GLOBAL, OCTOBER 6, 2010 – Air travel has just become more interesting. Two much-discussed airline campaigns with noteworthy soundtracks and matching remarkable moves took flight within a day of each other last week on different platforms.
Virgin Atlantic ads are known to be playful–the 25th anniversary campaign last year was even accused of sexism. (Credit visionary entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson for the company culture.) The airline’s new £6 million campaign debuted in cinemas on October 1, on UK TV last Sunday and comes to US screens next week. Dubbed its first global ad, the spot by RKCR/Y&R features a cover of Nina Simone’s "Feeling Good" by the band Muse. The "It" ad’s tagline is "Your airline’s either got it or it hasn’t". What "it" is, who knows? Bond-inspired, with plenty of humor, it’s all gloss and fun. If only flights really were that surreal.
Over in Asia, in-flight entertainment turns literal. Instead of overpromising with models pretending to be crew, real flight attendants of Philippine flag carrier Cebu Pacific take a few steps from the Cebu dancing inmates to bring even more fun into its "fun flights", which feature in-flight games.
A YouTube video of Cebu Pacific Air flight attendants dancing to Lady Gaga’s "Just Dance" and Katy Perry’s "California Gurls" during their "flight safety demonstration" was an overnight sensation, hitting 1.8 million views in 24 hours.
The idea for the dance came from the budget airline’s marketing team and the inflight services team, according to Cebu Pacific VP for Marketing
No Philippine marketing viral has had it this good. The video was taken by a passenger on September 30 on a Manila-Butuan flight and uploaded the same day. Six days later, it is still going strong with seven million views and rising, buoyed by nods from established media to prominent bloggers. Time, Yahoo, The Telegraph UK, Ryan Seacrest and Perez Hilton are only a few of those that have picked up the story online, aside from mainstream TV news.
Those with safety concerns need not be alarmed. As Iyog explains, the dance does not replace the safety demonstration: "The standard safety demonstration was still done before take-off as prescribed by the Civil Aviation Authorities. We could argue that we were ‘doubly’ safe since we conducted the safety demonstration twice, once on ground and another one inflight where everyone was paying attention."
Given the overwhelming public response to the video, Iyog only hints at future initiatives and innovations. "As the largest airline in the Philippines today, we want to make sure that we continue to stay aligned with our culture as the fun and family-oriented airline that we are," she said.
