Air travel these days is largely an impersonal affair. Nothing says “you’re valued” quite like frequent flier numbers, boarding groups and hundreds of identical packs of peanuts. With one simple idea KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS) turned flying from Amsterdam into something personal and memorable again. Objective: create sympathy KLM and AAS, and, as a result, preference for flying KLM via AAS, by demonstrating that their close partnership is able to accomplish genuine personal attention.

Covergreetings generated over 2 million views, many shares and a lot of free publicity without the support of any media budget.

The campaign consisted of the activation itself, at Schiphol Airport, and a filmed report.

Unbeknownst to passengers, friends and family were invited to write a personal goodbye note to their loved ones after they parted ways at the security line at the airport. KLM employees then raced to the flight and posted these personal notes to the seats that were assigned to the passengers, just in time for the passengers to read as they boarded the plane.

The film was launched through owned social-media channels from KLM and Schiphol only, such as Facebook and Twitter.

While some passengers laughed because of the funny goodbye messages from their friends or relatives, others were moved to tears by the heartfelt notes sent by those left behind. Without the support of any media budget the initiative generated over 2 million views, many shares and a lot of free publicity. The response was so overwhelming that KLM considers turning Covergreetings into a permanent service.