Feature: AirAsia with Diljit Dosanjh aims to fly massy

Leveraging on Dosanjh's popularity in India, AirAsia India roped in the singer to roll out a music video cum campaign 'Har Dil Bole Udippa'. Social Samosa goes behind the scenes of the AirAsia campaign

Donning a white turban, clad in red and white attire, much-celebrated singer Diljit Dosanjh looks no less than AirAsia’s live mascot in the newest commercial. Also, the video doesn’t really look like an AirAsia campaign, but more of Dosanjh’s new music video crooning to ‘Har Dil Bole Udippa’.  

Claiming to be the most preferred low-cost carrier, AirAsia recently announced their association with Diljit Dosanjh and 92.7 Big FM for their new brand campaign encouraging more and more people to fly aiming to align it with the company’s tagline, ‘Now everyone can fly.’

Objective behind ‘Har Dil Bole Udippa’

From time to time, we come across people who feel that air is an expensive mode of travel alongside being apprehensive about the other parameters associated with it.

“With this campaign, our objective was to perforate into the Northern hemisphere of India, wherein we connect Delhi, Jaipur, and Amritsar to over 135 destinations across Asia and Australia. The music video featuring Diljit is a very peppy upbeat song that debunks the myths associated with air travel,” shared Sanjay Kumar, COO, AirAsia India.

The Brief

AirAsia’s brief to the creative team was to work on a campaign that helps the airlines capture various slices of traveler types, in a simple manner to address the misconceptions of flying or reasons for not flying. The medium should be easily accepted / a music video, song, or something that is snackable in format.

From Conceptualisation to Execution

Taking us through the campaign conceptualization phase, Kumar informed that the brand team worked with Big FM to see if the music was the best approach for its TG and category. “Then we zeroed in on Diljit as the entire team felt that music and his appeal to our TG were apt. The contest was developed by FM team. We shot the video with Diljit and production team which was a very enjoyable process for all”.

Role of 92.7 Big FM

AirAsia in the past has done a few interesting campaigns on Big FM with the likes of Suresh Menon, Sunny Leone, and other artists. Kumar felt that the team at Big FM has been exceptional in executing integrated campaign beyond radio space, hence the company collaborated with BIG FM on this campaign.

The ‘Dosanjh’ Factor and Music Video

India has a very rich and diverse cultural heritage with a strong inclination towards music and dance. With music and dance, being associated with all our celebrations in India, Air Asia felt its imperative they express the core messaging of a hassle-free travel experience with an art form. Kumar added here, “When we started curating the campaign, Diljit was our first choice to help us propagate this messaging as he is a multi-talented youth icon who has a colossal fan following because of his exceptional body of work”.

Also Read: AirAsia India on the lookout for a publishing agency for travel360° India

The Digital play

With the digital world forming an integral part of AirAsia’s communications channel, its marketing mix involves both online to offline with YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other few music content apps/portals serving as a communication route. And offline to online as print, Radio, Airport digital advertising, and the company’s internal assets. 

AirAsia also has a few social media contests in mind as part of the sustenance plan, which will be rolled out soon while one is already live.

Talking about the brand's advertising strategy so far, Kumar claimed that the brand recall is higher especially in the markets that it operates despite the overall market share being 6%. He added, "With the mission to sprawl our grid across India and reach out to masses, we leverage the best of advertising opportunities through various outlets available".

Expert view:

Yashwant Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, GenY Medium and GenY Labs

Using branded content to engage with your consumers in a non-ad format is a rage these days and it is commendable that Air Asia has made this video in collaboration with Diljit Dosanjh who is incredibly popular among the millennials. This strategy has done wonders for brands across the globe - the most successful ones are campaigns by Gatorade, Old Spice, Lego, and Toyota.

This video does a great job of communicating (through the fun & peppy lyrics in Hindi mixed with Punjabi) why the new age discerning consumer should choose Air Asia over other low-cost airlines.

I guess the brand is yet to push hard on the promotion and distribution of this campaign video.