Objectives

As the city's largest airline, JetBlue continues to invest in Boston – building its offerings from Boston's Logan International Airport and cultivating meaningful relationships within the local community.

To showcase its deep roots in New England and its commitment to the city at its core (as well as its rabid sports fans), JetBlue added another professional team to its sponsorship roster. In 2015, JetBlue became the Official Airline Partner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium.

In lieu of a touchdown dance, JetBlue tapped its agency of record, MullenLowe U.S., to create buzz and engagement around the sponsorship announcement in a creative way that not only captured the media's attention, but also engaged and excited Boston-based customers.

With custom creative content, sound public relations strategy and real-time social media engagement, we were able to inform customers about the sponsorship announcement in a fun and original way that generated positive buzz for the brand locally in New England and nationally with sports fans.

Strategy and Execution

To stand out from the long line of New England Patriot partners, we worked to develop a campaign that was unlike traditional sponsorship announcements, would resonate with Boston sport fans and genuinely align with the JetBlue brand.

While navigating restrictions and limitations set by the national league, team and players, we focused on leveraging a natural connection to the Patriots that was unique to JetBlue: Chief Pilot Paul Hocking. In addition serving as a chief pilot, Paul Hocking also happens to be the real-life uncle of Patriots' star tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Armed with this unique family tie to the team, we set forth to capitalize on the relationship in a fun, comical way. Enter, #GronkIsMyCopilot. Utilizing a phased approach, we engaged a number of tactics to generate local and mainstream buzz.

Strategically Announce Sponsorship

• First introduced during a press conference at Logan Airport's Terminal C, the shared bloodline and playful tagline was seeded. Gronk was dubbed JetBlue's honorary co-pilot at the podium, donning his custom pilot jacket in front of cameras, crewmembers and customers. The #GronkIsMyCopilot hashtag was teased across JetBlue's owned social channels, providing a peek at the fun to be had ahead.
• With a suite of hysterical creative content including video vignettes and GIFs in our arsenal, we provided national and Boston sports media with a preview of the hero video – a conversation between Gronk and his uncle, followed by a solo Gronking in the galley – to whet their appetite and drive ample social conversation and news coverage.
• To carry the content throughout the Patriots 2015 season, we leveraged the team's schedule and real-time game day happenings to continue shining a light on #GronkIsMyCopilot and re-introduce relevant videos.

Continue the Conversation

• Leveraging key partner channels, including Patriots.com and @RobGronkowski, we were able to host and share #GronkIsMyCopilot content with new, engaged audiences. These relationships lent credibility to the content and enabled us to expand our reach beyond loyal JetBlue customers and engaged passionate Patriots and Gronk fans.
• Partners shared content and campaign creative with their dedicated followers and engaged with JetBlue channels.
• Having developed a cadence for social posts and content released in conjunction with Patriots game days, we implemented targeted paid support for each video release.
• Throughout the season, Patriots fans flying JetBlue through Boston's Logan Airport were encouraged to wear their official Patriots gear to show their support and earn early boarding, deepening JetBlue's connection and commitment to the team and its fans.

Results

Our primary goal was to drive buzz and engagement surrounding the JetBlue/Patriots partnership. Successful results included:

• 69 earned traditional media placements
• 221 million PR impressions
• 24.8 million social impressions
• 3.2 million video views
• 46 thousand likes on Facebook
• 67% completion rate on videos
• $0.01 efficient cost per video view
• 10.1 thousand social shares
• 2.2 thousand new page "likes"

A true validator of success included #GronkIsMyCopilot being elevated into social chatter well beyond the campaign push – into 2016 and the post-season.

Media