4 innovative experiential campaigns by airliners

In order to connect and engage with their flyers in a more experienced, innovative and immersive manner, most airline brands across the globe today have done away with the advertising clutter.

These brands are becoming more sophisticated in their marketing activities and are finding new ways to secure a special memory in the mind and hearts of their travelers. Today at EE, we look at 4 airlines that wowed their passengers with innovative experiential campaigns.

1-Southwest Airlines in-flight fashion show
In order to spread the word about the Chicago shopping festival and engage their travelers in an immersive in flight experience, Southwest airlines associated with the organizers from the Magnificent Mile to host the first ”Runway in the Sky.” Held in the aisle of a 737 traveling from New York to Chicago, the event featured models wearing styles from Macy's, a reputed fashion expert.

Additionally, the flight also had Wi-Fi, and organizers kept track of the number of social media impressions that were generated during and after the stunt. There were, 143 unique tweets with the hashtag #RunwayIntheSky; these posts were retweeted and ultimately created more than 1.7 million impressions for the airline brand and the shopping festival.

2- JetBlue ‘chain letter of human goodness’
JetBlue airlines through this initiative started a long-term campaign by awarding one free JetBlue ticket to several deserving individuals involved in humanitarian efforts. After one such person had been selected then the airline allowed that person to select another deserving recipient of a free ticket, and so on and so on.

The first Fly It Forward ticket recipients included Tameka Lawson, who represented her Chicago non-profit I-Grow at a UN conference in New York, and Louis Elneus from Haiti. These initial recipients were found and picked by JetBlue employees, and now the airline is asking people to submit their own nominations for the next round.

3- KLM ‘seat cover’ greeting

KLM is often known for surprising passengers with unexpected experiences however this particular campaign featured on showcasing the varieties of stories of the passengers travelling on the same aircraft on a given day.

The campaign ‘Cover Greetings’ involved placing a personal message from loved ones staying at home to their relatives on the headrest of their KLM aircraft seat. The airline spotted people saying goodbye to their families and then asked them to decorate a seat cover with their own message. This brought out the emotional side of the passengers as they saw a headrest cover made especially for them.

4-EasyJet- recognize 10th million passenger campaign
Capitalizing on childhood memories ‘Guess Who?’ game, EasyJet created a live version of the popular board game to celebrate the 10 years anniversary of the airline carrying 10 million passengers through the southern France airport.

As part of the activity, passengers were invited to participate in a game to guess the 10 millionth passenger who was hidden in a group of extras. The rules were same and passengers had to ask questions about the passengers physical attributes to eliminate as many of the 24 people with one question. Those participants who correctly identified were given free flights with EasyJet. The campaign was an instant hit among the passengers with over 1 million impressions on social media on the same day.