JetBlue-Get Packing

JETBLUE - GET PACKING

If you were looking for an alternative to the usual Christmas game of Monopoly or Risk with the family, JetBlue had the answer. In December, JetBlue’s marketing team came up with the idea to produce a board game called “Get Packing.”

The game included the usuals of cards, dice, a rule book, a board….and a flight voucher. All for $20.

Designed for 3-6 players (i.e. for a family), the goal was to take a packing board and fill it up with items needed for a “trip.”

Whoever filled up their board first won the flight.

“The holidays are all about celebrating traditions and creating new memories. But, we know that even the happiest families can get caught up in the tension of the holidays,” said JetBlue’s Manager of Advertising and Content Heather Berko.

“With this in mind, we created “Get Packing!” to save you from awkward moments by literally getting you out of there with a real JetBlue flight certificate.”

Twenty dollars for a fun board game AND a flight voucher? Where’s the catch? Well, first of all your chances of getting your hands on one would have been infinitesimally small. That’s because the airline only produced 200 of them. And ended up selling them on the world’s most popular online retailer - Amazon. com

This is of course after the game was heavily promoted to JetBlue’s 1.3 million Facebook, 260k Instagram and 2.1 million Twitter followers.

Combine a social media following in the millions and an e-commerce platform with customers in the hundreds of millions and you’ve got a recipe for something like this to sell out very fast. When passengers logged in to try and buy the game at the allotted time of Noon on 12 December, none were available.

A backlash ensued, with Business Insider reporting that one angry customer even starting using the hashtag #jetbluepackingscam. Many suspected that automated bots snapped up the games, with the aim of selling them on.

One Twitter reaction, typical of many, was: “Congratulations @JetBlue for pissing off and alienating thousands of customers. Did ANYONE get the game? Or was it a publicity scam?

Indeed, third party sellers - many of who employ bots as part of their Amazon shop - starting offering the game on for $40 (i.e. at 2x the original price), with one even selling it for $9,999.

In response, JetBlue subsequently decided to relist the game. In a statement:

“Get Packing! sold out within seconds at 12:00pm ET today on Amazon. We are aware of the current situation and are working diligently with Amazon to confirm all sales are legitimate and further investigating any potential bot and/or reseller scenarios. We will be restocking the game on December 18 at 3:00pm ET.”

Another airline that gave away free flights at Christmas via a game was SAS, which worked with Visit Denmark. #FindingHygge was a daily sweepstakes in the form of an advent calendar. Customers opened each door with the chance of winning a prize.

These included everything from a three day ‘foodie’ trip to Copenhagen, to a surf trip to Denmark’s wild West Coast.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Jet Blue’s idea was fundamentally sound and ticked a lot of boxes. Do something for families. Create a Christmas promotion that is fun and stands out from all the promotional Festive noise. And create an offer that people actively want to get their hands on (e.g. a flight ticket for $20 via game).

While the idea was great, it fell down in the mechanics by hyping customer expectations to a level that the airline couldn’t meet. Using Amazon also meant that professional marketplace sellers were able to get their hands on the game, which further stoked customer resentment.

Jet Blue would have been better off taking what was a very good idea and running the game as a random lottery (e.g. enter for a chance to get the game for $20). On the surface, not as PRable, but it would have avoided a lot of problems.