Airline Marketing Benchmark Report-June 2017

AIRLINE MARKETING BENCHMARK REPORT June 2017 and Issue 57

THE 48 HOUR STOPOVER CHALLENGE

BY ETIHAD CONNECTING CULTURES

BY STAR ALLIANCE

LSTN HEADSETS

BY DELTA

WELCOME Published by aviation marketing strategy consulting firm SimpliFlying, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report contains a wide range of airline marketing case studies each month, providing you with the latest and most innovative social, digital, experiential and traditional airline marketing campaigns recently launched by airlines around the world.

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or are eager to help your airline move into the next stage of engagement, while also understanding how your airline marketing initiatives compare to campaigns from competitors in general, these repor ts are indispensable for airline professionals working in the field of marketing and corporate communications.

The monthly reports also help agencies that work with airlines stay on top of the latest innovative airline marketing initiatives.

For any questions about the report, please contact Dirk Singer at dirk@simpliflying.com.

2

INSIDE This issue features: 1. British Airways Discover the London you don’t know 2. Delta - LSTN Headsets 3. EasyJet - Feel Cote’D’Azur 4. Etihad - The 48 Hour Stopover Challenge 5. Lufthansa - Lufthansa Crew Stories 6. Malaysia Airlines - Take me to Anfield 7. Qantas - Feels Like Home 8. Star Alliance Connecting Cultures 9. Virgin Australia - The Billion Miles Give-away 10. WestJet #WestJetVegasSurprise

3

BRITISH AIRWAYS DISCOVER THE LONDON YOU DON’T KNOW

One of the consequences of the UK’s vote share of what Bloomberg has called the to leave the European Union has been a world’s fastest growing airline market. drop in the value of the pound.

This has resulted in British Airways rolling Looking at India in particular, the Indian out a series of high profile campaigns media has pointed out that this could over the past few years that seek to make make the UK a more cost effective an emotional connection with Indian destination to visit, especially as Indian consumers. visitor numbers have steadily declined since the UK introduced biometric visas For example last year, BA released its in 2008 “Fuelled by Love” video, a story about the human interaction between an Indian At the same time, the UK’s flag carrier, grandmother and BA cabin crew member, British Airways has been keen to get a which received worldwide media

4

coverage and millions of views (see our of today (for example, instead of going blog post on the campaign) up Big Ben like the grandfather did, the young man takes a trip on the London The latest incarnation of British Airways’ Eye Ferris Wheel). campaign to win the hearts and minds of Indian consumers is the video “Discover The video was produced by advertising the London you don’t know”. giant Ogilvy. According to the agency’s New Delhi’s creative director Abishek Here, the central character is a young Gupta, the idea was to show that “how man from Chennai who flies to London to that no matter how many London stories retrace the footsteps of his grandfather, you have heard, there’s always one that a 1950s barrister. The video uses lines you haven’t. Also, there’s the fact that from the grandfather’s diary to compare Indians have been flying British Airways the London of the 1950s to the London for generations. The challenge was to 5

create a film that captures both these facets.”

Though it is early days, the video has at the time of writing been viewed 135,000 times and been covered by a number of Indian business titles.

British Airways isn’t the only Western European airline making a play for a greater share of the Indian long-haul market, in the April report we talked about Lufthansa’s campaign “More Indian than you think” featuring an English cricket team trying to beat the Indians at cricket by being more Indian (which included flying Lufthansa)

6

KEY TAKE-AWAY Just like “Fuelled by Love”, “Discover the London you don’t know” draws you in by telling you a story that you experience through the eyes of the main character. The campaign doesn’t really feature British Airways at all, except at the beginning and end, and it certainly doesn’t talk up different product features of the airline.

Instead it’s purely emotional advertising, which according to neuromarketing writer Roger Dooley works.

Purely emotional ads tend to perform twice as well as ad campaigns that only have rational content.

DELTA - LSTN HEADSETS

‘Last month we talked about Delta’s partnership with Alessi, where the design giant is providing the table-ware for Delta’s Premium Cabins.

7

The Alessi partnership is part of an on-going programme to enhance the Delta experience for business and first class passengers, which also includes changing the in-flight headphones through a new partnership with LSTN. Initially the headphones will be making an appearance on transcontinental flights from the Summer.

LSTN is a socially responsible headphone company. It makes very distinctive and well crafted wood panelled headphones, that have received rave reviews in the music and technology press with Complex Magazine calling the sound “mind blowing.”

8

However, it also has a wider mission to “change lives through the power of music”, with profits going to support the Starkey Hearing Foundation, which aims to provide one million hearing aids to hearing-impaired people worldwide.

So far, LSTN claims to have helped 22,000 people in nine countries with staff going on so-called hearing missions.

These hearing missions are central to the Delta partnership as well.

Last month, Delta and LSTN jointly sponsored a mission with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to Peru, featuring employees from both brands. This mission is in turn

being turned into an in-fight video to be shown on Delta’s IFE system from the Summer.

In addition to appearing in-flight, Delta is also showcasing the headphones in key Delta Sky Clubs over the coming months, while the actual product is being given to passengers out in bags containing the LSTN motto “We believe that what is good for business should be good for the world.”

The initiative has already been picked up by several travel and technology titles with Engadget saying that Delta has removed “the guilt from keeping in-flight headphones.”

KEY TAKE-AWAY Delta could have teamed up with any number of headphone manufacturers, instead it chose one with a compelling story attached to it. As a result, this is a great partnership because it works on lots of different levels for the airline.

It will get Delta more attention than had they partnered with (say) a company like Bose.

Though they would have appreciated being given a pair of headphones from a well known name and would have liked the sound quality, passengers wouldn’t have otherwise given it much thought.

By contrast, the LSTN headphones are unexpected. They make you want to know more. This benefits Delta’s CSR programme and gives it wider exposure.

There is also a wealth of content that can be created around this partnership.

The in-flight video being made in Peru is only the start, in terms of content this partnership has longevity.

9

EASYJET - FEEL COTE D’AZUR

In the British Airways article (page 4) we easyJet announced that it had taken a talked about how the post-Brexit vote £82 million hit due to the post referendum drop in the pound has made the UK a slump in Sterling. cheaper place to visit.

To encourage people to still travel, However, the other side of the coin is easyJet has over the past year rolled that it has impacted UK travel companies out a number of marketing campaigns and airlines by making holidays more under the overall heading of “Why Not”. expensive for ordinary Brits.

Developed by ad agency VCCP in In May for example low cost carrier the Autumn of 2016 this encouraged

10

spontaneity and a spirit of discovery. In addition to an ad campaign, a plane door was hidden in London in October, which led to an “immersive theatre” experience showcasing The Netherlands.

event forms a large part of it.

This involved easyJet creating “an interactive multi-sensory experience inspired by the sights and sounds of the South of France – the carnival spirit of Fast forward to the Spring of 2017, and Nice, the jazz sounds of Antibes and the the latest incarnation of the campaign is red carpet glam of Cannes.”

“Feel Cote D’Azur.”

Taking place again in London, visitors This time the theme is, as the name walked in through an aircraft door to take suggests, France and again an experiential part in a 15 minute live show, where they

11

exchange for a chance to win flights.

In addition to providing details on how to enter the competition, every Facebook post also points fans to “cheap flights to Nice” page.

Though it includes a link to the booking engine, you could argue that the content on this page is pretty light.

While the films and the immersive theatre talk up the destination and the excitement of flying to Nice, this isn’t followed through on the easyJet website.

In contrast, take a look at the Cote D’Azur article on the Ryanair blog, which is were presented with a Cote d’Azur event. appealing and highly visual.

Of course, only a limited amount of people can take part in a stunt or a piece of immersive theatre and easyJet has been using its social media channels to reach a far wider audience.

Creating an experiential campaign like this isn’t cheap, so of course the key question is: Does it work? easyJet says it does, with head of marketing Lucy Outram telling The Drum Magazine that the Autumn Dutch event saw a “a significant uptick” The videos of the event have been in people buying flights. streamed on Facebook Live, and post event compilation videos included a competition element.

For example, a clip posted by easyJet on May 16th asked Facebook fans to spot a couple kissing on the carousel in the film and screen grab it into the comments, in

12

KEY TAKE-AWAY A series of 15 minute live performances in London would at most reach several thousand participants, as a result it was important for easyJet to maximise the reach of the campaign via social media.

There, mechanics such as asking fans to screen-grab key scenes, meant anyone could take part. easyJet claims that activity like this works and has a direct impact on ticket sales.

One question however is how much better would the results be, if there was better follow-through with the campaign pointing people to a content rich landing page.

13

ETIHAD THE 48 HOUR STOPOVER CHALLENGE

Dubai is well known as an East-West transit point, with many Emirates passengers stopping off to take a short break enroute from Australia or the Far East to Europe (and the other way around).

14

Though Dubai’s neighbour, Abu Dhabi, offers similar connections with Etihad, many passengers have overlooked the fact that they can also break up their journey by enjoying a short holiday in the Emirate.

around the Formula One race track to spending a night under the stars in the desert.

The challenges also feature Etihad cabin crew at various stages, for example a cabin crew member waits for Wilson at A new Etihad campaign featuring Kaiser the bottom of a Water Slide with a towel.

Chiefs frontman and UK TV star Ricky The challenge ends, with a minute to Wilson seeks to address that. spare, with a stay at the Yas Viceroy Hotel.

In a short film produced by advertising agency Cheil London, Wilson arrives in Abu Dhabi with the challenge of taking part in 24 activities over 48 hours.

The overall message that the video is trying to convey comes from the following quote by Ricky Wilson: “For me a stopover meant sitting in the airport, or visiting duty free. It should be The video follows Wilson around as he flying falcons across the desert, kayaking, completes his challenge ticking off items visiting water parks – imbibing the culture on an Abu Dhabi bucket list from racing of the place. Abu Dhabi has taught me

15

that stopovers can be as relaxing as they are exhilarating. There is something incredibly refreshing about pushing yourself, getting out of your comfort zone and fully immersing yourself in a new city. I will never stay in the airport again during a stopover.�

of Etihad’s 48 Hour Stopover challenge comes as the social network has passed the 700 million user mark, with some estimating that it could reach one billion users this year.

So far almost 900 images have been tagged #EtihadChallenge. The quality of many of the fan-generated images is very high, giving Etihad a bank of user generated content that they can draw on to promote Abu Dhabi stopovers.

The campaign is being supported by a social media campaign, encouraging Instagram and Twitter users to snap a selfie at any of the 24 attractions visited

by Ricky Wilson and use the hashtag #EtihadChallenge.

Other airlines have of course also promoted their home destination as a Doing so puts you in the draw for one place for a stopover. of 500 prizes, including flights and experiences.

The Instagram element For example, in previous reports we have

16

KEY TAKE-AWAY Stopover campaigns aren’t new, but Etihad has executed this one extremely well. As a natural showman, Ricky Wilson adds character and personality to the promotional video.

featured campaigns such as Finnair’s work with Chinese celebrity chef Steven Liu as a way of targeting Chinese travellers, and Icelandair’s ‘Stopover Buddy’ programme where a member of staff (who could even be the CEO) took you on a tour of the island.

17

By running through the 24 activities in quick fire style in three minutes, Etihad successfully manages to convey the range of things there are to do in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile the social media element gets fans involved, while giving Etihad a bank of content and images that it can in turn repost, giving the whole campaign an added push.

LUFTHANSA - LUFTHANSA CREW STORIES

A number of different airlines are now using Snapchat, including Qantas, Qatar Airways and Delta.

As with any (relatively) new social network, the question is of course what you do with it?

18

In particular, what kind of content can you upload that a) Is appropriate for the audience using the network in question b) Tells your story and c) Isn’t just a rehash of material you’ve posted elsewhere.

Lufthansa’s solution has been to use the network for ‘Crew Stories.’

Essentially stories are posted on flights where cabin crew give a behind the scenes view on what is going on. Previous stories have included a look at the ‘hidden’ crew quarters on an A380 from Frankfurt to Los Angeles and a tour of Cape Town by a South African Lufthansa employee.

More recently on 17 May, two off duty staff members flying from Frankfurt to San Jose took over the Lufthansa Snapchat account and put together a story of their flight including chats with the cabin crew, a look at what goes on in the galley, a view of San Francisco en route to San Jose, and the arrival.

Lufthansa has claimed that the tactic of personalising their Snapchat account through ‘Crew Stories’ has resulted in an 800% increase in snap views of each story, and that the airline receives a lot of job enquiries this way.

The fact that staff post the content means that no agency is involved and likewise, The San Jose story was then extended Lufthansa doesn’t filter what is posted. into a ‘Crew Connections’ event on Snapchat in San Jose on 18 and 19 May The popularity of Snapchat has of course and New York on 24 and 25 May, including a caused Facebook to react, with the result competition element where people in each that photo network Instagram has started city could win tickets by going to meet the cloning different Snapchat features. cabin crew.

19

According to The Verge Instagram Stories now have 200 million users a day compared to just over 150 million for Snapchat.

In addition, as we’ve already mentioned in a previous article, Instagram as a whole could be on course to read a billion users overall this year.

That in turn leads to another question, how should an airline’s story on Snapchat differ from its Instagram story?

The key is to look at the different audiences of each. Though both social networks are popular among teens and 20-somethings, Instagram has a broader demographic, with 33% of 30-49 year olds in the US using the network.

As a result, one division of Lufthansa which uses Instagram Stories but not Snapchat is the aircraft maintenance arm, Lufthansa Technik which regularly sends out content from trade shows.

While Lufthansa has given control of its Snapchat channel to cabin crew, Icelandic airline WOW Air tried a different approach last year in its “Snap Traveler” competition where Snapchat super-users were recruited to post stories of different WOW Air destinations.

20

KEY TAKE-AWAY Millennials are a core part of Snapchat’s demographic and so it makes sense for Lufthansa to use young, 20-something staff to become the voice of the airline on this social network. It has given Lufthansa’s Snapchat channel a feel of authenticity and users are responding, as evidenced in the huge increase in views.

The fact that Lufthansa is receiving job enquiries for cabin crew positions via Snapchat is interesting, and there could be scope to take this idea further.

Meanwhile, the cost of the Crew Stories initiative for Lufthansa is of course minimal, making this a very cost effective campaign to run.

Instagram stories are likewise interesting for their potential to reach a broader audience. For example, creating a Snapchat channel for your airline’s cargo division might not make much sense, but you could see how it would work on Instagram.

21

MALAYSIA AIRLINES - TAKE ME TO ANFIELD

Professional football (soccer) continues to be a big focus for the airline industry.

Last month we talked about Etihad’s on-going sponsorship of Manchester City resulting in the City2City campaign celebrating grass-roots football in different Etihad destinations.

The latest airline / football campaign comes from Malaysia Airlines, which last year became the global airline of Liverpool FC.

In the ‘Take me to Anfield’ campaign fans were given the chance to travel to Anfield (Liverpool’s home ground) to Meanwhile airlines such as Emirates and play a match by being a member of one Qatar Airways have in the past leveraged of two teams, each captained by a former different club sponsorships to produce Liverpool player - Robbie Fowler and in-flight safety videos.

Gary McAllister.

22

To enter, fans had to submit a short video of themselves showing off their football skills and submit the film on Malaysia Airlines’ social media channels. Over April, the competition was promoted on social networks, as well as through tieups with radio stations in Malaysia. As a result of this, Malaysia Airlines received 500 video submissions.

Individual entries were showcased on Facebook as a way of keeping interest going, with each video regularly generating upwards of 10,000 views.

Every entry of course also gave Malaysia Airlines a human interest story that they could leverage by way of content.

The final team was drawn from Indonesia, When it comes to social media the UK, South Korea, Singapore, China, competitions, getting people to do more Japan and of course Malaysia itself. than simply fill in their name can be tough, so for a promotion that relied on people The match then took place on May going through a considerable amount of 14th, with “Team Fowler” beating “Team effort, that’s an impressive number.

McAllister” 4-2.

23

KEY TAKE-AWAY A theme that we’ve touched on in these reports has been the need to maximise any sponsorship deal so it’s just not a brand badging exercise.

How can you generate excitement beyond the initial announcement? How can you create on-going content? How can you best leverage your social media channels, as well as that of the team benefitting from the sponsorship? How can you get your own fans involved?

Strangely, the stadium appears eerily deserted during the match except for a few relatives of the two UK-based players.

Unless it was for operational reasons, this looks like a missed trick, e.g. why not invite UK fans and give them discount vouchers to use on Malaysian Airlines flights and do a destination marketing at the same time.

Similarly the match doesn’t appear to have been streamed on Facebook Live, instead there is a two minute highlight video.

24

In the ‘Take me to Anfield’ campaign, Malaysia Airlines tapped into the huge fan base that English Premier League clubs like Liverpool FC have in the Far East, and successfully channeled that enthusiasm by getting fans to create content on the airline’s behalf.

A YouTube search shows that people also uploaded the videos onto their own channels, meaning that they started taking ownership of the campaign.

The one possible missed opportunity was that the promotion could have been used to engage local UK fans as a way of highlighting the airline’s route network from Heathrow to Malaysia and beyond.

QANTAS - FEELS LIKE HOME

Two and a half years ago, Qantas launched a brand campaign called “Feels Like Home.” The idea was to ‘reconnect and reengage’ with Australians following what marketing publication Mumbrella called “a torrid few years for the airline.”

‘Feels like Home’ has so far had three executions. The second series of films was released in Autumn 2015, while the third was released in late April of this year.

This coincided with non-stop flights from Perth to London, the so-called “Kangaroo The videos featured Australians being Route” going on sale for March 2018 reunited with loved ones from around onwards. the world, with the soundtrack being the Randy Newman song ‘Feels like Home’ The third series of films follows the same as performed by young Australian artist general theme as the first two.

Martha Marlow.

In it, a family in Perth is shown The initial campaign was a huge success, communicating with a grandmother in with each video gaining well in excess of Bristol UK on Skype until at a birthday a million views on YouTube. celebration, the daughter receives tickets for the whole family to go and visit her

25

31 May, 20 names were short-listed from nominations sent in by members of the public, including The Great Barrier Reef, Great Ocean Road and Great Southern Land. Another of the 20 suggestions Meanwhile a second film features young which made it through to the short-list couple Michael and Imogen. Michael has was “Vegemite”, the iconic Australian had to move to London for work, while sandwich paste and food spread.

Imogen has stayed in Brisbane to continue her studies. The Michael and Imogen film Wisely, Qantas seems to be keeping shows Michael surprising Imogen with a control of the contest rather than display trip back home to Australia. the votes in real time. Organisations which did this and subsequently fell Each story is in fact based on real people. victim to Internet users’ particular sense For example, Imogen has moved to of humour include the UK”s Environment London to be with Michael since the Research Council which last year held a filming took place. boat naming competition where “Boaty McBoatFace” came out on top.

Meanwhile, Qantas has been calling out for suggestions for suitably Australian names for its new Dreamliner fleet. On on Qantas. The film then follows the family as they get on board the Qantas Dreamliner to London before meeting the grandmother.

26

KEY TAKE-AWAY Much as Qantas has done with its safety videos, the Feels Like Home campaign focuses on real people and real stories, and not celebrities. Meanwhile the song and Martha Marlow’s voice is a powerful aural accompaniment to each clip, that ends up giving it an extra emotional pull.

What’s noteworthy is how the Qantas campaign gets across in the space of two minutes.

In each film you see human interest stories, you see destination imagery (for example of Western Australia), you see the new Qantas’ Dreamliner fleet, and of course you are given a prompt that next year the airline will be flying for 17 hours direct between Australia and the UK.

27

STAR ALLIANCE - CONNECTING CULTURES

The world’s biggest airline alliance grouping, Star Alliance, marks its 20th birthday in 2017, and as you would expect a whole series of marketing initiatives are being rolled out to support this milestone.

28

The campaign, which includes an advertising campaign, a ‘millionaire mileage’ competition and a online video series is grouped under the heading “Connecting Cultures.”

several hundred entries. The winner will then be chosen on September 28th.

The whole campaign is underpinned by a web video series featuring National Geographic’s Robert Reid where he takes The idea behind the strap-line is of part in a challenge set by the five founding course clear, the campaign is a celebration Star Alliance members (Lufthansa, United, of how airline members have brought SAS, THAI and Air Canada). people together over the past twenty years.

So far two videos have been released.

The first saw Robert Reid take part in Entering the million miles competition a Thai boxing match in Bangkok, while involves going to a micro-site, uploading the second had him conquer his fear of a selfie and a photo of your favourite heights through an early morning walk cultural experience. The two photos are over the rooftops of Stockholm. then blended together and added to a map, which at time of writing already has Future videos will include Robert Reid

29

travelling to the highest village in Europe (in Georgia) with Lufthansa to watch a horse race, surviving in sub-zero temperatures with Inuit people in Canada (in the Air Canada challenge), and a trip to the annual “Gathering of Nations” Native American festival with United.

viewpoint points to short attention spans where where 20% of viewers leave in the first ten seconds.

However at the same time, Google has carried out experiments that show that people will stick around if the story is good enough . Star Alliance seems to have Each Robert Reid video is 7-8 minutes embraced this approach, and certainly long and is well put together without the videos don’t seem ‘long’ thanks to being too sales focused - airline mentions Robert Reid’s easy-going nature and and branding are subtle. effective narration.

The length is interesting as there’s an In addition to the competition and videos, on-going marketing debate about the an ad campaign is running in support of optimal length of online videos. One the anniversary campaign.

30

These feature a series of 30 second ads where imagery of passengers is interspersed with Star Alliance pictures, while each film plays up a different Star Alliance benefit ranging from “fast connections for you and your bag” to “making your connection smoother.”

The Star Alliance campaign was developed

by London creative agency ‘Atomic’

KEY TAKE-AWAY Connecting Cultures features a big prize (the chance to be a mileage millionaire) with an easy mechanic as it doesn’t take much effort to upload two pictures onto a website.

As a result, by the time the winner is drawn in September, Star Alliance should have thousands of entries, each being a different piece of content and a story that can in turn help promote the overall message of ‘connecting cultures.’

Meanwhile putting together longer videos to support a campaign is always a risk, but due to the format and the narrator, Star Alliance has made it work.

31

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA THE BILLION MILES GIVE-AWAY

“The intern did it” is the marketing equivalent of “the dog ate my homework.”

Over the years, lowly interns have been blamed by a variety of brands and personalities ranging from Donald Trump to American Apparel.

Virgin Australia turned ‘blame the intern’ into a way of promoting it’s “billion miles give-away.”

32

This involved encouraging members of its Velocity loyalty-club programme to transfer across credit card or shopping points with the incentive of a 15% bonus.

In itself, an announcement like this would not be very interesting.

It would merit an email mail-shot and a social media post or two and that would be the end of it. Hence Virgin Australia had to think of a different way to promote the campaign.

The mechanic was to send out a member email advertising a “billion mile giveaway” with a follow-up mail questioning whether the whole thing had been a big mistake.

airline’s HQ in a panic over the fact that someone had changed “one million” to “one billion” in error.

The clips included a shame faced intern sitting in reception while staff yelled away behind closed doors and a member of staff asks “who is going to call Branson” as the airline would now be needing more planes for all the extra passengers wanting to fly.

Of course, the airline was only giving away a billion miles in theory, something that was made clear in the small print. As the One Mile at a Time blog points out, Virgin Australia could just have legitimately have called it the “trillion mile give-away.”

Virgin Australia then filmed a series of Reaction to the promotion has been mixed short videos focusing on staff at the by industry blogs. Though One Mile at

33

a Time commended Virgin Australia for showing a sense of humour, it still called the promotion “bizarrely misleading.”

However, German language blog “Boarding Area” congratulated Virgin Australia for filming videos that are both genuinely funny while also shining a light on things that genuinely happen in offices, in particular company “blame-storms” where middle managers panic on where mistakes can be pinned.

34

KEY TAKE-AWAY The promotion may have been, on the surface of it, misleading, but it also turned out to be a great way to get attention for something that would otherwise have gone largely un-noticed.

Our guess is that most recipients of the ‘Billion Miles Give-away” would have seen the funny side especially as the majority will have been white collar workers such as those portrayed in the video. Those videos had very much a feel of “The Office” about them, and the intended target audience would both have recognised the different scenarios and characters and laughed along with them.

WESTJET - #WESTJETVEGASSURPRISE

Passengers checking into WestJet Flight 1118 from Toronto to Las Vegas on May 9th had no idea that in several hours they would be part of not one, but two, Guinness World Records.

various seat numbers, before settling on 4A, with the winner being awarded a special Las Vegas prize that ranged from a $2,500 shopping spree at The Forum Shops at Caesars, to a two night stay at the Venetian Resort.

As they started their evening descent into Las Vegas, the cabin crew announced to The whole stunt had been developed passengers that they were to look out the six months earlier when WestJet and left hand side of the aircraft. marketing agency Rethink decided to create a giant installation in the Mojave Doing so revealed a giant prize wheel, lit desert as a way of celebrating the airline’s up with lights, so it was visible from the 21st anniversary. air. The wheel then spun, going through

35

By doing so, WestJet ended up breaking the world record for both the ‘greatest light output in a projected image’ as well as the one for the ‘largest circular projection. An adjucator from Guinness Book of World Records was present, to verify the activity.

The tactic itself was promoted in a number of different ways. In PR terms, the story made a number of Canadian newspapers such as the Edmonton Journal.

time of writing has generated over a million views.

Meanwhile there was a ‘behind the scenes’ video showing how the whole project came to fruition over the course of the six months.

The whole project clearly took up a lot of time and effort and though trade title Ad Week called it “an impressive bit of production” it also questioned “whether it was worth the time and energy for such The post event video was posted on a short payoff.”

YouTube and Facebook, which at

36

However, this was very much in tune with previous marketing campaigns all of which have a common theme of surprising passengers with an unexpected prize, upgrade or activity.

For example, in 2015 Las Vegas comedian “Carrot Top” met WestJet passengers coming off a Toronto flight and asked them to choose either the red carpet or the blue carpet on arrival. Choosing

37

the latter meant being taken to a special performance with Las Vegas entertainers and being given Las Vegas upgrades.

Similarly, WestJet has made a name for its annual “Christmas Miracle” campaigns.

Last year’s Christmas Miracle saw airline staff put on a Christmas celebration for the residents of Fort McMurray, Alberta, who had to evacuate their home town in the Summer as a result of forest fires.

KEY TAKE-AWAY As Ad Week implied, if you are going to be staging something as intricate as WestJet’s “Vegas Surprise”, you need to make sure you get the right amount of exposure from it. Both the Facebook and YouTube videos have generated an impressive number of views, and WestJet is starting to get additional press coverage from the activity.

However, the tactic will have sense to the casual viewer.

WestJet’s 800k+ Facebook fans wouldn’t have been left wondering “why is the airline doing this?”, it had the same tone and flavour as previous projects. It also of course promoted a key destination for the airline with WestJet flying nearly one-third of all international passengers to McCarran International Airport.

38

ABOUT US

SimpliFlying is a global consultancy that believes in thinking differently about aviation marketing. Having worked with over 50 airlines and airports around the world, it has presences in Singapore, UK, Spain, Canada and India.

Today, SimpliFlying advises airlines and airpor ts on customer engagement strategy, achieving aviation business goals by harnessing the latest innovations in the social media space.

The firm also conducts MasterClasses to train and develop airline and airport teams to become self-sufficient in executing measurable and rewarding social campaigns.

SimpliFlying’s growing list of clients includes Lufthansa, Emirates, Toronto Pearson Airport, Halifax International, KLIA, Jet Airways, LAN Airlines, airBaltic, Airbus and Bombardier.

Get in touch at engage@simpliflying. com or visit simplifying.com.

39

PRICING

EUR 550 per issue.

One-time purchase. Just the edition you’d like.

EUR 4950 per year Annual subscription 12 issues, subscription starts from month of order EUR 5950 per year Annual subscription, including 1 hour monthly call with SimpliFlying 12 issues and calls. Subscription starts from month of order contact Dirk Singer at dirk@simpliflying.com.

40