Digital Strategy that leads to tears of joy by the Miracle of Christmas WestJet

This Christmas, we want to know if you prefer to give or receive? - WestJet.

WestJet has been running “Christmas Miracle” campaigns since 2013. It has been a successful annual brand-building event for the last six years. Every year Westjet has a different way to give passengers the meaning of Christmas. 

For example, the previous year the Blue Santa company (the icon of christmas miracle)
spent more than a month traveling to 16 countries looking for unique holiday traditions. The first spot focused on Blue Santa’s visit to Haiti. Also, during his travels, Blue Santa surprised guests by reuniting them with loved ones in London, England, capturing the experiences in a “Uniting Through Traditions” video

To give or receive? The Choice is yours!

This year WestJet returns with new and interesting ideas to give passengers a Christmas impression. WestJet intends to spread holiday cheer in a way that only WestJetters can – by giving decisions to their guests whether to give or receive the prize. There were some seriously tempting gifts ranging. 

The guests inside the big blue hat are offered either to take their gift home or to bring them to Ronald McDonald Houses where the families whom their kids are being taken care at the hospital stay. 

The scenes created a warm atmosphere to the viewers as the kids were sharing the joy of Christmas by deciding to give their gift after their parents explained what are the Ronald McDonald houses thus showing a great deal of compassion. 

3 Big Digital Strategy from Westjet : 

• 1. Marketing using social media as a Platform

The videos made were highly engaging. Those five-minutes ad truly touches the very heart of each and every viewer which lead to dozens of people sharing the video as a response of the feeling they get. 

WestJet Christmas Miracle 2019

This provide WestJet free marketing in the realm of social media which boost WestJet in an outstanding rate of winning numbers in the internet. WestJet videos were hitting more than thirteen million views in just three days, going from around 3,700 subscribers before the video was uploaded on their YouTube channel to 12,000 subscribers in just three days.

Officials Account from WestJet
1. Facebook (Left)
2. YouTube (Middle)
3. Twitter (Right)

In comparison with other airlines, still within the social media realm, WestJet scored 120 in the average engagement rate while other airlines such as Virgin America and JetBlue Airways did not even reach 20. Lastly, WestJet conquered Twitter by attaining almost 7k retweets, around 3k replies, and 4k favorites. What a staggering number compared to other airlines which only breaking up to 2-3k of engagement.

Brands are riding the wave of social media marketing. 73% of marketers believe that their efforts through social media marketing have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business (Buffer, 2019).

Every brand are putting their highest concern and effort into social media. It is undebatable that social media plays a huge role in marketing used by brands all over the world. The inexorable engagement of users and rapid rate of information exchange makes social media a very compelling and effective way of promoting brand.

Social media users growing every year, do not be surprised if social media is referred to as one of the most promising platform in promoting something.

The usage of social media around the world is ever-increasing. It’s without a doubt one of the most popular online activities that users engage in. Social media statistics from 2019 show that there are 3.2 billion social media users worldwide, and this number is only growing. That equates to about 42% of the current population (Emarsys, 2019).

One of the reasons for this high usage of social media is because mobile possibilities for users are continually improving which makes it simpler by the day to access social media, no matter where you are. Most social media networks are also available as mobile apps or have been optimized for mobile browsing, making it easier for users to access their favorite sites while on the go.  91% of all social media users access social channels via mobile devices. Likewise, almost 80% of total time spent on social media sites occurs on mobile platforms (Lyfemarketing, 2018).

The shocking number of social media usage is believed as a result of its capability of giving the users a great mobility and ever changing updates that adapt to their different needs which makes everything simpler from having mobile apps to mobile browsing making the world only as far as from their fingertips to the screen.

Marketing in social media is further strengthened by the presence of influencers and artists or celebrities who have thousands or even millions of followers. Whether it is their review on a grand hotel they visited on vacation, new make-up products, taste of local cuisine, flight experience, or even new gadgets they purchased give authentic information to their follower who at the same time a potential consumer as well; thus, great review leads to increase in sales and vice versa (though review is sometimes subjective and biased.)

The line chart shows a ranking of the top social media platforms, from 2010 – 2019.

• 2. Winning customers’ hearts by giving the positive impact

“So the purpose of the ad may not be to sell more tickets, it might be just to say, ‘You know what—WestJet, we’re a feel-good company.’”

Tweet

At this point, it’s no surprise that social media marketing is essential for your business. One of the ways that your business could benefit from social media marketing is by providing the best possible customer service. 

The idea here is to manage your online presence and make sure that you keep in touch with your audience through social media platforms. 71% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family (Lyfemarketing, 2018).

• 3. Make guests feel valued 

Every part of this campaign provide hints to the values the people are needing. For example, there was a scene where the Blue Santa and Ebenezia Scrooge (the characters in the video) know each and every name of the guests coming to the big blue hat and there had been a sort of amazement coming from the kids. 

The value in their marketing is that name is important (similar to Starbucks writing the name of their customers at the coffee cup) as the society’s appetite of acknowledgement is increasing; this can be seen from the rapid increase of the usage of social media from 2010 to 2019 (check the chart above) where people are increasing the quality of their content in exchange for self-indulgence and social approval. 

You can’t experience the joy of a gift without the act of both giving and receiving.

However, these campaigns also drive us to become a better person by revealing that it does not matter where we came from or the traditions we hold on to, we all have the same longing which can only be fulfilled by spending the best time of the year with the ones we love. 

Above all, the paramount of this ad is to show people that it is the joy can be found in giving and receiving. To be a part of others happiness gives us an immeasurable amount of joy on this Christmas season. Now we can see that sharing our love is what makes us human and our lives become meaningful when we give meaning to the life of others.

So, what the digital strategy would you prefer to use ?

Advertisement