benchmark report
airline marketing
crop circle SPIRIT
As part of its Bare Fares campaign (discussed in the May 2014 edition of this report), Spirit Airlines has launched what can be describes as a ‘guerilla marketing campaign on steroids’. In mid-July, a mysterious crop circle in the shape of a man covering his privates appeared in a farm field north of Kansas City International Airport (KCI), causing a stir in social media . Many flying out of KCI took notice of it and shared the image of a figure covering himself with baggage parked next to them. On example of one of the tweets: “Anyone know what this crop circle means? Located as we took off from @KCIAirport on @SouthwestAir.” - @therookiedad. The initiative also earned exposure at local TV and other media.
in May. No Spirit Airlines logo is present in the crop circle, but there are “Bare Fare” billboards up around the airport. “We have to think of ways to get people to know who we are without spending millions of dollars on advertising campaigns. The crop circle was created to promote our totally stripped down Bare Fares and the fact that we’ll be starting service to and from Kansas City in August,” said a Spirit spokesman. The giant logo covers some 20 acres in a soybean field and was created by a company called Precision Mazes, which says it used GPS to make precise measurements and cuts. The farmer who’s land the crop circle is on was also compensated for his destroyed crops.
It turned out the crop circle was showing Spirit’s ‘bare fare’ logo which the airline introduced
AUGUST 2014 ISSUE
10
EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
