**If you’ve used the internet in the last week or so chances are you’ve stumbled upon the viral video ‘Christmas Miracle’, produced by Canada’s second largest airline, WestJet.**
The joyous video shows a group of people at the boarding gates in Toronto and Hamilton, preparing to catch a flight to Calgary. The travellers are surprised by a life-size interactive screen depicting Santa dressed in the airline’s colours, and tell him what they would like for Christmas. WestJet employees are taking note of their answers behind the scenes, and we see them go on a mad dash shopping, wrapping and labelling the gifts for the passengers when they land.
The shocked, excited and emotional reactions of the gift’s recipients make for a charming video, as well as the delight in the faces of the airline’s employees who worked so hard to give the gifts.
Whilst WestJet insists their viral Christmas video wasn’t intended to be a commercial in disguise it racked up an amazing 12 million views in just the first three days, and this amount continues to increase. Planned since August and filmed in November, the tear-jerker went to plan in a stunning fashion with 150 WestJet employees organising, shopping, wrapping, handing out hot cocoa and clearing gifts through airport security.
The viral video shows us how portraying the Christmas spirit of goodwill in a very real and imaginative way really captures and moves people, and can work far more effectively than a glossy, big-budget TV advert.
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk)
**Imagination is more important than budget**
WestJet has refused to disclose exactly how much they spent on the stunt, but Richard Bartem, WestJet’s Vice President of communications and community relations, (link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbender/2013/12/12/the-real-christmas-miracle-of-westjets-viral-video-millions-in-free-advertising/ text: insists it was) “nowhere near as much as you would have expected”.
It goes to show that a lower budget video like this seems a lot more personal to an audience, and as a result is more shareable. Without broadcasting it on TV the advert has been seen by a huge amount of people because it has been shared with no cost or effort on WestJet’s part – the community is doing it themselves because they enjoy it and want to talk about it.
WestJet really win because people are giving the brand their full attention for the five and a half minutes running time; an invaluable PR opportunity and a rarity in marketing.
**Drive your brand’s message home subtly**
WestJet like to portray themselves as a caring company who go out of their way to meet its customers’ needs. The advert portrays that message perfectly without saying it directly via cheesy slogans; a big turn-off for customers.
The company wants to show customers that although they’re getting bigger, they’re still friendly and offer a personal service. Marketing professor (link: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/ad-or-not-soaring-westjet-viral-video-a-branding-win-marketing-experts-235627731.html text: David Soberman says) “It’s saying to people in an indirect way, ‘We’re still the WestJet you’ve always known. We care about you, we’re getting bigger, but we’re not changing the way we treat our customers.’ So in that way it’s a very clever manoeuvre.”
WestJet is competing in the rather crowded Canadian airlines market, with WestJet hovering somewhere in between rivals Air Canada and Porter. An advert like this really helps make WestJet stand out and portray their own individual identity.
**Appeal with real emotion**
Everybody except the biggest Scrooge is a real sucker for a tear-jerker, and who could help but feel moved when seeing the mother opening her new camera, her eyes filled with tears? Feeling intense emotion is what makes the video stand out to people watching, and they share the video as a result.
The airline attempted a similar video last year, where they converted an airport lounge into the North Pole. Whilst it did well with 700,000 views and the unsuspecting travellers were pleased, without that high level of emotion it wasn’t enough to move viewers in the same way and become such a viral hit as this year’s offering.
**Create a big, shocking gesture on a small scale**
The element of surprise and size of the gesture of ‘Christmas Miracle’ is what makes it shocking and surprising, keeping viewers hooked. The company could have given every person travelling with them that week a small goodwill token that would have been appreciated, but it wouldn’t have been enough to get talked about worldwide or to make for an engaging video.
People don’t generally care about common or everyday stories – the ones that are bewildering or amazing in some way are the ones we talk about and share. The small amount of people receiving generous gifts is heart-warming and unbelievable; ultimately reaching more people.
The video has been hugely successful in showing that while WestJet operate on a large scale their staff are honest, caring and fun-loving people who will go out of their way to make their customers happy. This heart-warming video conveys this sentiment perfectly, as well as really creating the feeling of goodwill that we look for at Christmas time.
**To create an original advertising campaign of your own why not (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/contact/ text: talk to us) here at Superdream and see how we can help.**