Virgin Atlantic - #ThankYouDeer

Virgin Atlantic - #ThankYouDeer

In December, in cooperation with Microsoft, Virgin Atlantic created the world’s “first connected gaming experience at 35,000 feet” between two aircraft, using in-flight WiFi.

The premise of the game was to help Santa out to find his reindeer, and get him back for Christmas. Passengers on two separate Virgin Atlantic flights connected online to crack the clues. One of the flights took off from Shanghai, the other from London. Passengers collaborated with others in the air and on the ground on electronic devices. If they had Lumia devices, customers also received hologram-type messages, which projected some of the clues to help get Santa’s sleigh back on course in time for the holidays.

Santa duly appeared on both flights, handing out presents to passengers. A video of the sky-high reindeer games ran on both Virgin Atlantic’s and Microsoft UK’s YouTube channels.

Making the game feel natural and seamless while in-flight required complex coordination. Virgin Atlantic used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to keep up with active gamers as participation volume varied through the campaign and the duration of the flights.

In addition to the in-flight game, Virgin Atlantic ran a contest on Social Media in December, giving passengers a chance to win flights for loved ones to give as a Thank You and Christmas gift.

Participants could post a selfie on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #thankyoudeer and share who they would give the flights to if they won.