WOW Air & Icelandair - Iceland In The Euros

WOW Air & Icelandair - Iceland In The Euros

Icelandair and WOW Air have been harnessing the excitement of Iceland’s first participation in the 2016 EURO Cup football tournament to heighten brand awareness though social media interaction with fans.

The social activity kicked off well before the Euros, but when Iceland (a team whose coach is actually a dentist) upset England and eliminated them from the tournament, WOW Air reacted swiftly to that win on Twitter and soon afterward shared the team’s celebratory dance Facebook.

Meanwhile the airline’s official “Snapchatter” that they had sent to explore Montreal was also watching the game live and — of course — sharing snaps.

About a week later, right before Iceland faced France in the semi-final knockout game, Icelandair held a simple Facebook contest asking followers to share their Icelandic name by adding “sson” (for men) or “sdóttir“ (for ladies) to their father‘s first name, for the chance to win an Iceland football jersey with their Icelandic name on the back.

This Facebook post garnered over 3000 shares and about 30,000 comments. On Twitter, the same challenge registered 112 shares and 178 likes in about 24 hours.

Then on June 3, the morning of the Iceland v. France quarter final match, WOW Air (Iceland’s low-cost carrier) again displayed its social media agility using Snapchat to broadcast a rowdy flight full of Iceland football supporters flying to France for the game. On Twitter , the video saw 66 retweets and 98 likes and on Instagram it was watched by almost 8000 people in a single day.

Read more about the difference between the two airline’s techniques at simplifying.com.