Heineken - Departure Route

Heineken - Departure Route

Although not specifically from an airline, the latest airport publicity stunt from Heineken truly embodies the brewery’s adventurous spirit, and showcases how airlines can learn from savvy consumer brands.

Twice in July, Heineken and its ad agency Wieden + Kennedy in New York set up a ‘travel’ board at JFK’s Terminal 8 and dared travellers to play “Depar ture Roulette”— changing their planned destination to a more exotic random location with the press of a button. ‘Contestants’ had to agree to drop their existing travel plans— without knowing the new destination first—and immediately board a flight to the new place.

One man, who played the game, and ended up going to Cyprus instead of Vienna, even though he had been planning a six-week visit with his grandparents, but soon learned he would be headed to Cyprus on an evening flight. Heineken gave him USD2,000 to cover expenses and booked him into a hotel for two nights.

W+K set up the board again two days later, and this time documented the game play on film, which has already been watched over 2 million times in a month.

The game is inspired by “Dropped,” the new Heineken campaign that launched a month ago from W+K Amsterdam in which four men are sent to remote destinations and film their adventures, and this current campaign neatly links into the Dropped campaign with the twitter hashtag #dropped.