benchmark report
airline marketing
experiential
istanbul – san francisco
the orange experience 2
TURKISH AIRLINES San Francisco is one of the most competitive long-haul markets in the world. Vying with the likes of Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines knew it needed to do something truly different to promote it’s new Istanbul—SFO service, which commenced in mid-April. The airline went for a multi-pronged approach to stir up chatter and buzz in several different communities. First, it got the attention of plane-spotters and #avgeeks (a demographic notorously active on Twitter and other types of social media) by decking out a Boeing 777-300 in a new custom livery. Displaying colourful, symbolic frescas of Istanbul and San Francisco along opposite sides of the aircraft, it’s a flying billboard hard to miss. Next, a par tnership with creative content leader BuzzFeed helped marketing JUNE 2015 ISSUE
KLM X HEINEKEN Turkish Airlines get their message out to a more general (and arguably more millenial) audience via the web. One product of this effor t, a post called 15 Reasons San Francisco and Istanbul are Long-Lost Sister Cities received great traffic from readers on both ends of the route thanks to BuzFeed’s massive market penetration, as well as the highly visual and shareable nature of the post itself. The third piece of the campaign encouraged random people to experience Turkish Airlines’ world-wide destinations without their feet leaving the ground. Together with Turkish creative agency Efabrika, the airline developed a set of custom binoculars (the coin-operated kind you often find atop tall buildings or popular lookout points) and placed it on a street in the hear t of San Fancisco. During just four days more than 6,000 passers-by became lost in another world (video ) by gazing through the ‘magical’ peep-holes.
If one had to pick one day of the to party in Holland, the best day for that is undoubtedly ‘Kings Day’ on April 26th, which is a national holiday on which the entire populace of Holland flood the streets, decked out in orange, to celebrate the birthday of the king. Last year, KLM and Heineken partnered to surprise (video ) ten New Yorkers with a free trip to Amsterdam for the big party. This year, the two were at it again with a similar campaign. Just hours before the festivities were to begin in Amsterdam, lucky winners were randomly selected from bars and nightclubs in Oslo, Cape Town, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles. After learning and then loudly singing a Dutch folk song in public (to prove they had ‘the right stuff’) the still unsuspecting winners were told to grab a bag and a friend. They were then whisked away via KLM flights
to Amsterdam, where they were greeted like true celebrities. Followed throughout the day by a camera crew to capture every smile and surprise, the lucky international transplants toured the Dutch capital on bikes, tasted local foods and met plenty of fellow King’s Day revellers. Ending the day with bang, KLM and Heineken announced to the group that they were to float through the city’s canals, sharing a party-barge with international superstar DJ Hardwell. While Twitter and Instagram activity around the event were both great, nothing speaks more to the success of this campaign than the sheer number of clicks (nearly 1.5 million in less than 30 days) the YouTube video received.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
