JETSTAR GOES SINGLISH, LAH!

Short List
TitleJETSTAR GOES SINGLISH, LAH!
BrandJETSTAR ASIA
Product / ServiceJETSTAR ASIA
CategoryB07. Events & Stunts
EntrantAKA ASIA Singapore, SINGAPORE
PR AKA ASIA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation AKA ASIA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Production AKA ASIA Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Amy Wright AKA Asia Partner
Natasha Nair AKA Asia Planning Director
Jenna Birks AKA Asia Account Manager
Joyee Koo AKA Asia Manager - Design & Production
Jemimah Tsoi AKA Asia Senior Account Executive
Terence Chen AKA Asia Account Executive

The Campaign

How do you make an Australian airline feel like one of Singapore’s own? Speak their language. Literally. We worked with the media to trick the nation into believing that Jetstar was launching Singlish on its flights - on April 1st – as part of it’s new ‘localisation strategy’. We translated Jetstar’s website into Singlish and creating an all-too-believable behind-the-scenes mockumentary of the “Jetstar Singlistics Training Academy” to help us pull off the ultimate prank, whilst building affinity with a local audience.

Execution

On the eve of April Fools (beating all the other pranks to the punch) we pressed play across all social channels and distributed the ‘corporate’ release to media. With pick-up from almost every national media outlet in Singapore and media coverage regionally, film views hit 500,000 in the first 24 hours, driving traffic to the Jetstar website to confirm whether the rumours were true. We leveraged every editorial opportunity to create powerful media coverage that brought out the humour of the idea. On social media, we responded to comments to further increase engagement and showcase Jetstar’s prowess with the Singlish language. And when consumers begged us to make the flights a reality, we listened. Overcoming logistical challenges, we launched Singlish flights for one day only on Singapore’s 51st birthday. We created a new film, captured on the first Singlish flight and secured another wave of national news coverage.

In one weekend, we secured over $1million in media coverage locally. Each media outlet helped to deliver the core message: that Jetstar was right at home in Singapore. The video racked up 1.5million views in 48 hours, primarly driven by media coverage, and was shared over 12,500 times. That means 1 in 4 people living in Singapore saw it! Over two days website traffic increased by 42% and consumers had clearly been affected with the positivity surrounding the prank: sales revenue enjoyed a spike, with an increase of 169% vs the same period last year. Our National Day campaign, launched in response to the postive support from consumers, landed over 110 pieces of additional media coverage. Footage of the first Singlish flight has so far been shared over 18,000 times and viewed by over 1.8 million people. And that no joke.

The Situation

Leveraging a strong insight into our target audience, we created an engaging idea that we knew local media (and consumers) would find impossible not to share. The content we created – including social, web and film – meant the story was brought to life on every channel and resonated with our local audience. The initial idea was a simple April Fool. But when consumers asked us to do it for real, we listened and turned the prank into a reality. This earned us another wave of national media coverage (for the same idea) just four months later,

The Strategy

Target audience Singaporeans are incredibly proud of their heritage and culture. The one thing that binds every Singaporean together is Singlish, their shared local language. Our approach Embrace our Singaporean identity by adopting Singlish as Jetstar’s official language. We would trick the nation and bring the idea to life on April 1st. We knew that by getting the tone exactly right, the idea would score us not just laughs, but support and kudos for the Jetstar brand locally. Call to action The media would be a critical component of our campaign, so we developed a highly engaging and witty ‘corporate’ press release, that focused on Jetstar’s new ‘localisation strategy’. We distributed the release alongside the mockumentary film, offering the press multimedia content that was impossible not to share, and ensured coverage across all platforms.

Links

Social Media URL