Etihad Airways, in collaboration with Impact BBDO, has launched two campaign films to announce 10 new destinations to the airline’s roster.
The brand took its audience on a journey with the first film release on 22 November. Rather than announcing the news directly, viewers were encouraged to guess the new destinations by identifying hidden clues embedded in the scenes.
Viewers had to wait 72 hours for the destinations to be revealed, sparking a flood of comments across the airline’s social media platforms.
Ali Rez, Chief Creative Officer at Impact BBDO, explained that the network expansion was the largest in Etihad’s history, and they aimed to engage the audience more deeply with the announcement.
“We didn’t want something our audience would just watch – we sought participation,” said Rez.
Rez explained that because of the trend around young travellers being more likely to visit new destinations, the spot’s objective was to create a buzz around the announcement.
Insights from a recent study by McKinsey that revealed that 92 per cent of young travellers make their travel plans based on social media interactions also backed the campaign’s ideation.
“This coupled with the insight that a gamified social media interaction would tap into the intrinsic competitiveness of this age group, set the ball rolling for this spot,” said Rez.
The first video teases the new destinations with quick transitions that follow cast members passing on the message ‘It’s 10’ to their contemporaries in different settings. The seamless narrative built excitement, keeping viewers engaged until the end. A call to action at the end of the film invited them to guess the 10 locations using hidden clues in the film.
“Clues to the destinations were placed in their natural settings and most viewers were likely to miss the clues in the first viewing.” said Rez. This added to the value of the spot as viewers were likely to watch the film more than once to figure out what the clues were.
“As evidenced by our social interactions, a lot of them went back to find the clues that included landmarks, iconic patterns, cultural symbols, monikers and more of the destinations,” Rex explained.
“To make things more challenging, there were more than 10 clues, so no one was sure if the 10 they guessed were the correct ones. It kept participants invested in and curious about the reveal video where the 10 destinations were revealed,” he said.
The initial video has garnered around 3mn views and generated over 300 comments across YouTube and Instagram so far.
The ‘reveal’ video launched on 25 November, with the destinations tagged to all the clues within the initial film. Comments on the announcement video shared victory sentiments of people who made the right guesses, while others shared their surprise that certain destinations were now reachable with an Etihad flight.
“This was also a great opportunity to collect data on our key audience for new destinations – those with a love for travel,” said Rez. “The ones with bucket lists, who know enough even about cities they haven’t been to and are most likely to take up the challenge to test their travel knowledge.”
In terms of how the campaign supports Etihad’s global brand identity, Rez said “the spot helps Etihad being perceived as a preferred airline not just for the discerning travellers, but for the avid explorers as well.”
With 90+ destinations globally, Etihad hopes the campaign brings its expanding network too into focus and supports its value as an internationally recognised luxury airline.
Credits
Agency: Impact BBDO
CEO: Ghassan Kassabji
CCO: Ali Rez
ACD: Dennis Silveira
Senior Art Director: Bijoy Purayil
Senior Copywriter: Tariq Vinayakan
Manager Director: Jad El Rabahi
General Manager: Andrew Peacock
Account Director: Anahita Ghotbi
Senior Producer: Mohamed Soueid
Freelancer Producer: Dina Kreik
Client: Etihad
Chief Revenue & Commercial Office: Arik De
Senior Vice President: Akhil Anumolu
Global Head of Brand: George Paige
Head of Marketing: Aishwarya Nambiar
Marketing Manager: Beatrice Milani
Consultant producer: Mansoor Quadri
Brand Officer: Nicole Ferguson
Production house: Big Kahuna Films
Director: Le GED
