Cathay Pacific has launched its first post-pandemic global advertising campaign in an attempt to put the defacto Hong Kong flag carrier back on the world stage and to push its new ‘premium travel lifestyle brand’, which is simply referred to as Cathay.
The company entered the premium lifestyle arena in 2021 at a time when the airline was pretty much completely grounded due to Hong Kong’s severe ‘Zero Covid’ pandemic restrictions, opening up new revenue streams for the loss-making airline.
At the heart of the new Cathay brand is its airline business, but it also includes holidays, shopping, dining, wellness and payment through its internal AsiaMiles currency.
Until now, the Cathay lifestyle brand had been restricted to Hong Kong but with pandemic travel restrictions now long gone and passenger traffic up 600% on last year, a new global brand film has been created to launch Cathay on a global scale.
Set to the beat of the catchy pop song ‘Move Your Feet’ by Danish pop duo Junior Senior, the brand film encapsulates the joy of travel and, as Cathay explains, ‘humanity’s innate urge to move’.
“This campaign goes straight to the heart of why Cathay exists as a premium travel lifestyle brand,” says Edward Bell, Cathay’s general manager of brand and insights.
“Since our beginnings, Cathay has always been about forward progress. Restlessness is in our DNA. This campaign is a celebration of how good it feels to move,” Bell continued.
Just like in 2021, Cathay’s CEO Ronald Lam was pretty light on details on what the new brand meant for global consumers, but the company has promised an “array of new and aspirational offerings”.
As Cathay Pacific continues to build back its business, the airline said the outlook for its core travel business looks ‘promising’ and in the first eight months of 2023, the airline has carried more than 10 million passengers.
