On the morning of December 1st 2011, the world woke up feeling a little empty and sad: Rico, the Air New Zealand mascot, had been “killed”. Eleven days after the unthinkable happened, and thanks to the help of Rico’s Facebook followers the “killer”, Richard Simmons, confessed his “crime”.
Even though he is no more, for marketers and air transport professionals alike Rico will live forever as part of our memories, presentations and as a source of inspiration for future strategies. What follows is a resume of his brief but well-lived life that, hopefully, will help us remember his best moments and better understand the marketing strategy for which he was created, due to which he thrived, lived and, sadly, was done away with.
Rico’s character was originally launched in October 2010 to promote Air New Zealand’s premium economy space seats. Even though what sort of animal he was and where he came from always remained a bit of a mystery, his fluffy persona was apparently designed as an effort to differentiate the advertising campaign by not using a human being. As Rob Fyfe CEO of Air New Zealand explained in his interview with SimpliFlying “if you put a human into the ads, you stereotype people’s image of what sort of people you’re trying to engage with.”
RICO’S FIRST VIDEO:
He quickly became an internet sensation and started interviewing celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, David Hasselhoff and even recorded a rap video with hip-hop signer Snoop Dogg.
RICO WITH SNOOP DOGG
However he also stirred up a lot of controversies, and was often criticized for his sexual innuendo, south American accent and, according to some, for not having anything to do with New Zealand and being off-brand. The strongest controversies, at least amongst the general public, were clearly related to his manners, as one of his critics put it:
“Air New Zealand has kindly created a verbal rapist and let him loose upon the world. I can’t imagine anything worse than having to sit next to a pervert like Rico on a flight – even if it were only Auckland to Hamilton – and whenever I think about Air New Zealand now, I get a vaguely uneasy feeling”
RICO AND “THE INTIMATE ART OF TOUCH”
In response to his critics Rico often said that, while it was clearly not from New Zealand, he loved the country and its airline, more than any other thing in the world. Unfortunately for Rico and despite his huge popularity on the internet, it seems that his explanations were never convincing enough, and amidst controversy over his effectiveness Air New Zealand decided to let him go.
On the 1st of December 2011 the news of Rico’s “demise” began to spread over the internet. According to the information released by the airline, the “crime” took place while Rico was hosting a party in his Los Angeles mansion where several celebrities had been invited.
With one last touch of class Air New Zealand used a smart strategy to ensure that even Rico’s passing away would generate favourable buzz for the airline. The airline teamed up with Hasbro to create a Cluedo-themed internet game where users were asked to find out which one of the celebrities who attended the party had killed Rico.
The hunt for Rico’s killer spread virally through Twitter and Facebook, reaching thousands of people, until finally the murderer confessed the crime during a Youtube interrogation where Rico’s puppeteer played the part of a policeman and the murderer, Richard Simmons, played himself.
THE KILLER’S CONFESSION
We, at SimpliFlying, bid goodbye to Rico and hope Air New Zealand copes with their loss (and the world’s) by doing what they do best: producing many more great campaigns
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