To the average consumer, "Corporate Social Responsibility" (CSR) feels more like corporate jargon than charitable good. Yet to Delta Air Lines, it represents tens of millions of dollars in charitable donations and countless lives made better through the organizations Delta supports.
As Delta's agency partner, we were tasked with making CSR human to drive positive brand sentiment. To do this, we needed to educate passengers about Delta's CSR initiatives and demonstrate the broad impact of Delta's global efforts to give back.
In only :60 seconds, we needed to not only show the breadth of Delta's community contributions, but do so in a way that connected with consumers on an authentic, meaningful, engaging level. Success for this campaign was driving brand sentiment, so that customers felt that Delta makes a difference in ways they care about and can feel a part of.
In a poetic yet fast-paced, anthemic rallying cry, we put Delta's passengers at the center of the story: "Just by getting there, you — yes, you — you're changing the world." This approach enabled us to draw a direct line from the choice to fly Delta to the personal impact that choice makes via Delta's contributions to charities like Habitat for Humanity, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Marine Toys for Tots, The Nature Conservancy and Pride. Instead of applauding Delta's philanthropic work, we celebrated the role that each passenger plays in making that work possible. This subtle shift personally connected Delta's passengers to the message that a Delta ticket buys much more than just a flight; and this connection, in turn, created an emotional incentive to fly Delta again.
To tell the story, we leveraged real footage of Delta community engagement – employees building homes with Habitat for Humanity, marching in the NYC Pride parade and celebrating the community of breast cancer fighters and survivors – coupled with aerial footage of landscapes often seen from a cabin window, connecting passengers' macro view of the world from 30,000 feet with the micro, personal view of the impact they have. Propelling viewers through the story is the voice of Delta, Viola Davis, whose powerful performance drives the momentum of the story, running through everything Delta does: "that ticket in your pocket takes a dreamer to college… builds homes, habitats, playgrounds and pride… honors heroes for their heroism, makes miracles from medicine… supports art for its will to make us see through different eyes…" settling, finally, with "And all of it is possible because of you."
The spot resonated powerfully with Delta's followers. It was posted on Twitter organically and drove a view rate 2x higher than the benchmark on the channel, demonstrating a strong impact and relevance with Delta's audience. With 7.2 million video views across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the video not only had large exposure but also performed well from an efficiency standpoint — resulting in more efficient CPVV than benchmark on both Facebook and Instagram.
With such a strong social performance, the video ran on broadcast and also put on aircraft seat backs reaching over 500k customers per day as they interacted with their in-flight entertainment.
