Is Actor John Abraham AirAsia Brand Ambassador?

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

That’s the buzz doing the rounds right now – that Bollywood star and model John Abraham will be presented shortly as the brand ambassador for AirAsia.

Why John Abraham?

To begin with, there is every likelihood that AirAsia India will be headquartered in, based on various statements — Chennai or Kochi. Whatever the final decision, AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes has made it clear that the airline’s focus will be on the southern markets.
“Every operator is focused on Delhi and Mumbai. We will start looking at lot of new destinations and at the markets that have been under served. For example, Tiruchi in the south. No operator had connectivity to Tiruchi from Kulala Lumpur and it has an average load factor of over 80 percent. We like to do things no one has done before,” Tony Fernandes is quoted as saying in Firstpost.

That gives us some clues — which we’ll come to later.

First, a few more clues. “AirAsia’s branding has always embodied the spirit of being bold, innovative, dynamic and progressive in everything we do. We are excited to give our look, feel as well as our plane livery a little contemporary ‘facelift’. We have gone from a Malaysian brand to a regional brand and now after 10 years, AirAsia is a global name not just in the aviation industry but one that is internationally recognizable,” said Kathleen Tan, AirAsia’s Group Head of Commercial. “The credit goes to our Group CEO, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes whose individual charisma and dynamism has breathe a lot of live to the AirAsia brand,” she added.

So if AirAsia is looking for a brand ambassador for their India business, they would look for someone, who, based on their stated business objectives:

• Recognized across the country
• Is particularly strong in south India
• Kerala might be a very strong market for Air Asia.

In addition, he or she needs to embody

• Bold
• Innovative
• Dynamic
• Progressive
• Individual charisma and dynamism

Abraham, as a Bollywood actor, born of Malayalee-Parsi parents, straddles the north and the south comfortably. His name is clearly Syrian Christian (and, therefore Malayali), skews his appeal to the south, when required.

His existing portfolio of brand associations include Yamaha, Van Heusen, Garnier, Philips Grooming, Castrol and VIP Skybags. Between them, they cue masculine, dynamic, clean, adventurous — attributes that overlap with the attributes that AirAsia’s PR machine broadly define as the embodiment of the brand.

In addition, Abraham, as seen in many of the commercials he has appeared in, always sports a smile — and often makes one smile.

More than all other attributes, these probably swung it Abraham’s way: his smile, his roots in south India (especially Kerala) and the lack of negative controversy.

Get ready to see John Abraham smiling down at you from every hoarding – smiling, convincing you to fly AirAsia.