• by Tanya Gazdik , November 6, 2014

With close to 120,000 people viewing it online every hour, Air New Zealand’s latest Hobbit-inspired safety video has become the airline’s most popular video to date, clocking up a record 21 million online views in a little over a week.

“The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made” has garnered close to 120,000 people viewing it online every hour on YouTube, Facebook and Youku in China.  It has also been featured in numerous media outlets worldwide including CNN, NBC News, the Daily Mail and The Telegraph.

“Air New Zealand’s inflight safety videos have become a powerful way to share safety messages in way that is also entertaining,” says Jodi Williams, Air New Zealand head of global brand development.

Collectively, the airline’s safety videos have clocked up close to 50 million views online. “So, while we are thrilled with the results, this just builds upon on the success of our first Hobbit-inspired safety video,” Williams tells Marketing Daily. “'An Unexpected Briefing’ was released in 2012 and received more than 12 million online views and global media attention.”

The current video stars cast members from all three films in “The Hobbit” trilogy, including Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Dean O’Gorman (Fili the Dwarf) and Sylvester McCoy (Radagast). It also features cameos from director Sir Peter Jackson, Weta Workshop Co-Founder Sir Richard Taylor and the director of the video, Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi. 

The large-scale viewing of the safety video reflects fan enthusiasm for the December release of the highly anticipated “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Williams says.