benchmark report
airline marketing
social
social
black canvas
the swiss explorer
QANTAS
SWISS
Inspired by Tourism Australia’s ‘The Best Job in the World’ contest, which created a huge buzz worldwide in 2009, Swiss Airlines raised the bar with its own ‘The Swiss Explorer ’ Competition. The winner will receive a salary, paid expenses and paid travel with Swiss Airlines for the duration of 6 months, in exchange for their insight into the airlines products, services, and overall experience. To apply, applicants were asked to send in a video, a selfie, and the usual resume/cover letter documentation. The public then voted for their favourite candidates via the webpage and Facebook . As an additional incentive, those voting are given the chance to win one in 10 pairs of tickets for European flights. The chosen candidate is expected to discover and test all aspects of the airline
JUNE 2014 ISSUE
by experiencing them first-hand—from on-flight services to destination tips—and report back, offering constructive criticism to the airline. The Explorer will also be expected to use Twitter as a tool throughout his/her travels, as well as document experiences via photo, film, and blogging.
In 2012, ar tist Gemma O’Brien was without her notebook on a Qantas flight, so she opted to use the motion sickness bag as her medium. As a result, Qantas collaborated with her for their recent social media campaign, #qantasblankcanvas .
On May 13th, Swiss published the contest video to YouTube and has already received over 80,000 views. Candidates have been sharing their own application videos all over social media, most notably on Facebook, where they can encourage their friends to vote for them.
The outcome is an interactive initiative that allowed passengers to pass the time on board, get creative, and enter a contest for a double Qantas Club pass , as well as priority check-in and extra baggage allowance.
The deadline for applications was May 28th, and voting closed on June 1st, 2014. The 3 candidates with the most votes will be invited to Switzerland for a job interview.
Throughout May, passengers could submit their entries via Instagram accompanied by the hashtag(#qantasblankcanvas) and the winners were then announced on the 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th. The ‘ar tists’ were not
limited to the sickness bag medium, other options for a canvas included in-flight napkins and boarding passes . According to Jo Boundy, Qantas’ head of digital and enter tainment, the campaign was about inspiring passengers to get in touch with their creative side while in the air. Gemma’s ar twork was also displayed in Qantas’ Sydney Domestic lounge and a shor t video of her and her work is available on YouTube . She also opted to keep the movement going with her own Tumblr page displaying her #qantasblankcavas, titled ‘The Spew Bag Challenge .’ Coincidentally, sick-bag ar t curator, Steven J Silberber , administers a site featuring air sickness bags that display interesting design and/or adver tisements.
5
EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
