Traditional sponsorships of brand and product placements are a thing of the past. To be truly effective in engaging today's audiences with a brand, the integration needs to fit seamlessly within the storyline. And that's exactly what Air Canada's #MakeAmazing campaign set out to accomplish through it's The Amazing Race Canada partnership this past summer.
A reality show intrinsically founded in the excitement and adventure that travel brings, the opportunity to showcase a behind-the-scenes look at the very people who make these trips possible offered the audience a continuous viewing experience throughout each episode. Additionally, viewers of the show are quite loyal and watch week-to-week from the beginning to the end. Therefore we had to make sure our viewer didn't suffer from burnout by the end of the 13-week season.
Strategy and Execution
As a result, we created a custom campaign that features multiple pieces of documentary-style broadcast content and a social contest exclusively for viewers of the show. Four unique :60 spots were filmed that each build upon each other, creating a 13-week story arc for viewers. The first three spots offered viewers a behind the scenes look at how Air Canada employee's Make Amazing happen every day in ways they might not have considered. These three spots each highlighted a functional area of Air Canada's operations (Pilots, Flight Attendants and a System Operations Control Centre). By showcasing interesting operational insights through the eyes of the employees themselves, we telegraphed the wonder of flight from a relatable and human perspective.
To take double-screening viewer engagement to the next level, we asked viewers at the conclusion of each piece of content to tell us on our social channels where they would go #MakeAmazing happen and why for a chance to win a weekly prize of having their submission being fulfilled. Each week we reviewed all entries and would select a winner that would go on to make amazing happen and share their journeys with us.
This social contest led to our fourth and final spot in which we fulfilled a mother and daughter's dream of taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip together before the daughter moved away to start her first year of university. Filmed in 3 continents in under a week, this global adventure is built on the premise of hanging on to every moment through extending a day by starting in Tokyo and travelling westward to capitalize on the time savings of passing the international date line on route to Vancouver and finally ending in Copenhagen.
To deepen engagement in social, we initiated a one-day media-driven activation to join in the conversation around #MakeAmazing and inspire Canadians, leveraging the #MakeAmazing contest and the launch of our 4th spot, "A Day to Hold On To" via Twitter and Facebook. The idea was to identify most relevant platforms and content in order to join the conversation and engage Canadians with relevant content produced in real time, significantly optimizing media investment.
Results
We effectively used the second screen to compliment the viewers' experience with brand content relevant to the content they selected to watch, as we saw 7,877 unique and inspirational contest entries submitted through the 13-week period. These contest entries required a story and ambition to travel, so the entries were of great quality and inspiration.
Over 9 million social impressions were generated through paid social
Partnering with Canadian broadcaster CTV yielded incremental impressions for the airline: 724,503 social impressions were generated from 24 posts on the CTV's Facebook page and Twitter account - Air Canada received 619,235 Facebook and 106,268 Twitter impressions
Strong demonstration of effective partnership and opportunity to strengthen Air Canada's sentiment online for a 13- week period, increasing peoples' propensity to dream of travel while improving brand preference for Air Canada.
