The Campaign

Cebu Pacific Airlines thought of turning the winter season, which is usually a time for Koreans to book winter holiday destinations, as an opportunity to promote warm and sunny Philippines. To achieve this, Cebu Pacific had the bold idea of giving Koreans the experience of a tropical island in the middle of winter to make them want to book a flight to sunny Philippines right away.

Creative Execution

Cebu Pacific Airlines surprised Koreans by creating a tropical island installation in the middle of a -12°Celsius winter. This island was set up for 2 days amidst the busy Garosugil Street in Incheon, Seoul. The warm and sunny-looking island wasn’t just a social media bait for the selfie-loving Koreans, it was also equipped with hidden infrared lamps and heated beach chairs that allowed Koreans to experience the warmth of the Philippines amidst the Korean winter. A sandcastle in the island also revealed a seat sale to the Philippines to allow Koreans to book and experience the warmth of the Philippines for real. Upon leaving the warmth of the island, visitors even received heat packs that also reminded them about booking flights thru the Cebu Pacific website in case they haven’t booked yet.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

In just 2 days, almost 5000 Koreans escaped winter by visiting the warm and sunny installation. The campaign drove traffic to the Cebu Pacific Airlines website with a 92.41% increase in new users and a 145% increase in website transactions. Most importantly, 92% of the Cebu Pacific Airlines seats from Incheon to Manila on sale during the campaign period were all booked!

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Cebu Pacific’s Winter Summerland is a Promo & Activation Campaign that shows how a creative on-ground installation can lead to actual ticket sales for an airline despite it being a high-involvement product purchase.

Aside from being the top tourist visitors to the Philippines, Koreans are also consistently among the top spenders. Koreans take over 4 weeks to book a trip and their booking decision is usually influenced by their friends or family more than campaigns. And the thing they loved most about the Philippines are its sunny beaches. Considering this, Cebu Pacific Airlines wanted to speed up the Koreans’ booking decision to the Philippines. Korean winter is from December to February, with average temperatures in January (the coldest month) of between -6° to -3°Celsius. In 2016, temperatures fell to a record-breaking -18°Celsius. The cold, harsh winter of Korea was identified as a strategically and surprisingly perfect time to promote flying to warm and sunny Philippines. After all, what better time to make people want to book a flight to the summer paradise of the Philippines than during the freezing winter of South Korea!