Air China Likes Facebook for Marketing, Despite Ban

Facebook in December honored Air China for best use of the social network for international marketing by a company in Greater China. That’s not surprising, since the state-owned carrier has aggressively used the service to offer everything from links to its booking engine, to giveaways of models of the new Boeing 747-8 it flies between Beijing and New York, to a recipe for Rolling Donkey, a popular red bean-and-rice snack. The surprise is that the airline has embraced Facebook even though it’s been banned on the mainland since 2009.

Air China isn’t alone in using the service beyond China’s borders; state-owned rivals China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, along with privately owned Hainan Airlines, also use Facebook to connect with international passengers. Chinese airlines, says Thomas Crampton, global managing director of Ogilvy & Mather’s Social@Ogilvy team, “are clearly looking to build their connections with people outside of China.”