The Brief

Cathay Pacific had never targeted a youth audience for any promotion. It was time to break into this important audience segment. We needed a direct advertising idea that would capture the imagination of a target market that was cynical of traditional advertising methods. If we achieved this, we could connect with the youth target in a way that made Cathay’s range of destination offers feel more relevant to their lifestyle. The key measureables were ticket sales and sign-ups for Asia Miles loyalty club membership.

Creative Execution

As a premium airline Cathay Pacific has a reputation in its home market for unaffordability, especially amongst students! Here we offered a different take on what Cathay was all about. The tote bags featured original and beautiful designs of destinations that were subtle, stylish but most importantly desirable. This meant that even after one student had signed up, if they continued to use the bag, a walking advert was born in and around the campus and the city.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

To symbolize the “grab it and go” nature of the ticket promotion, and to connect with a fashion-conscious audience, we chose to create a Travel Tote Bag, not just as a premium, but also as the marketing medium itself. Each “Bag of Desire” carried a unique contemporary destination design created by one of Hong Kong’s most popular young designers. To target them in an environment where unique items can trend offline – we used “Pop up” stores in key University campus locations. If they wanted a free bag, they simply had to sign up and pick a favourite destination.

Results

More popular and successful than we could have imagined! 8200 sign-ups and 4000 youth-discount tickets sold, exceeding our KPIs by 1000%. But, even better than that, 5000 billboards walking around the city.