Airasia is going to ride the Korean wave with some serious product placement in an upcoming Korean TV drama called On the Way to the Airport.
In the series, Korean actress, Kim Ha Neul, plays the female lead named Choi Soo-ah, a 12-year veteran flight attendant and mother of a grade school daughter.
From there the drama ensues.
While by all means an ordinatry TV show, it is also a targeted ad campaign —via product placement— which was announced on Facebook by CEO Tony Fernandes, who wrote:
[su_quote]Check out Airasia in the movies. Our new KOREAN drama story. Coming out soon. ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT. Will be a huge boost to our brand.[/su_quote]
The likely audience is the Southeast Asian region –one of K-pop and K-drama’s strongest fan bases globally.
Two 30-second teasers have been released. The accompanying copy, in Korean, reads: “Fall 2016..meet the best emotion that melodrama allows.”
The drama, which was directed by Kim Cheol-kyu (My Beautiful Bride) and written by Lee Sook-yeon (One Fine Spring Day), also stars Lee Sang-Yoon and Shin Sung-Rok, and will premiere September 21st.
One can’t help but applaud AirAsia on the move, as ardent fans of Korean dramas are going to have the brand indelibly etched on their minds with every “emotion that melodrama allows.”