2021 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

INSIGHT
The airline industry has long had a bad reputation for putting profits first and guests second. Guests get bumped off flights due to needless overbooking. Delays prevent them from arriving at their destination on time. And, they’re often met with customer service agents who emit a cold indifference and serve disrespect. It’s no surprise that it has become commonplace for travelers to compare their experience to being herded like cattle.

Second only to safety, WestJet’s success has been built upon a culture of care, where guests and employees are the priority. Its formula is simple, yet effective: it treats people like people. The brand needed a way to communicate this in a way that would get travellers’ attention and ultimately increase their likelihood of booking a future flight with WestJet.

STRATEGY
While WestJet was growing its fleet and introducing more premium and business cabins, the brand did not have the same product offering as its competitor. Rather than showing off its products, WestJet leaned into what clearly differentiates it from the pack: no-overbooking, most-on time airline and best airline as voted by Tripadvisor.

Being a challenger brand offered WestJet a level of creative license to push beyond the advertising conventions of the category. The brand took a bold approach, commenting on an experience that is far too common across air travel. It rallied people together behind its commitment to make you feel like you’re treated like a person.

EXECUTION
Honing in on the insight built on the pain points experienced when flying with the competition, WestJet and Rethink launched a 60 second TV commercial that demonstrates just how it feels for travelers flying with the other guys, juxtaposed with how it feels to fly with WestJet.

They took the cattle metaphor literally, and applied it to the airline industry as a whole, trading disgruntled competitor airline guests for a herd of cows, who can only watch in envy as happy and smiling WestJet guests effortlessly board their flights.

The campaign launched nationally with 60, 30, 15, and 6s spots that lived on TV, digital, DOOH and in cinema. The campaign also circulated through WestJet’s owned channels including social, web, and WestJet Magazine. With a small media budget the agency knew the creative would need to do the heavy lifting and make every view count.

The campaign did not come without its challenges. Rethink carefully researched how animal activists, vegans, and the general public would react to the ad by testing the concept with a select group. It ensured that the small group of cows featured in the spot were treated with the utmost care, and used CGI to create hundreds of bovine clones to fill the airport with. Knowing that it still may be faced with criticism, the team created a behind-the-scenes video that showcased the caring and humane treatment the cows received while on-set.

Results
Kantar metrics indicate that “How Does It Feel” is WestJet’s best performing brand campaign to date. The awareness index ranked at a seven, where the typical norm is a four. Enjoyment of the spot ranked within the 96th percentile, with active involvement ranking in the 97th. Short term persuasion ranked within the 96th percentile, and affinity in the 82nd.

Viewers praised the spot for “really highlighting a common complaint about airlines”, “teaching them something new about WestJet”, and “taking a dig at the other airlines that treat their customers like cattle”. Both metrics and comments direct from our audience prove the team accomplished what it set out to do from the onset.

Overall, there was 150K in revenue attributed to the campaign landing page alone. This does not include those who viewed the spot across other channels and later booked.

Further to outperforming benchmarks, the campaign was picked up and featured across industry publications. This unpaid exposure widened its reach.

Credits

CCO: Aaron Starkman, Christina Yu
CSO: Sean McDonald
Creative Director: Dhaval Bhatt, Mike Dubrick
Writer: Mike Dubrick, Dhaval Bhatt
Art Director: Loretta Lau
Executive Producer: Simon Dragland, Rita Popielak
Director of Photography: Mark Zibert, Eric Kaskens
Head of Strategy: Sean McDonald
Strategist: Hannah Newport
Broadcast Producer: Anna Tricinci, Clair Galea
Art Director: Eric Kaskens
Director: Mark Zibert
Producer: Simon Dragland, Rita Popielak
Service Production Company: Falca
Managing Partner/EP: Jeronimo Pellicer Hummelsheim
Line Producer: Marc Gallen
Post-Production House: Saints Editorial
Editor: Ross Birchall
Assistant Editor: Paula Hicks and Kerstin Juby
Executive Producers: Michelle Lee
VFX House: The Vanity
Executive Producer: Stephanie Pennington
Colour: Andrew Exworth
Producer: Kayla Baxter
Lead VFX Artist: Sean Cochrane
VFX Artists: Naveen Srivastava, Kaelem Cahill, Michael Medeiros, Andres Farlow, Noah Matikainen
CG: Shed Inc
Music House: Vapor
Executive Producer: Lindsey Bates
Music Producer: Ted Rosnick
Sound Engineer: Ryan Chalmers
Music Rights Clearance: Francois Lachance
Media Company: Media Experts
Account Services: Amanda Dornan, Sara Lemmermeyer, Malcolm D'Souza