Turkish Airlines-#TURKISHAIRLINESHELPSOMALIA

TURKISH AIRLINES - #TURKISHAIRLINESHELPSOMALIA

If for whatever reason you want to fly to Somalia only one major international carrier will get you there - Turkish Airlines.

As a result, in the second half of March, the airline became the focus of a celebrity-led campaign to delver aid to Somalia.

The initiative kicked off on 15 March, when former Vine and current Snapchat star Jerome Jarre recorded a short Twitter video about the dire humanitarian conditions experienced by many Somalis.

Jarre’s video started with him recounting the story of a six year old girl who died of dehydration, before wondering if it wouldn’t be possible to fly a plane load of supplies to Mogadishu. He then told his 1.3 million Twitter fans that there’s only one airline that can help, Turkish Airlines, before finally encouraging them to start using the hashtag #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia.

That one tweet then grew into a major social media campaign, being quickly picked up by other celebrities including NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, YouTuber Casey Neistat and Hollywood actor Ben Stiller.

Turkish Airlines’ response? The next day they sent out a positive reply on Twitter, followed by a Twitter video the day after that featuring a recording from the pilot of the Mogadishu flight.

On March 18th, three days after the original call to Turkish Airlines, Casey Neistat went to interview Jerome Jarre in a video that’s now been viewed 3.5 million times. In it, Jarre is seen speaking to the Turkish Airlines communications team who agreed to offer a 60 ton cargo flight, as well as 140 tonnes on regular Turkish Airlines flights over the next six months.

Setting up a GoFundMe page under the heading “Love Army for Somalia”, the team set an initial target of $1 million, which was met within two days of the page going live.

On March 28th, Jerome Jarre then flew with Turkish Airlines to Somalia to help distribute the first consignment, with him documenting it on his social media channels.

In his March 18th video, Casey Neistat asked Jerome Jarre whether he was “bullying” Turkish Airlines. Jarre’s reply? “Absolutely not, we are giving them the opportunity to do something amazing”, and Turkish Airlines certainly seems to have taken the campaign in that spirit. As Neistat says in the film, “they just stepped up.”

So far the campaign has notched up over 1,000 pieces of media coverage worldwide including pieces in the Guardian, on BBC, on America’s National Public Radio, in the New York Times and on Buzz Feed.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Within 24 hours a single tweet and a short video had grown into a major campaign where a group of celebrities marshalled their tens of millions of social media followers to lobby Turkish Airlines for help.

Within a day the airline had given a positive response, making a concrete offer within three. Turkish Airlines understood how social media can turn a simple idea into an international movement, and reacted fast.

How would your organisation react if faced with the same challenge, and in what timeframe?