Lufthansa - #InspiredBy Heimweh

Lufthansa - #InspiredBy Heimweh

According to Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, "this mesmerising film will make you want to quit your job and move to Siberia."

Is the Telegraph talking about a new movie? A historical TV series? No - it’s describing promotional videos produced by Lufthansa.

Over the past year, Lufthansa has been producing so-called “Heimweh” (translated as missing or longing for home) films for social media. For example, last year the airline profiled two Danish designers with Japanese ancestry who rediscovered their roots in Japan.

The July instalment of Heimweh, “A Home Unknown”, saw German actress Emila Schüle return to where she was born - Blagoveshchensk, at Russia’s border with China.

To get there, she boarded the Trans- Siberian Railway. The different stops on the trip and the people she met formed the backdrop to Lufthansa’s film. As with the other ‘Heimweh’ films, Lufthansa’s aim is to get across the emotional pull places have on us.

As Benita Struve, Senior Director of Marketing Communications explained, “with the new episode of Heimweh, we’re again conveying the idea of identity and the ties that a physical place has on us.”

Destination videos are produced all the time by airlines, what makes Lufthansa’s “Heimweh” series stand out?

Marketing blogger Valentina Gianella has a good summary, listing four reasons in particular why it works:

The topic is different, the narrative and treatment pull you in, the films have a “cinematic quality” to them and finally these films have longevity and can be built upon to make for bigger campaign.

At the same time as Lufthansa released its latest Heimweh video, the airline announced a push to create greater “in-flight networking opportunities” .

Lufthansa is teaming up with six different events, starting with the annual dmexco digital marketing trade fair in Cologne, in bringing over a “pre conference flight” from JFK. This will then be extended to other events, such as SXSW in Austin in March 2018.

Key Take-Away

Destination videos aren’t new, but Lufthansa’s treatment of the genre in its ‘Heimweh’ series has turned a lot of heads in the travel and marketing press.

It goes to show, you don’t necessarily have to have a new idea, if the execution and the way you produce it is different, it will still work.