Icelandair - Stopover Buddy

Icelandair - Stopover Buddy

International tourism has become one of Iceland’s main sources of revenue. That’s probably why Icelandair has often set the bar for best-practice marketing relations between a flagship carrier and national tourism authorities.

The airline’s latest effort to bolster tourism and passenger loads, the ‘Stopover Buddy’ campaign, has proven especially successful. The campaign promotes Icelandair’s policy of letting passengers stop and tour the island nation (for up to seven days) without restrictions, by offering stopover passengers a personal guide for one day.

A Stopover Buddy could be a stewardess, bag handler, pilot, check-in desk worker or even the CEO himself, who takes passengers on a day out in Iceland for free. About 50 ‘Buddies’ have been recruited to provide authentic, guided experiences for travellers, who increasingly seek one-of-a-kind local experiences over big, busy attractions that appeal to the mass market.

According to Chief Executive Birkir Hólm Guðnason, the campaign will “remove” the stress of planning a stopover and show passengers a “truly unique experience”, which might include fishing, cooking, hiking, checking out the music scene and more.

Marketing website thedrum.com reports that two agencies, The Brooklyn Brothers and Islenska, devised the campaign and will run it together across 11 markets.

A series of videos have been produced to introduce the public to some of the ‘Buddies’. These videos have done exceptionally well on the airline’s Facebook page , where they have amassed more than two million views.