Air Canada - Toronto Stopover

Air Canada - Toronto Stopover

Working with Tourism Toronto (and quite possibly inspired by Icelandair’s “Stopover Buddy” campaign designed to draw connecting international passengers out of Reykjavik airport to explore Iceland), Air Canada promoted a newly-launched free Toronto stopover policy by surprising passengers on flight AC857 (LHR-YYZ) with the offer of a 48-hour, all-expenses paid Toronto stopover.

Five Air Canada passengers from the lucky flight who had ongoing connections said “yes” to the offer and stayed a bit longer in Canada’s largest city.

isrThe five passengers who opted in had their accommodations covered and were treated to fun local activities like the CN Tower EdgeWalk, a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario and even a Segway tour of Toronto’s historic distillery district. Air Canada and advertising agency J. WalterThomson Toronto filmed the resulting experience for a television advert that ran on U.S. Television and was also posted on YouTube.

In a story at Marketingmag.ca, Air Canada’s Marketing and Communications Manager for North America, Mark Sniderman is quoted as saying that the campaign – which also included digital displays, promoted social media posts on Twitter and Facebook , and online search ads – was aimed at dispelling some commonly held perceptions in the U.S. market specifically.

“Americans primarily think of Air Canada as the airline to Canada,” he said, “They’re not aware we can take them to the corners of the Earth.”

This campaign was covered by some Canadian travel media like Canoe.ca, and on independent blogs , but the overall promotion could benefit from a more intuitive dedicated booking page.