HK Express and Zalora create ecosystem fusing travel with fashion

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, HK Express has joined forces with online fashion platform Zalora to create an ecosystem fusing travel adventures with lifestyle experiences for consumers.

This comes as HK Express and Zalora share the same amount of passion for travel and fashion respectively. Furthermore, both brands have highly flexible operating models, making them a natural fit for collaboration by leveraging their shared strengths, according to the release.

This also aligns with HK Express' mission to allow travellers to embrace the spirit of “Gotta Go” and explore the world with affordable flights spanning across Asia and the option to select preferred ancillary services as needed. 

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The new brand positioning "Gotta Go”, which was introduced earlier this year, aims to encourage spontaneity and invoke a new, free-spirited travel attitude, appealing to the airline’s target customer who is bold, dynamic and lives in the moment.

Available until June 2024, the campaign targets adventurous explorers aged between 18 and 50, with interest in fashion, beauty, travel and photography. 

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Michael Ho, managing director of ZALORA Hong Kong, said the partnership is going to host getaway trips regularly in 2024, supporting ZALORA’s fashion KOLs on trips to popular destinations in its network, providing customers with fresh travel inspiration and the latest trends directly from their origin. 

The influencers will be invited to post images of themselves dressed head to toe in ZALORA, he said. "The influencer content generated from the trips portray the lifestyle of ZALORA customers, showing how much fun our customers could have while traveling in styles, and representing ZALORA and HK Express in a more realistic way than editorial ads produced from staged photoshoots typically can. Showing that fashion and travel goes hand in hand, and can be stress-free," he added.

Moreover, HK Express is giving out over 100 air tickets to ZALORA's customers from November to December 2023 as part of the campaign. This will help generate buzz and enhance brand awareness. ZALORA will offer various shopping perks to HK Express customers through social media platforms. HK Express customers will also have opportunities to receive exclusive treats from ZALORA after booking flights.

To engage a wider audience, the campaign will be promoted across ZALORA and HKExpress' app and websites, as well as official social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram. 

“HK Express prides itself on being vibrant and flexible. We believe teaming up with like-minded ZALORA will foster synergies which bring mutual success while fully leveraging the resources of both brands to create a holistic travel and lifestyle ecosystem for our customers,” said Eric Thain, director, customer and brand of HK Express.

“This kickstarts our long-term brand vision to craft experiences beyond travel alone through strategic collaboration that reflects our values. Our goal is to provide our customers with a diversified experience and insights, making travel not just about leisure but a way of living," he added.

“As consumers continue to accelerate their migration to the online space, we have noticed the increasing demand for new forms of engagement. By partnering with Hong Kong's leading low-cost carrier, HK Express, we aim to tap their audience to gain exposure amongst new potential customers,” said Michael Ho, managing director of ZALORA Hong Kong.

As part of its 10th anniversary campaign, HK Express offered 100,000 discounted tickets at a starting price of HK$10 back in October. It covered a total of 15 routes such as Fukuoka, Kaohsiung, Ningbo, Jeju and Phuket for travel between 10 November 2023 and 30 June 2024. This positivity was bolstered by the airline’s ongoing expansion with the opening up of new popular destinations to its customers at affordable fares.

HK Express has also introduced a new inflight winter menu that highlights Hong Kong's unique flavours, demonstrating the airline's commitment to enhancing the customer experience while promoting local tastes. 

To support its growth, the airline plans to recruit around 500 pilots and cabin crew next year, and expand its fleet to over 40 aircraft by 2025. The airline has also partnered with CHOOOSE, a climate technology solutions provider, to introduce a carbon offset programme. 

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