Creative Execution

Cinema advertising was chosen for its unique ability to engage a captive audience, one that could be psychographically and demongraphically aligned by movie type. Over a period of four weeks, selected theatres were redecorated to look like the inside of an airplane. Cinema ticket stubs spoofed boarding passes. Stewardesses greeted cinema-goers as they were seated. And the pre-movie announcement was recreated in the form of a pre-flight safety video. By flying in the face of tradition, SilkAir turned an ordinary 'journey' into an extraordinary one, demonstrating its service difference in a uniquely charming and cost-effective way, while exploiting cinema advertising's distinct advantages.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

SilkAir is a unique airline with distinct challenges. As the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, SilkAir provides all the comforts of a premium airline, but also also flies to many of the same destinations as low cost carriers. Because of this, SilkAir was thought to be an expensive low cost carrier. A perception shared by its core target audience of affluent regional holidaymakers and business travellers. What was even more worrying, was that the airline had just raised fuel charges to cope with soaring oil prices and was facing a serious economic crisis on the horizon. With lower marketing budgets, the challenges was clearly to bring to life our promise of 'Journeys to Treasure' and demonstrates SilkAir's service difference with a campaign that was cost-efficient and targeted.