S7 Airlines-I Am You

S7 Airlines-I Am You

Russian airline S7, via ad agency W&K Amsterdam, has over the past few years established a track record of launching some high impact and really innovative marketing campaigns.

For example, in 2015, “Imagine” featured kids thinking of the kind of mythical places they would want to go and see (ones with chocolate lakes, places with dragons, mermaids etc) followed by imagery of actual S7 destinations that mirrors each of these ‘myths.’

As part of that campaign, W&K went one stage further and built an actual ‘imagination engine’ in a Moscow shopping mall, where shoppers were able to fly to a destination using their minds (brain waves via a headset controller).

Last year, S7 worked with OK Go in filming a music video in a zero gravity environment on a S7 aircraft, with S7 cabin crew appearing in support of the band. A sign of its success online can be seen that it was the most shared viral video in February 2016.

Meanwhile continuing the zero gravity theme, S7 ran a campaign at the end of 2016 narrated by Cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko, who spent 164 days on the International Space Station.

A stirring and beautifully shot ad, hosted on a dedicated micro-site has Borisenko’s voice over a series of sensory experiences (e.g. the sounds of thunder, rain drops on skin, a couple hugging on a balcony, a door opening and revealing a great hall). It then cuts to Borisenko sitting in the international space station saying, “I see the world every day. You have the world every day”, with the final tag-line being “see, taste, hear, feel. Discover the best planet we know.”

The message in all of these campaigns is a similar one: Travel opens you up to new experiences. It makes you feel more alive and it makes you appreciate everything around you, especially when you are seeing it for the first time.

In its latest campaign, S7 has changed agencies from W&K to Moscow-based Stereotactic. But the overall theme remains the same.

“I am you” is an ad which marketing magazine Campaign says ‘stands out in the air travel category.’

In it, the airline contrasts the fake, manufactured experiences of the digital world with actually seeing and experiencing things for real.

The ad starts with a series of Instagramstyle ‘boomerangs’ and ‘cinemagraphs’ and shows life being seen through a series of sometimes bizarre social media hearts and filters. In the first part of the ad, people reach out for experiences only for them to vanish on touch - because they are not real.

During the ad, a voiceover then recounts how the world has now become a place where you “like places you’ve never been to, follow people you’ve never met.”

The video then changes tack and tells the viewer that the “world is bigger than the palm of your hand” and it’s there to explore for real. The sights and images are then shown without filters or digital gimmicks.

The idea that we should free ourselves from digital fakery and experience the world for ourselves is further articulated in both a series of print ads and via a web app.

The print ads show popular destinations with contradictory headlines. For example, the title “this_is_not_berlin_ yet.jpeg” appears over a picture of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Meanwhile the web app allows you to upload photos of destinations you want to visit. After doing so, the app creates a visual “ticket” of your chosen destination. Share it online and you can get a discount on actual S7 tickets and flights.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

In the words of the design-collector blog and website, “S7 Airlines did it again”, commending the airline and director Salomon Ligthelm for a campaign that mixes “glitch, vaporwave, selfies and unlimited access to planet Earth.”

Like other S7 campaigns, “I am you” works because it’s a world away from the typical airline marketing campaign. Definitely not formulaic, it is beautifully shot in an almost trippy style.

“Yet at the same time, the campaign directly links into a key consumer insight: Why people travel for leisure. They do it because they want new experiences, and real ones, not the manufactured ones you get via your smartphone or laptop. According to an IPOS-MORI poll on behalf of Tripadvisor, the top two motivations for travel are ‘liberation’ and ‘immersion.’

Adding a web app that gets fans to share online content in exchange for ‘real’ experiences (via flight tickets) is a nice addition and one that further brings both the theme and campaign to life.

Well done S7 on another highly creative campaign, which is our campaign of the month.