Air Niugini employed the services of Cairns-based advertising agency Empire Worldwide to design the card. The agency has a wealth of experience in Papua New Guinea. Creative Director Roberto Cortesi has worked on many campaigns in PNG, including the highly successful Wan Kantri campaign for Air Niugini. On the other hand, Empire’s Marketing Director Sen Ekanayake was a former Marketing Manager for SP Brewery in Papua New Guinea.

The Destinations Loyalty Program card will be released as a temporary membership card within the foundation membership brochure. However in 2010, the card will become personalized featuring the member’s name and membership name in embossed print on the front.

Air Niugini Business Development Manager Glenn Armstrong said that the card is the first of its kind in Papua New Guinea.

“We wanted to capture a unique feature of PNG within the card,” Mr Armstrong said.

“We considered a number of images but it was in a traditional PNG headdress we found what we were looking for”.

“The birds of paradise feathers capture the colour and vibrancy of Papua New Guinea. As well, it is a direct reference to the bird of paradise that features in the logo of Air Niugini”, he added.

The Destinations Loyalty program will also be evolved to indicate membership status. The bar at the top of the card will be altered to gold for those members that are also Gold Executive Club Members; and silver for those who are Silver Executive Club Members.