benchmark report
airline marketing
#microadventures with alastair humphrey
digital
etihad virtual reality film
EASYJET
ETIHAD AIRWAYS Hot on the heels of last year’s hugely successful “Flying Reimagined” campaign featuring Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman as Etihad’s A-list brand ambassador, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier recently made headlines again with a world class sequel. Par tnering again with Kidman, the airline is producing a fully-immersive virtual reality (VR) film . Etihad released the teaser trailer for the film during April’s Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2016, taking full advantage of the busy event to whet the public’s appetite and highlight their luxurious Airbus A380 interiors in vivid, eye-popping VR. Described as a “Vir tual Reality experience you won’t want to come down from” in the accompanying movie poster-like print campaign, the dazzling Reimagine trailer was made viewable to ATM attendees MAY 2016 ISSUE
via Google Cardboard and state-ofthe-ar t Samsung Gear VR headsets . Already the trailer for the upcoming film has made headlines, for example in, Thomson Reuters Zawya , to TravelDailyMedia.com , which publishes five daily eMagazines for the travel trade across the European, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern and Chinese markets. Etihad also notes that Reimagine marks the first time a major Hollywood actor has appeared in an all-VR production. Although the clip is more of an extended VR commercial than an actual narrative film, the fact that Etihad’s previous Kidman commercial has been viewed more than five million times on the carrier’s YouTube channel should bode very well for all involved in this second, more elaborate, vir tual reality film project.
(or miniSo-called microadventures vacations) are proving to be hugely popular with time-strapped, tech-savvy travelers who need to unplug now and then. Looking to capture the imagination of the “microadventure” crowd and highlight a host of eclectic European destinations , easyJet recently teamed up with creative content agency VCCP Kin and the king of microadventures himself – British author and adventurer Alastair Humphreys – to offer their passengers the chance to win a microadventure of their very own . After registering online, contest applicants were encouraged to vote on a locale for Humphreys’ next microadventure by watching a video of easyJet’s European destination cities . When they spotted the easyJet microadventure locale on the video that they thought suited Humphreys best, applicants were directed to tap stop, take a screengrab of their selection, and post the pic in the video’s comments
section. Entrants’ names were then placed in a draw to win two standard fare return tickets to any of easyJet’s microadventurewor thy destinations in Europe. Thanks in par t to Humphrey’s soaring popularity in travel circles after being named one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year in 2012 , easyJet’s uniquely interactive contest generated more than 2.7K views on Facebook and proved to be hugely popular with the carrier’s 364K Twitter followers as well. Even today on Twitter, the hashtag #microadventure continues to flourish. featuring easyJet’s YouTube clip Humphreys was also viewed over 1,000 times in just over a month and Humphries created a number of fun, low-cost #microadventure ideas which are being featured on the “Inspire Me” section of the easyJet website.
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