Air New Zealand has kicked off a multimillion dollar two-year global marketing tie-up with forthcoming film The Hobbit, starting with an in-flight safety video starring its characters and director Peter Jackson.
The four-and-a-half minute clip is called 'Unexpected Briefing' and aims to promote the airline's partnership with Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy, The Hobbit.
It features a range of the series' recognisable characters and director Peter Jackson, who irreverently re-enacts its iconic "my precious" ring scene, before disappearing into thin air. Great-grandsons of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, Mike and Royd Tolkien, also make an appearance.
The spot is part of a two-year global marketing campaign promoting the franchise, and also offers consumers the chance to win a trip to the film's Wellington screening later this month.
It has been produced in conjunction with Weta Workshop, Jackson's company behind the Lord of the Rings films, and is also being promoted on Twitter by the airline with the hashtag #AirNZHobbit.
Air New Zealand general manager of marketing and communications Mike Tod said: "We will invest several million dollars in Australia, Asia, the United States and Europe on uniquely Air New Zealand marketing efforts related to The Hobbit movies to attract more tourists to New Zealand. We are also working extremely closely with Tourism New Zealand on a range of initiatives, including supporting bringing several hundred journalists to experience Middle Earth.
"This latest safety video inspired by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is another example of how New Zealand is a hotbed for creative talent. Our partners at Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, which brought Gollum to life inside the aircraft, have helped us demonstrate again that if you want to engage with audiences in a unique way, our nation has immense creative capability.
"Sir Peter Jackson and the team at Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States were fantastically supportive during production of the video. To have Gollum step off the movie screen for the first time and into an Air New Zealand aircraft is incredibly special and Sir Peter Jackson delivers a superb cameo. He should come out from behind the camera more often."
The campaign's next instalment will be a Hobbit-themed aircraft which will be unveiled prior to the film's 28 November premiere in Wellington.
Air New Zealand is well-known for its celebrity-fronted videos, with past ads featuring New Zealand's All Blacks team, US rapper Snoop Dogg and US fitness personality Richard Simmons.
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