JetBlue - Time Travel Agency

JetBlue - Time Travel Agency

The 1960s was the so-called golden age of air travel. The uniforms, the livery and the service have been immortalised in TV productions such as ABC’s Pan Am.

Founded in 1998, US Airline JetBlue wasn’t around in the 1960s, but that didn’t stop it from tapping into 1960s nostalgia to coincide with the launch of the airline’s seasonal JFK - Palm Springs route.

JetBlue’s starting point was to imagine “What would JetBlue have looked like if we had existed some 50 years ago? How would we stand out as an industry innovator? How would we have been different?”

With JetBlue’s design team conducting hours of research at New York City’s Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography , they came up with a concept that managed to capture the spirit of a by-gone era while at the same time being fresh and original.

A special JetBlue ‘RetroJet’, an A320, was kitted out in a one-off 1960s style livery. That livery featured so-called “racing stripes”, which were popular in 1960s graphic design, along with a retro type-face and the words ‘New York International’ along the side.

The design concept then extended to limited edition amenity kits and 1960s themed cabin crew uniforms designed by Stan Herman, the “Father of Fashion Week” .

To launch the new Palm Springs route, JetBlue then opened up a pop-up 1960s style travel agency in New York.

Created by advertising agency MullenLowe , the “Time Travel Agency” was kitted out like a shop from 1966, and where New Yorkers could buy flights to Palm Springs for $66.

“At the Time Travel Agency, people could step back in time to experience an era (and way of booking flights) that’s synonymous with 1960s Palm Springs,” explains Amy Ferguson, VP, Creative Director at MullenLowe . “Everything inside the Time Travel Agency reflected the era: the employee’s mannerisms and dialect, the office supplies, even the $66 fares.”

While many marketing campaigns essentially build on something that has been done before, JetBlue’s project was genuinely new.

From the RetroJet livery to the pop-up shop to 1960s Spotify ads that ran in support, the airline created multiple touch points where consumers could interact with this 1966 themed experience.

Importantly, this is also a idea that has longevity, it could for example be adapted around JetBlue having moved into the TWA Flight Centre, originally designed by iconic architect Eero Saarinen .