benchmark report
airline marketing
game of thrones
trip book
VUELING Spanish hybrid LCC Vueling surprised its Game of Thrones (GoT) fans with a witty promotion which launched just as fans awaited the show’s Season 5 debut with bated Dragon’s breath. The airline’s CEO, Alex Cruz, tweeted a long screen shot of the reservation engine with the comment, “Oh no! Someone from #gameofthrones has hacked @ Vueling website & added new destinations! #got #summeriscoming.” The Summer is Coming hashtag is a humorous spin by Cruz on GoT’s ominous ‘Winter Is Coming’ motto. Sunny or Wintry, the GoT destinations options ‘hacked’ onto Vueling’s internet booking engine came complete with all the various travel options true Westeros denizens might expect from their airline of choice. Tickets were available by class of Villager, Lord, or King, and “crossing times” MAY 2015 ISSUE
GOL could be Dawn, Twilight or ‘Time of the Walkers’ - a reference to the epic story’s nightmarish ultimate winter survivors. Those booking their holiday far, far, abroad to this other world were offered complete packages with reservations at castle inns and the option of renting a thoroughbred as ground transpor tation (images) . To find all GoT cities on the airline’s reservation site, visitors had to dig deeper, searching all the city pairs available—a great way to point out the airline’s routes in the real world. “To be honest, it got me by surprise that it had that much impact on social media,” Samuel Lacar ta, Vueling’s Director of IT shared with SimpliFlying, who says the objective of the exercise was to have fun, declare our love for epic stories and be able to tell our friends ‘I was par t of it’.”
E-reader devices such as Amazon Kindle let travellers bring thousands of books with them on their journeys, but what if each of those stories was customised to wherever the reader happened to be at the moment? That’s the idea behind the ‘Trip Book’ campaign from Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol for its ‘Smiles’ loyalty program that uses GPS to automatically change the location and landmarks in a story to wherever the reader is located. Created by ad agency FCB Brazil to help celebrate the loyalty program’s anniversary, the enhanced e-reader features an interactive story written by author Marcelo Rubens Paiva specifically for the device. Rubens Paiva wrote a novel about a 40-something couple, Theo and Maria Manoela, who ditch their run-ofthe-mill lives to travel back to where they honeymooned years earlier.
FCB Brazil developed geolocation technology that locates the e-reader’s position. The story then takes place in the city where the reader is. If the reader travels while reading the story, the setting changes accordingly so the characters also experience the new locations, including New York, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon or Buenos Aires. The story is also available as a free app for both iOS and Android devices, which nearly all include GPS or basic locationtracking functionality. “Reading a book is already a trip. And with Smiles ‘Trip Book’ this trip is even more real. It is an experience that allows the consumer to continue traveling with Smiles even after leaving the plane,” commented Joanna Miller, VP Creation of FCB Brazil.
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