It began with a pre-flight safety video featuring the All Blacks. It resulted in a social media campaign that surpassed all of its objectives and generated over 11.5 million views, and over 110,000 social shares.

Air New Zealand is the international and primary national airline of New Zealand. Their audiences include customers who fly with them plus their own complement of 10,500 staff. But they also have a responsibility to connect with all New Zealanders whom they represent on a global stage.

Pre-flight safety briefings are a necessary interruption before every flight. Done right, they’re also a highly entertaining and effective marketing tool.

So an entertaining, engaging and informative pre-flight safety video was created starring the All Blacks called Men In Black – Safety Defenders. This video was an expansion of the MIB world and featured a number of stars from the existing movies and music videos.

In collaboration with Sony Pictures, a truly authentic feel was created. To ensure this video looked like the real-deal, an incredible range of sets, props, plates, characters, and animations was negotiated. Shot on location in Los Angeles and New Zealand, full use was made of existing sets. Actors from previous films were used and the art direction and scriptwriting of the original mimicked.

The safety video itself was based around the Grammy-winning title-track Men In Black by Will Smith, and was performed by local musician Stan Walker and All Black Israel Dagg. The lyrics were re-written to include the series of safety instructions passengers would normally hear while taxiing down the runway.

This was an incredible challenge to accomplish in a very tight time frame.