THE PASSPORT TAKE-OFF

TitleTHE PASSPORT TAKE-OFF
BrandQANTAS
Product / ServiceQANTAS FLIGHTS
CategoryA07. Travel
EntrantBWM DENTSU Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation BWM DENTSU Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement BLUE 449 Sydney, AUSTRALIA
PR BWM DENTSU Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production INFINITY SQUARED Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production 2 RUMBLE STUDIOS Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Rob Belgiovane BWM Dentsu Chief Creative Officer:
Asheen Naidu BWM Dentsu Executive Creative Director
Oskar Westerdal BWM Dentsu Senior Copywriter
René Schultz BWM Dentsu Senior Art Director
Caitlin Schuch BWM Dentsu Senior Strategic Planner
Brent Kerby BWM Dentsu Client Service Director
Bonnie Ledsam BWM Dentsu Account Director
Chris Murphy BWM Dentsu Senior Account Manager
Emma Durlacher BWM Dentsu Producer
Melvin J Montalban Infinity Squared Director
Cathy Rechichi Infinity Squared Executive Producer
Caroline David Infinity Squared Producer
Michael Gie Rumble Studios Executive Producer
Cam Milne Rumble Studios Sound Designer

The Campaign

Studies show that Australia is at the top of Americans’ bucket list. But despite being Australia’s national carrier, Qantas was losing its position as Americans’ go-to airline for the trip. By analysing numbers from the U.S. State Department, we found a key local insight that no one in the travel business was talking about: there are less than 135 million valid U.S. passports in circulation, which means that 3 out of 5 Americans don’t have one. So in order to help more Americans travel to Australia with Qantas, we gave them a free passport. All they had to do was book their trip at Qantas.com and enter a simple promo code to get $135 – the full cost of a new U.S. passport – taken off their ticket.

Creative Execution

‘The Passport Take-Off’ launched on Qantas’ Facebook and Twitter pages with a video featuring a real-life Qantas pilot inviting Americans to get themselves a passport “on us”. All they had to do was book their trip Australia at Qantas.com and input a promo code. The social videos were supported by EDMs, targeted digital display banners and PR. The campaign ran from October 19th to November 28th 2017.

Results

Our campaign quickly made headlines across local and international media including Forbes, Mashable, Daily Mail, Esquire, MSN, Yahoo, Der Standard and International Business Times. Earned reach: 225 million Earned media value: US $1.3 million EDM open rate of 29.14% (versus 20.69% travel industry average 2017) 20% of Qantas’ total annual website traffic in 10 days Bookings to Australia increased by 158% year-on-year.

In the highly competitive and price-driven U.S. travel market ‘The Passport Take-Off’ managed to cut through the clutter by reframing a simple discount into something more tangible and relevant for American travellers. With a basic promo code wrapped in a powerful local insight, we earned a record response from both travellers and media alike, which led to strong business results.

In 2017, digital travel sales in the U.S. eclipsed $190 billion, with forecasts predicting it’ll go above $200 billion by 2019. In such a massive, highly competitive and price-driven market we had to find a compelling angle to persuade potential travellers to choose Qantas over its competitors. Thanks to our insight into Americans’ lack of passports, we managed to reframe what was essentially a simple promotional sale and gave it a purpose that resonated beyond just dollars. With a consistent call to action across all channels we directed our American audience to Qantas.com, where inputting the “Passport” promo code earned them the discount.

Links

Social Media URL