AirAsia onboards 'kudasai' girl Devin Halbal as part of new campaign

AirAsia has onboarded travel content creator Devin Halbal, more popularly known as an influencer who walks around with a selfie stick giving out inspirational quotes and finishing her sentences with the Japanese word 'kudasai' for its 'Go Somewhere Different' campaign. 

The community-centric campaign is designed to inspire Gen Z travellers to explore unique destinations within AirAsia’s extensive network across Asia. It also hopes to encourage a sense of adventure and discovery by showcasing places that many have yet to experience.

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Halbal is a travel content creator with a significant following in key growth markets such as Japan, Korea, and the United States, said Amanda Woo, AirAsia's group head of commercial in a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. 

"Halbal is utilising Kuala Lumpur as a transit point en route to Almaty, and through this collaboration, we aim to highlight our connectivity and promote new destinations to a broader audience seeking to explore hidden gems in this region, all while benefiting from AirAsia’s affordable flight options," she said. 

She added that the airline is particularly focused on attracting travellers from North Asia and other continents to explore, among others, majestic Kazakhstan, the picturesque islands of the Philippines, and Japan, where tradition meets futuristic zen.

"Kuala Lumpur plays a crucial role as a fly-thru hub, enabling travellers to easily reach multiple destinations across the region with the world’s best low-cost carrier," she explained, adding:

It is early days yet for this campaign so stay tuned for more travel inspo and dream destination content ahead.

Halbal is currently in Malaysia for her summer tour and will be headed to Almaty, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan in the coming weeks alongside AirAsia. 

She said in an Instagram video a week ago:

Thank you so much AirAsia. AirAsia kudasai for sponsoring my summer tour.

She has since been spotted in iconic places such as KLCC and near the Petronas Twin Towers. 

The partnership with Halbal could be attributed to AirAsia's strategy to bank more on gut feel and intuition for big and fresh new ideas. In a fireside chat at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s inaugural Content 360 conference in Malaysia, Rudy Khaw, CEO of AirAsia brand co explained that he doesn't hate data but that he is more creative-focused. 

“I think people who know me very well know that I'm all about gut feel, which could make me a little bit traditional. It doesn't mean I hate data. But for me, I guess, I am slightly more creatively minded and I find that data can sometimes be a barrier because it actually makes a creative person second guess their own work,” he said. 

He added that to be a trendsetter, you might need to go beyond the past, which is what data represents, to be more forward thinking and a visionary. Of course, data then is used to support that idea prior to execution, and to make sure it will resonate with audiences, he said. 

Commenting on the conference tagline “Where content comes to life”, Khaw said that he is a big believer that any aspect of life can be turned into content. Jokingly, he said, “Who doesn’t enjoy seeing Tony [Fernandes] dancing.”

He added, “Everything around us is content. This conversation we're having is content, me driving in my car this morning could have been content if somebody wanted to film that and put it on YouTube. So, for me, content really is everyday life.”

Given that netizens today also consume a lot of content through social media nowadays, he urged brand marketers to be more human as consumers are always looking for authenticity.

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