2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

End of 2011. In the post revolutionnary Tunisia in a democratic transition, the economic situation was quite difficult: growth was nearing 0% and Tunisia main trade partners in southern Europe were going through a serious financial crisis. The situation was even worse in the sfax area (where syphax airlines is based) a region deprived from infrastructure and investment by the old regime policies. The media landscape was dominated by conversations around the news, there were no room for other subjects. Concerning the category, we clearly understood from one to one interviews that we were facing a dissatisfaction driven category: Frustration was the key word. We needed to rapidly raise awareness Syphax Airlines and its service oriented positioning Generate booking and drive sales, and shift people perception about the industry, high cost and bad service is not a fatality! All of that with a limited budget. Our big idea was to challenge the existing situation and urge travelers to re-think their travel options and pre-conceived ideas,  translated into the communication platform : “Voyagez Smart” which means Travel  Smart. We needed to make the choice of our channel reflects this smart attitude, so we decided to turn the municipalty of Sfax, a city where nothing ever happens, into a nationwide medium during a one night 3D mapping show. The objective was to make of this event the talk of the town, and maybe the talk of a country what we achieved, as even tourism website mentioned the event.

The Brief

Rapidly raise awareness Syphax Airlines and its service oriented positioning (Priors to the launch rumors spread that Syphax Airlines is a low cost airline. Syphax was rather a hybrid company using low cost management philosophy though providing best in class service. ) Generate booking and drive sales. Shift people perception about the industry, high cost and bad service is not a fatality! Find a way to be part of the nationwide conversations that was mainly dominated by the political news.

Results

The launch event was vastly covered in the national media includeing: The widely watched 8 O’clock news on national tv featured the event. - 2 x 25 mn TV shows in two of the poular private TV station. - More than 100 articles in the national daily press featured the launch event of which 60% on the cover page. - 5 special report on weekly and monthly magazines. Online the campaign reached more that 500,000 users of which 350 000 though Facebook. The overall free media value was estimated to 1M$. Most importantly, all Paris flights were SOLD OUT for the following two months. “This is the best ever start I ever witnessed in my long career“ Paul Sies airlines consultant and acting CMO of Syphax airlines said

Execution

Instead of simply launching a classic media campaign, we opted for a gradual approach.First we wanted people to participate, we also wanted the media and particularly the digital media to relate accurate information to the public. so we created the company blog. - enattendantlepremiervol.com was edited by one of the captains of the company. In order to build hype. - The launch event: we turned Sfax municipality into a 3D mapping show. During more than one hour, the crowd witnessed a unique spectacle taking the people in a virtual journey to the main cities of the mediterranean. - PR Coverage : we organised the inaugural flight from Tunis to Sfax and invited most influential personalities and journalists to join. - Social Media : a team of social media contributors was commenting live during the event through the offical Syphax facebbok and twitter accounts.

The Situation

End of 2011. In the post revolutionary Tunisia, the economic situation was difficult: growth was nearing 0%. The situation was worse in the Sfax area, a region deprived from infrastructure. Tunisia did not apply the open sky regulations so the market was protected. The business was controled by national airlines such as Tunisair, airfrance... Syphax airlines came to challenge that status quo and propose a new and smart alternative in a media landscape dominated by the very rich political news. With a very limited budget, Syphax airlines needed to quickly raise awareness and drive booking.

The Strategy

We wanted our campaign to reflected our positioning : smart travelling. The idea was simple, rather than an usual ATL campaign, we wanted to make of Syphax Launch the talk of the town, the new subject of conversation. The purpose was to make of Sfax the capital of the Mediterranean sea for at least one week. We wanted first Sfaxian to be proud of this new company, and to be for one night at the center of Tunisia. We turned this city where nothing ever happens into the place to be by transforming its municipality in a nationwide medium.