Digital partnership with Chinese social media giant aims to land Auckland Airport with 500 million hits
Auckland Airport is partnering with Chinese social media website Sina Weibo in a move that should see New Zealand tourism branded and marketed to an audience exceeding 500 million people in the Chinese market.
Airport deal is Sina Weibo's first Asia-Pacific partnership
The airport is the first in the world and first business in Australasia to partner with Weibo.
"Our reach in China through innovative digital marketing will be significantly enhanced with the Sina Weibo partnership,“ said Adrian Littlewood, Auckland Airport’s Chief Executive.
“As China’s largest social media site, with a staggering 500 million users of all ages and almost 50 million using the service daily, Weibo is the perfect place to launch our application designed to sell and promote travel. Users will be able to learn about destinations, have access to special travel deals and share their holiday experiences with friends and family,"
Sina Weibo’s General Manager of Weibo Marketing Strategy, Ken Hong saif: “Not only are over 500 million consumers using Sina Weibo, over 200,000 companies have also registered their enterprise Weibo accounts to communicate with their target audience.
“With the massive user base and the rich social features, brands are able to reach many consumers very quickly. Sina Weibo has developed many different products on the platform that enable brands to accomplish a wide range of marketing and business goals such as branding, social customer relationship management, lead generation, social commerce, customer services and more."
"Since Sina Weibo is one of the best social networking site platforms in China covering the affluent consumer segment, and with these consumers increasingly using social media for making purchase decisions including travel, it is a perfect channel to reach, educate, engage, and convert them into travellers to destinations like New Zealand.
"China's affluent segment is growing extremely rapidly and outbound travellers are increasingly looking for destinations that provide a high-quality travel experience. We need to provide them with information about New Zealand in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them."