benchmark report
airline marketing
faberge easter egg hunt
national shakespeare day
VIRGIN ATLANTIC
The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt is an annual event that sees the jewellery f irm hide a large amount of huge ‘ar t’ eggs around New York which together act as a large scale ar t installation, with entrants from famous designers around the world. Of the 250 eggs on display across f ive of New York’s boroughs between April 1st and 26th 2014, one egg was designed by Virgin Atlantic, who had been invited to decorate and present its egg as par t of the charity event, in what is good f it with Virgin Atlantic’s ‘boutique’ brand image. The bespoke sculpture, entitled ‘The Frying Lady ’ was specially created by Virgin Atlantic’s in-house design team. The Frying Lady is the vision of Mark Jump, a graphic designer at the airline, whose entry was chosen after an in-
MAY 2014 ISSUE
EASYJET
house competition. The egg por traits a playful interpretation of the airline’s famous f lying lady, who features on the aircraft’s livery and according to the airline “is inspired by the brand’s adventurous optimism and proud Britishness.”
According to a VisitBritain repor t, heritage and culture remain one of the key drivers of tourism to the UK. To help promote the UK to international tourists, easyJet launched a campaign to make the 23rd of April national ‘William Shakespeare Day ’.
This year a dedicated smar tphone app was created to help par ticipants map and char t the eggs around the city. Once 10 people have vir tually ‘checked’ in at an egg, or “cracked” the location, the egg will be added to an interactive map. On April 18th, the full collection of eggs was moved to the Rockefeller Centre for a week-long free public art exhibition were they were up for auction.
To back its initiative, the carrier in the last week of April arranged a program of free Shakespearean performances at the airline’s check-in areas at airpor ts across the country to share the playwright’s most famous work. EasyJet also revealed a new William Shakespeare A319 logo jet titled ‘Romeo Alpha Juliet’. Besides these two larger campaign drives, there were smaller elements as well, including suppor t from (Shakespeare’s hometown) Statford Upon Avon’s
Member of Parliament, email newsletters that encouraged people to sign a petition, hundreds of seatback adver ts, an ar ticle in the airline’s monthly inf light magazine and a world record attempt on the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s bir th for the ‘highest theatrical per formance ’ with the UK’s Reduced Shakespeare Company. The petition to government can be made if easyJet can receive over 100,000 signatures from UK residents. To help suppor t the online campaign , the airline has created the #shakesonaplane hashtag to promote awareness. So far, the petition has only generated under 1,000 signatures though.
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