Turkish Airlines - Istanbul to San Francisco

Turkish Airlines - Istanbul to San Francisco

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 partnership with creative content marketing leader BuzzFeed helped Turkish Airlines get their message out to a more general (and arguably more millenial) audience via the web. One product of this effort, 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 heart 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.