Air Canada - Test Drive Canada

Air Canada - Test Drive Canada

Ever since it began looking like Donald Trump would become the official Republican presidential candidate in the U.S., there has been a sharp uptick in American citizens searching terms like “How can I move to Canada?” on the internet.

In a social media campaign from agency J. Walter Thompson , Air Canada plays on this and suggests that Americans “Test Drive Canada” by flying up for a weekend or holiday visit before deciding to stay for good.

This cross-discipline campaign takes advantage of digital video and social media together in real time. Air Canada and its strategy partners set up a film studio to look like an airline ticket desk with a large TV monitor behind it. They installed an actress to play the role of a customer service rep, and began shooting short and humorous video responses to real American tweets about moving to Canada, as well as the “move to Canada” internet search trend in general. Then they circulated the videos using social media and the hashtag #TestDriveCanada.

Some videos were filmed in direct response to user tweets or celebrity tweets, while some seemed designed to highlight lesserknown destinations like Prince Edward Island . Other videos, like this one posted to YouTube, were more general and meant to amuse everybody.

Twitter users really went crazy for this campaign and the hashtag is still active. AdWeek selected the campaign as Ad of The Day on June 10th and that article was shared about 2500 times on social media. Canada’s largest news agency, CBC Business , also covered the story with that article being shared over 300 times.