"No way! Is this for real?" This company granted passengers’ wishes JUST HOURS after asking for it!
Which is why you should try incorporating this in your marketing strategies, particularly in your Guerrilla Marketing campaigns. Keep reading to know how this Canadian airline company tugged at air travelers’ emotions through a fun, warm, and interactive Christmas campaign.
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"No way! Is this for real?" This company granted passengers’ wishes JUST HOURS after asking for it! Imagine a busy Christmas season at an airport. ―restless passengers excited to go home for the holidays… … impatient children… … jam-packed flights… … stressed out employees because of flight changes… … long queues of passengers, etc. It’s a very bustling sight to see. In order to lighten the airport atmosphere during the Christmas of 2013, WestJet decided to spread the joy of the season by creating a remarkable, sentimental, and interactive experience for its employees and travelers. The airline company called it… The “Christmas Miracle” Campaign! The planning started in August when WestJet collaborated with creative agency Studio M to brainstorm on how it could manifest the spirit of giving, especially during the holiday season. The campaign team decided the best way for them to highlight the Christmas spirit is by providing WestJet passengers with a memorable holiday experience. How? By surprising unsuspecting travelers on two Calgary-bound flights (one from Hamilton, the other from Toronto) with their dream Christmas presents! Note: There were no limitations to the passengers’ Christmas wishes. They could state whatever they want and WestJet would give it to them as a gift. A total of 250 WestJet passengers had the opportunity to tell a virtual Santa Claus what they wanted to have for Christmas. As they stated their wishes, airline employees took notes behind the scenes.
Once the planes of those passengers took off, WestJet’s Digital Command Centre immediately relayed the Christmas wishes to over 150 airline employees waiting in Calgary. With the help of the company’s partner shopping centers, CrossIron Mills and Best Buy, the employees went on a mad dash of shopping, wrapping, and labelling those gifts for the passengers. Any guesses on what WestJet’s employees bought? A Samsung Galaxy smartphone, snowboard, DSLR camera, free plane tickets to fly home for the holidays, socks and underwear, and… a widescreen television! Woah… kudos to the WestJet team for really exerting effort to buy all these extravagant gifts! When the planes arrived in Calgary and while passengers were waiting for their baggage, the gifts made a grand entrance on the baggage carousel.
This resulted in laughter, excitement, shouts of “No way!”, and even a few tears of joy among the passengers!
Of course, the campaign team wouldn’t let this heartwarming moment pass by without documentation. By installing hidden cameras across Calgary International Airport, WestJet was able to capture and record footage of passengers’ candid reactions upon receiving their gifts. The campaign team’s holiday video using the recorded footage was uploaded on WestJet’s YouTube channel on December 9, 2013. WestJet’s Own “Christmas Miracle” According to Richard Bartrem, WestJet’s Vice President of Communications and Community Relations, the airline company only expected to garner around 800,000 views from the video uploaded on YouTube. What the company didn’t expect was that in just 3 days since the video was posted, it already had over 13 million views and was viewed in 235 countries including the US, UK, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia, Philippines, Mexico, France, and Australia. Here are other results of WestJet’s “Christmas Miracle” Campaign:
Not only that! The “Christmas Miracle” Campaign was also awarded the winner in the Consumer Brand, Travel, and Viral Campaign category during the 6th Annual Shorty Awards. By creating and sharing the first-of-its-kind “real-time giving” experience in Canada, WestJet brought joy and happiness to its passengers and employees. As stated by Communications and Community Relations VP Richard Bartrem: “This year, we wanted to turn our holiday campaign into a tradition by doing something that’s never been done before. Inspired by the notion of real-time giving, we wanted to surprise [passengers] with meaningful, personalized gifts when they least expected them.” Spread the love and joy whatever the season is by creating a fun and memorable experience for your target market! Give them something (even just a simple token) that symbolizes your gratitude to them. When you are able to tug at your target market’s emotions through fun and interactive campaigns, they will more likely have a positive impression about your brand. Besides, try to put yourself in one of WestJet’s passengers’ shoes… If you were the one who received a widescreen TV just hours after wishing for it, wouldn’t you feel joyful―even tear up a bit―and remember the brand or group of people that made your wish come true? Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for next Thursday’s Gorillas of Guerilla Marketing! Do you want to learn about how one beer brand celebrated Christmas with its target audience in Singapore? See it on next week’s Gorillas of the Guerilla Marketing! |
