2011 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

The message was exposed to approximately 1 million Costa Customers over a 3 month period. Gulfair.com attracted incremental pageviews by the following percentages during the campaign period May 1, 2010 - May 31, 2010: 18.48% Jun 1, 2010 - Jun 30, 2010: 20.89% Jul 1, 2010 - Jul 31, 2010: 21.43% There was a 6.25% increase in web bookings.

Creative Execution

This campaign aimed at informing the audience of the new updated website, driving traffic to gulfair.com and encouraging web bookings. All disposable Cups of Costa Coffee (12 oz, 16 oz, 20 oz.) across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain & Oman were branded with the message “lowest fares guaranteed at gulfair.com”. Never before had an airline or any other brand done cup branding and especially tie-in with a brand like Costa. The sheer penetration of Costa’s and the volume of Cups handed out guaranteed a massive proliferation of the message, with each lingering in front of the core target for 30 minutes.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In 2010 the airline industry was still reeling from the slump of 2009 as was Gulf Air. One of the key drivers of future bottomline growth was identified as channeling customers to book online and bypass trade channels. Although Gulf Air had a long history in the region, lately it found itself disconnected from younger audiences who were crucial to its growth (over 50% of Pop below age of 35). Generation XY&Z : Connected, Social and Ad Savvy They are little skeptical of advertising and are smarter and savvier when it comes to brands. Their world is all about connecting through technology, social and demand performance from brands. It seemed that these 3 generations shared a love for quality and coffee was upthere. Costa Coffee customers mapped as young & web savvy, mostly online and spend on average 30-45 minutes with their Costa Coffee.