3 online travel Christmas campaigns and a season to be jolly

From the memorable to the predictable, Christmas is the time that many companies roll out the usual Santa’s, holly, snow and hashtag competitions, but it doesn’t have to be that way, writes Andrew Hennigan

Most December campaigns on social media are as predictable as the bland, repetitive Christmas music played in every shopping mall from Thanksgiving to New Year. Some companies, however, have gone the extra mile.

1. WestJet creates wonder at Christmas

Canadian airline WestJet is behind some of the most memorable Christmas campaigns in the industry. In their 2013 Christmas Miracle campaign (WestJet’s social Christmas campaign: ‘nothing short of astounding’, EyeforTravel, Feb 13. 2014) the airline placed a kiosk in the departure lounge. Waiting passengers scanned their boarding passes and a Santa dressed in WestJet blue appeared on a screen asking what they wanted for Christmas. While the jets were still in the air, 175 WestJet employees bought and wrapped the gifts, loading them onto the baggage carousels when the passengers landed.

Camera crews captured the entire operation and the Christmas Miracle video was a massive success with 35 million views in less than a month. The campaign was the number one trending topic on Twitter in the region on the day the video was released and led to a clear increase in bookings.

This year WestJet has come up with another, equally elaborate effort as part of the company’s Mini Miracle Day on December 9th. On that day the WestJet blue-clad Santa and numerous employees were spread out across the nation to perform 12,000 random acts of kindness, like giving away hot drinks, helping the elderly with groceries, paying parking fees and handing out umbrellas.

Like in the Christmas Miracle campaign, all of this activity was captured on video to be shared on social media, but at the same time citizens were encouraged to perform their own mini miracles and post them to Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #WestJetChristmas, creating engagement and making the campaign even more visible.

In campaigns like this video plays a key role in catalysing interactions on social media. People are much more likely to share seasonal content when it is in video format or at least an appealing image. Campaign videos are expensive to produce but they can give a measurable return on investment and they have a long shelf life – WestJet is still posting videos from previous campaigns on social media.

2. Polar magic for Finland

A campaign with a cast of thousands and multiple TV crews is not, however, for everyone’s budget or taste. Destination marketer VisitFinland focuses their efforts on a strictly winter-related campaign Polar Night Magic. In this, you can follow a select few outdoor enthusiasts given the opportunity to experience the wonders and challenges of the Finnish winter. For Christmas they prefer a lower-key campaign where people can send greeting cards based on typically Finnish images and participate in a simple Facebook competition.

“What we have learned is that it is better to keep things as simple as possible and focus on your audience,” says VisitFinland’s Eva Kiviranta. “Our audience resonates with beautiful pictures of Finland and about learning bits of Finnish culture and words. We have tried more complex apps to build competitions but we have found that stunning imagery does the trick way better.”

3. A competition and a low-cost airline

Simple competitions might not be so impressive, but they are always popular with customers. SouthWest airlines is just one of the many companies to taking this route, with their #12DaysofLUV contest that ran December 1-12, where they gave away a $1000 SouthWest gift card every day. The prize goes to the person who posts the best photo on a specific theme on Twitter or Instagram using the competition hashtags.

Hashtag competitions won’t win any prizes for originality but there are still highly original campaigns coming from the travel industry. However, they tend to emerge, not so much in the holidays but in spring and autumn when everyone is at work. One of the most original social media campaigns in recent weeks has been Royal Caribbean’s ‘Come Seek Live’ campaign. For seven days in November the company used Twitter’s Periscope app to live stream video of passengers aboard the Anthem of the Seas sailing in the Caribbean to selected out-of-home displays on the streets of New York City. The operation was complex to organize and difficult to scale, but hints at what might be possible in holiday campaigns next year.

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