We had the great pleasure of working with Air China and our good friends at BCW London to create a unique immersive experience celebrating Chinese New Year and welcoming in the Year of the Pig.
The experience was conceived to reflect Air China’s ATL campaign and give guests a glimpse of the magical land of China, through a range of experiences that helped to up your luck and land all your hopes and dreams for 2019.
We selected The Bargehouse on Southbank as our host venue which offered an unusual and surprising backdrop to the experience and helped communicate Air China’s desire to surprise customers with their offering. We transformed rooms within the venue into some of China’s hidden gems offering guests a peek into Air China’s key destinations.
Guests could book their experience slot via a ticketing site for the Saturday with numbers limited to ensure an intimate experience.
Guests were met on entry to the venue and invited to the First Class check-in to register for our RFID experience and receive their personal boarding pass with RFID tag and seat number. Once checked-in guests were invited to explore the experience at their own pace.
First up guests entered the abandoned ghost village of Houtouwan, where guests were invited to explore and breathe in the sounds and smells. Houtouwan played host to our Tea Whisperer in residence who sat with guests and performed a traditional tea ceremony to bring good luck.
Next, guests could stroll over the bridges of the achingly romantic Zhouzhuang (the Venice of the East), meet the orange trader and make their own wish which they attached to our traditional Wishing Tree.
Our Land of Luck journey culminated in The Lucky Red Banquet Hall, where our guests learnt how to make a Chinese ‘lucky’ knot with our resident knot expert. Once their knot was complete, all guests were seated and invited to enjoy a menu of lucky traditional Chinese food and drinks from a menu created by our resident chef Ching-He Huang under a canopy of traditional Chinese red lanterns
As dinner concluded the lights dimmed and drumming resonated around the room welcoming a Dragon and Lion dance that weaved in and out of the banquet tables and delighted all guests.
As the performance came to a close, guests were invited to our red wishing wall to receive their unique red envelope which corresponded to their seat number on their boarding pass.
Each envelope contained a personal prediction for 2019 created by astrologist Russell Grant (yes…he writes for Air China’s inflight magazine) and each guest received an exclusive Air China gift.
The experience hosted a media and influencer preview event on Friday night and bookable consumer sessions on Saturday.