Airline Marketing Monthly - December 2018

In 2013, WestJet launched its first “Christmas Miracle” - that year 250 passengers on two Calgary bound flights were surprised with presents on the baggage conveyor belt on arrival, that they had previously requested from ‘Santa’ before take-off. That 2013 video has subsequently been viewed almost 50 million times.

Since then WestJet has arguably created the stand-out airline Christmas campaign of the year, owning Christmas in the same way as Air New Zealand ‘owns’ safety videos.

Subsequent Christmas miracles have included a surprise Christmas celebration for the residents of Fort McMurray, Alberta, who had been affected by the devastating 2016 forest fires, as well as a 2014 Christmas party for the residents of Nuevo Renacar in the Dominican Republic, complete with mounds of fake snow.

This year, WestJet’s Christmas miracle is going global and celebrating Christmas traditions from around the world in places as far afield as Australia, Japan, Haiti and the UK.

A Christmas Advent Calendar has a daily video under the heading “Uniting Through Traditions”, with a new one being released every day. Each shows the airline’s “Blue Santa” character going to a different place around the world to showcase that country or city’s Christmas tradition.

For example, on December 4th, Blue Santa was shown going to Sydney and having a Christmas BBQ with some friends on Bondi Beach, before going surfing.

During his journey, Blue Santa has also been surprising people with reunion experiences. For example, on December 2nd, he’s shown in London. A group of people are told they are starring in an ad, before being reunited with loved ones.

This includes two Canadian parents reunited with their daughter in front of Hamleys toy store on Regent Street, a couple reunited with their best friends on the top of a London double decker bus, and a woman reunited with her boyfriend who she originally met in Las Vegas - with their story having an extra twist as they met on the night of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting.

At the same time, the airline is encouraging people to create their own reunions through WestJet’s location finder - an interactive global map.

Participants can enter their location and the location of a loved one and WestJet will suggest a great place for them to reunite.

By participating in the contest each participant is then entered to win roundtrip economy airfare for two anywhere WestJet flies.

Though we were only able to view a few of the videos at time of writing, producing several dozen like this was obviously a huge endeavour for the airline. In addition to which there was a quick turn-around for each.

For example, the London video released on December 2nd, already shows a London that has Christmas decorations up. In fact, WestJet said that they filmed the London reunions on 12-13

November. WestJet told Airline Marketing Monthly that the global nature of this year’s Christmas miracle is deliberate - as is the inclusion of cities such as Tokyo or Sydney, which the airline doesn’t fly to (and has no plans to at the moment):

“As WestJet sets it sights globally, we look forward to a world of opportunity. WestJet’s Advent Calendar and contest is symbolic in that we have so many doors opening with the procurement of our new 787 Dreamliners. Locations are not teasers of what destinations are to come, but teasers of the opportunity for our company’s growth.”

The 16 countries WestJet chose for the campaign, “also left us room for other content pieces and surprise and delights over the month of December. We also selected those destinations because they are all accessible via our WestJet Rewards Member Exclusive Fares.”

Last month we wrote about WestJet’s new brand positioning “Love where you’re going”, that seeks to build the airline’s reputation as more of a global brand. This coincides with the planned introduction of its first three international Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner routes from Calgary. ■