketing. GLBT tourism marketing. Airlines. Kathy Griffin. Gay marketing stereotypes. Air New Zealand. Air NZ. Pink Flight. Gay travel Sydney to San Francisco. Air New Zealand gay marketing initiative. Pink Flight San Francisco to Sydney for annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Air New Zealand Pink Flight targeting gay market appears to pay off for the airline..

Gay Market News reported recently on the Pink Flight to Sydney's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras being flown down to Sydney from San Francisco in a gay travel market initiative by Air New Zealand.

As we wrote back in September about this gay themed pink marketing flight there will always be some who will knock any bold new marketing initiative such as Air New Zealand's.

But it is the cold hard reality of sales in the gay market place that is the only true arbiter for what is the best market course of action to pursue in gay marketing in 2008.

And the Air New Zealand flight seems to have (almost) passed that test with flying colours.

There were reportedly some 50 seats left unsold out of the 300 on the flight.

That may suggest that this first Pink Flight might not yet have found the most effective ways to communicate with a large enough market, although the fact that the airline sold 250 seats to passengers on a previously untried marketing concept means they may have uncovered a gay market niche within a niche. There may well be many, many more than 250 tickets up for grabs if the airline can work out how to increase the effectiveness of its gay communications strategies to market its product to its target audience.

There clearly exists a segment of the gay market tapped into by Air New Zealand for whom disco classics and gay movies, served with a touch of drag and a generous helping of camp adds up to a flight offer they will willingly pay for.

Reports on the flight do suggest that those from the target gay travel market audience who flew with Air New Zealand to Sydney this month got exactly what they were promised from the airline.

The entertainment consisted of drag queens, gay themed in-flight movies and US entertainer and celebrity, Kathy Griffin.

The fact that Kathy Griffin running shirtless through the aisles of an Air New Zealand flight is not my idea of gay marketing heaven is absolutely not the point.

What is the gay marketing point though is that an Air New Zealand plane from San Francisco should be full on a pre-Mardi Gras flight down to Sydney, most especially one that is specifically targeting the gay and lesbian travel market.

What the airline needs to do is pat itself on the back first - there is clearly a viable gay market out there for an entertainment driven gay-themed airline product for Air New Zealand to develop to target the US gay travel market.

Then Air New Zealand needs to sit down and critically and honestly assess its gay marketing and communciations strategies to work out how to make sure that if their Pink Flight from Sydney to San Francisco flies again next year, it will fly full.

It is only to be repeated that Air New Zealand and its marketing team should be applauded for taking bold steps to create a new gay market themed product in such a strong way. There clearly exists a segment of the market for whom gay entertainment like drag queens and Kathy Griffin works.

The airline should also assess its entire gay marketing strategy in an holistic sense too, as the research Out Now undertakes suggests that the gay market cannot be pigeon-holed into just one box, and that effective gay marketing requires a clear understanding of how to position the brand to meet the needs of as many consumers within the gay market as possible.

The challenge for Air New Zealand is really to ascertain whether their Pink Flight has uncovered the tip of a gay market iceberg they can uncover more of through better gay marketing and gay communications strategies, or whether the US gay market is better reached through a different, or a range of strategic marketing approaches.

Gay marketing success does not always come easy, nor always first time, but we urge the airline to look at what went well in their new gay marketing initiative, and analyze honestly what they can do better, to create a more refined gay marketing strategy.

The Pink Flight may or may not be an important part of it as Air New Zealand considers how to grow their brand in the lucrative gay market space for airline travel.

DISCLOSURE: Out Now has worked with Air New Zealand in the past as well as Qantas, United, KLM and Lufthansa on developing gay targeted marketing campaigns, although we were not engaged to work on the recent Air New Zealand Pink Flight.

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