In April 2010, low cost airline Jetstar announced its support of Australian icons Powderfinger on their last ever Sunsets farewell tour. The partnership represented one of Australia’s biggest brand alignments with a musical act to date.The challenge was Powderfinger were keen to ensure they maintained their famously non-commercial reputation.One objective was to expose the Jetstar brand in a positive context to millions of customers through a comprehensive media and sponsorship leverage campaign.A secondary objective for the partnership was, together with Powderfinger, to raise funds for the two organisations’ respective charities StarKids and The Yalari Foundation.

A strategy was developed to engage with media and customers across various mediums, including print, broadcast, radio and online. The strategy aimed to build widespread awareness of the partnership, leverage the partnership package with in-flight performance, money-can’t-buy opportunities and ticket allocation, integrate the Jetstar brand into the tour, promoting destinations and low fares and drive airline ticket sales and charity donations.A number of national media partners were engaged to execute the campaign across the four strategic stages of the campaign; ‘Ultimate Powderfinger Tribute’ competition; In-Flight Charity Gig; Music Blogger competition to ‘Follow the Finger’; and Ticket Giveaways and Meet/Greets.

Over three months, story angles were developed around the tour, including arrival, meet and greets and the release of exclusive content. A Powderfinger plane livery was commissioned, including ‘the making of’, time-lapse video/images, launch, flight schedule, consumer promotions, in-flight performance. Fans had the chance to interact with the band via Jetstar, including most memorable photo captured at a concert, twitter consumer ticket giveaway and funds and recognition was raised for StarKids and the Yalari Foundation.In August, an exclusive live weather cross from Melbourne to the Powderfinger aircraft. Positioned as a ‘sneak preview’, the activity revealed the Powderfinger design and a ‘making of’ clip.

An Orange Carpet Arrival was held across a variety of dates and locations.Jetstar branded orange carpet was rolled out for a VIP arrival of the band when they landed. Two Jetstar staff members were on hand to welcome the band to the destination.

Our goal was to increase interaction through social media; we achieved 37.7% of visits to campaign microsite referred though social media sites like Facebook and YouTube and 81,514 visits to jetstar.com/powderfinger over the course of the campaign.Another goal was to raise money for charity; the seats auctioned on eBay started at A$249 sold for as much as A$10,000. In total, we raised around A$150,000 for two charities.We aimed to achieve national media coverage; the 30-minute mid-air gig alone generated more than 150 separate news stories worldwide, with a potential viewing audience of around 10 million people, and media coverage worth over A$4 million.