Easyjet-Feel Cote D'Azur

EASYJET - FEEL COTE D’AZUR

In the British Airways article (page 4) we talked about how the post-Brexit vote drop in the pound has made the UK a cheaper place to visit.

However, the other side of the coin is that it has impacted UK travel companies and airlines by making holidays more expensive for ordinary Brits.

In May for example low cost carrier easyJet announced that it had taken a £82 million hit due to the post referendum slump in Sterling.

To encourage people to still travel, easyJet has over the past year rolled out a number of marketing campaigns under the overall heading of “Why Not”.

Developed by ad agency VCCP in the Autumn of 2016 this encouraged spontaneity and a spirit of discovery. In addition to an ad campaign, a plane door was hidden in London in October, which led to an “immersive theatre” experience showcasing The Netherlands

Fast forward to the Spring of 2017, and the latest incarnation of the campaign is “Feel Cote D’Azur.” This time the theme is, as the name suggests, France and again an experiential event forms a large part of it.

This involved easyJet creating “an interactive multi-sensory experience inspired by the sights and sounds of the South of France – the carnival spirit of Nice, the jazz sounds of Antibes and the red carpet glam of Cannes.”

Taking place again in London, visitors walked in through an aircraft door to take part in a 15 minute live show, where they were presented with a Cote d’Azur event.

Of course, only a limited amount of people can take part in a stunt or a piece of immersive theatre and easyJet has been using its social media channels to reach a far wider audience.

The videos of the event have been streamed on Facebook Live, and post event compilation videos included a competition element.

For example, a clip posted by easyJet on May 16th asked Facebook fans to spot a couple kissing on the carousel in the film and screen grab it into the comments, in exchange for a chance to win flights.

In addition to providing details on how to enter the competition, every Facebook post also points fans to “cheap flights to Nice” page.

Though it includes a link to the booking engine, you could argue that the content on this page is pretty light.

While the films and the immersive theatre talk up the destination and the excitement of flying to Nice, this isn’t followed through on the easyJet website. In contrast, take a look at the Cote D’Azur article on the Ryanair blog, which is appealing and highly visual.

Creating an experiential campaign like this isn’t cheap, so of course the key question is: Does it work? easyJet says it does, with head of marketing Lucy Outram telling The Drum Magazine that the Autumn Dutch event saw a “a significant uptick” in people buying flights.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

A series of 15 minute live performances in London would at most reach several thousand participants, as a result it was important for easyJet to maximise the reach of the campaign via social media.

There, mechanics such as asking fans to screen-grab key scenes, meant anyone could take part. easyJet claims that activity like this works and has a direct impact on ticket sales.

One question however is how much better would the results be, if there was better follow-through with the campaign pointing people to a content rich landing page.