Both carriers appear to have put worries of soaring oil prices on the backburner, with Cathay surpassing year-to-date spending and Dragonair on course to breach last year's spend. Compared with the Sars-hit 2003, Cathay spent a little over HK$30 million (US$3.9 million) in the first nine months of this year, while Dragonair's spend, excluding the latest campaign, has hit $14 million, just over $2 million shy of 2003's levels.
Dragonair's current campaign is print-led, based on 'The Beauty of Flying' theme, illustrated through three oil paintings by local artist Zhong Biao.
DDB handled creative and OMD worked on media for the two-month-long campaign.
The 'You', 'We' and 'Everybody' paintings were chosen to inject a cultural tone to the campaign as well as highlight the importance of China, the airline's most important market.
Dragonair's last major push was in April this year to launch its new route to Japan as part of a bigger effort to position itself as an international rather than regional carrier.
However, the latest campaign is locally-focused and aims to re-ignite Hong Kong interest in travelling to China.
"In the last few campaigns we focused more on introducing new destinations in our network," said Singmay Chou, general manager, marketing, for Dragonair. "The new campaign aims to reinforce Dragonair's brand identity and propositions."
Targeted at both business and leisure travellers, the campaign is backed up by ambient media support. It also features an online competition, with ticket prizes, in partnership with the Pacific Coffee Company, which is displaying the three paintings in its outlets. To enter the competition, consumers will be required to pen a short piece on what 'The beauty of flying Dragonair' means to them.
Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, is making a louder pitch with a television-led campaign dubbed 'Home', which uses iconic images of the city to reinforce its positioning as Hong Kong's 'home' carrier.