benchmark report
airline marketing
grab a random
taste of iceland
AIR NEW ZEALAND
Air New Zealand has been running its last-minute promotions under the name of grabaseat since 2006, offering a wide range of destinations at bargain prices to help f ill empty seats on its planes. To help promote the program and inspire last-minute bookings, ANZ has launched a series of YouTube videos, whereby the airline asks random passersby if they will drop every thing and jump on a f light that day and head off for an adventure set out by ANZ. In a series of videos promoted on the airline’s ‘The Flying Social Network’ blog, ANZ so far has highlighted 3 different stories from passersby who actually dropped every thing and instantly took to the skies f lying to destinations throughout New Zealand, from Queenstown to Canterbury and Nor thland.
APRIL 2014 ISSUE
ICELANDAIR
The f irst episode of the series, self-titled ‘Grab a Random’ has already pulled in 30,000 views, and the second two videos both pulled in over 20,000 views. ANZ’s ‘Grab a Random’ campaign shares similarities with Heineken’s ‘Departure Roulette ’ initiative (featured in the August 2013 repor t) staged by the beer brand at New York JFK Airpor t, which challenged passengers at the airpor t to change their planned itinery 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 f irst—and immediately board a f light to their new destination.
Between March 8 and 12, in cooperation with the ‘Iceland Naturally’ tourist board, Icelandair hosted the ‘A Taste of Iceland ’ event in Boston, one of the airline’s key US cities. The Taste of Iceland event showcased Icelandic music, cuisine and culture at select venues throughout the city during 5 days.
Representatives from Icelandair also roamed throughout Boston each day giving away gift certificates to travel on Icelandair and Icelandair merchandise to unsuspecting Bostonians.
In the 4 days leading to the event, Icelandair created a series of initiatives, such as asking passersby to take photos of the airline’s on-the-ground ‘brand ambassadors’, who took to the streets of Boston as glacial kayakers or wearing Blue Lagoon spa mud maskers. By liking the airline’s Facebook page new followers then had the opportunity to win Icelandair prizes, such as a free trip to Iceland.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
