Sure its a marketing gimmick, but it’s an epic one, that’ll warm your heart.
WestJet Airlines managed to pull off an epic marketing stunt by gifting all the passengers on two of its flights with personalized Christmas gifts, using an in-person Santa no less.
The elaborate stunt, conceived by its agency studio m, first involved passengers on two Calgary, Canada-bound flights interacting with a virtual Santa through a screen, who asked them what they wanted for Christmas. A team of 175 WestJet volunteers took down the wishes and rushed out to buy the gifts in the destination city, before the flyers landed there.
Santa himself then handed out the gifts at the baggage claim, to the surprise and delight of nearly 250 holiday flyers, creating touching scenes at the airport. And they weren’t just token gifts either, Westjet managed to buy real wishlist items for its passengers, including Samsung Galaxy phones, Android tablets, and even flights back home.
The entire thing was filmed with 16 cameras surreptitiously placed in three different airports, and the resulting video has already been viewed over 1.6 million times since it was uploaded two days ago. It’s a great example of using an on-the-ground marketing event to drive digital presence and engagement. Fantastic, heartwarming stuff from Westjet Airlines.
