SIA: adding life to logic
Negotiating landing rights on a new route into the US is no small thing for an airline. So we did "no small thing" to celebrate. Turning an entire A350 into an instrument, we created a story designed not just to attract attention, but to paint both Seattle and Singapore Airlines in a flattering new light.
One of Seattle’s greatest stories is its place in the world as the home of progressive music. We thought about simply sharing a Spotify playlist celebrating the legends of the Seattle scene. But we needed a fresher, and noisier story. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s the unexpected ways in which a great story supercharges good CX.
By ‘good CX’, I mean announcing a new route by distributing information to your customers through your owned channels – say, an email pointing to a web page filled with detail about the new route, timetables, flight duration, why it’s better to fly direct; and some social content, including 10 reasons to visit Seattle, and some beauty shots of the cabin experience… Yep, we did all that. Nice stuff. Solid traffic. No complaints. But I don’t live for no complaints. No complaints means not interesting; not interesting means no brand recognition.
The idea here was to trigger interest in all that information, by bringing Seattle and Singapore Airlines together and showing off both products in a new, and striking way.
Now, gaining access to pretty much any Airbus A350 takes a huge amount of effort. Gaining access to one that belongs to the world's most-awarded airline, then hitting it with sticks: that’s another story altogether. (They're understandably pretty precious about their planes.)
Kudos to our brave client team at SIA who did a huge amount of work to help bring Chong the Nomad from her native Seattle, to Singapore, and let her turn an entire Singapore Airlines A350 into one giant musical instrument – while making a really watchable piece of film to go with the new track.
Update: well over 15 million aggregate views as of early 2020; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, online at singaporeair.com, and in paid placements around the world.
Update: Editor's Pick over at AdAge!
