The Campaign

According to Singapore’s National Library Board, 56% of the population hasn’t read a book in over a year. A survey of Jetstar passengers revealed Singaporeans were most likely to read when on holiday, and may not read at any other time. We were in a unique position to improve these statistics if we could encourage reading on our flights. This became the driving force of our campaign: do good for our passengers whilst doing good for the community, through the power of the book. With no in-flight entertainment on board, the book provided a natural (and economical) opportunity for us to leverage. We would launch the world’s first flying book exchange – Jetstar’s Big Book Swap. Drawing inspiration from the success of sharing economies around the world, we encouraged passengers returning home to leave their finished ‘holiday reading’ in the plane’s seat pocket for the next passenger to enjoy.

Execution

We launched to coincide with Singapore’s inaugural National Reading Day, ensuring we were part of the conversation about improving literacy from the beginning. Working with NLB and publishers, we gathered hundreds of books to be distributed on branded library trolleys at Jetstar’s departure gates on National Reading Day, to kick-start the Book Swap. Each book was accompanied by a bookmark, allowing passengers to write down where they holidayed and track the book’s journey across Asia. Passengers could also donate their own book to the cause by asking an air steward for a branded bookmark and leaving it in the seat pocket for the next passenger to enjoy. To bring the campaign to life, we created a film that followed the journey of one book as it swapped hands. This 30 second film, produced in-house, neatly conveyed the idea to extend the campaign way beyond the passengers on the planes.

Objective: Create an emotional connection with consumers The film was shared 1,958 times, generated over 23,000 positive reactions and was watched over 3.7million times, in a nation of 5.5million. The content conveyed the message in the first two seconds and was understandable without sound, so every view delivered the message to our consumers. Over 900 comments showed how much the idea resonated with consumers: “This is a library in the sky, just love it!” - Christine Laird “A great reason to consider Jetstar for the next trip! Other airlines please take note.” – Vijendra Bahadur Singh? “Super love this! Jetstar, I’m booking a holiday soon!” – Yeng Peng Lim Objective: Increase our voice in the market by creating new news We generated buzz with highly positive coverage including The New Paper, The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, ShinMin and AsiaOne. “Jetstar’s Big Book Swap is part of the first nationwide celebration of the joy and importance of reading.” – The Straits Times “In this ever digital and anonymous world, this idea feels more real than ever. Not all ideas have to be baked in innovation to be sweet.” – Marketing Interactive. “It’s officially cool to be a bookworm.” – The New Paper Objective: Drive the NPS +10% and improve the in-flight experience Not only was the online community touched by the campaign, it drove positive experiences in-flight. Our Net Promoter Score during the campaign period increased +26% versus the previous month (and an even more impressive, +51% versus the previous year).

The Situation

Jetstar Asia needed to improve the in-flight experience but had no budget for TVs or in-flight Wi-Fi. So what did we have? A captive audience with hours of free time. And a nation that wasn’t reading enough… In response Jetstar launched the world’s first flying book exchange – Jetstar’s Big Book Swap. We encouraged passengers to leave their finished holiday reading in the seat pocket of their flight for the next passenger to enjoy. Our film of one book’s journey racked up over 3.7million views, thousands of positive comments and the initiative improved Jetstar’s NPS by +54% on last year.

The Strategy

Target audience: With 180 passengers per flight and around 50 flights daily, we had an opportunity to encourage thousands of passengers to rediscover the joy of reading, positively impact their in-flight experience and drive positive word of mouth and recommendation. At the same time we needed to reach other potential Jetstar customers, and give them a reason to travel with the airline. Media & PR approach: To amplify our message in the media and give our campaign more credibility, we reached out to the National Library Board (NLB) to explore partnership opportunities. Joining forces with NLB, we helped raise the profile of the inaugural National Reading Movement, a campaign to encourage reading and literacy among Singaporeans. To give the idea scale, we extended the message beyond Jetstar’s passengers who would experience the Book Swap by creating short, shareable video content that perfectly brought the initiative to life on social media.