There’s no shortage of airlines in the KSA, but when it comes to budget airlines, Saudis still don’t know their options or what low-fare airlines mean.
flyadeal wanted to set itself apart as the new, game-changing budget airline and it needed everyone to know this. The objective was to establish a creative and unmatched brand positioning in low-fare airlines and achieve mass reach.
Describe the creative idea.
To position flyadeal's brand and create mass awareness, we knew we had to be daring. So we pranked the entire Kingdom. We told everyone that they could fly for the lowest fares possible, but only under extreme conditions! And we called this Cargo Passenger Class: a new breakthrough in aviation that allows you to travel with your luggage in the cargo hold for the lowest fares to date. The campaign message being "you don't have to go this length for a good deal...fly for less with flyadeal".
Describe the strategy.
Our insight was that people don't just want cheap, they want a bargain deal. So our approach was to make low-fares seem like a bargain. From there, we decided to exaggerate the methods of reducing the price, prank people, and finally reveal "you don't have to go this length for a good deal". Cargo Passenger Class was created. Thus, positioning flyadeal as low-fare aviation and a bargain simultaneously in comparison to the prank. Our audience was MASS! We deliberately chose Twitter as the launching social media platform to spark conversation and drive massive reach. Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube were supporting platforms. We began with a static ad to create shock and followed it with the documentary video to make it more credible and answer peoples questions. Our main strategy was to rely on the absurdity of the idea to create organic shares and even get picked up my newspapers.
Describe the execution.
To make this believable, we went all out.
Starting with an ad announcing the launch of the all-new Cargo Passenger Class, We followed it with a mocumentary showcasing the efforts to bring cargo class to life, We even went as far as creating a website offering more details and the option to pre-book your ticket and fly cargo! A few hours later, we announced that it was all a joke with a series of funny video ads giving the final campaign message “you don't have to go to this length for a good deal. ..fly for less with flyadeal”. We topped all this off by rewarding the people who fell for the prank and booked on the site as well as the most creative user-generated content.
List the results.
The campaign went viral. On Dec 16, it was the most searched topic in Saudi, trending number 1 on Google above results of a Manchester and Liverpool game and trending number 1 on Twitter! The results were outstanding: At least 246M in Reach, 440 million impressions, 14 million video views, 6 million engagements, with immeasurable interaction spreading on WhatsApp groups. We spanned across the globe with 245 news outlets and blogs talking about the prank, from the KSA, Egypt, and even the Czech Republic! In the span of 24 hours, everyone knew who flyadeal was and what it had to offer
Top of funnel leads on the booking website skyrocketed to a 774% increase on the day of the prank and better yet, the impact was sustained up to 4 weeks after with a 123% jump in new users