Last week the New York Times ran an article entitled "The Body As a Billboard - Your Ad Here."  In short it talked about Air New Zealand's use of "cranial billboards" -- 30 expats or previous New Zealand visitors displaying henna applied ad copy on their shaved sculls for two weeks in exchange for tickets to New Zealand. 

Having spent several years of my life as a media planner trying to dream up the "next never been done idea," and conversely having said on multiple occasions "just because you can, doesn't mean you should," I had to stop and wonder, outrageous PR stunt or brilliant connection idea activated?

At McKinney, we define connection planning as identifying both the brand's best prospects and the most arresting avenues and occasions to engage in mutually beneficial conversation.

How could this work for Air New Zealand?

Well, I bet their best prospects are people who are willing and wanting to go further.  People who want to go beyond their own borders, comfort zone and expectations.  After all, they are going to fly half way around the world.  These are the kind of people who would either henna their head or strike up a conversation with someone who had.   

And from the article it is clear that Air New Zealand figured out that someone willing to henna their head is going to be a darn good advocate.  The kind of person they are going to need to help sell someone on a $1000+ ticket in today's economy.  And I bet they know that if they can engage this target in a one on one conversation about New Zealand the result is likely to be a ticket. 

So, if they do have a connection idea I bet it would read something like "Create Conversations".  And I think that is pretty smart.  And tattoos on heads certainly pay that off.

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed when I clicked on their site to see a pretty standard airline experience.  And then found a print ad that could have been for a myriad of places that less than boundary pushing people go.

So maybe it was just a happy PR stunt, as a connection idea would inform the entire experience, but there certainly is a ton of possibility.