The main goal of this campaign was to increase trust and love for Delta & highlight the brand’s commitment to safety, to prove that Delta is the brand travelers can trust when they are ready to travel again. Coming out of the first wave of the pandemic, this was an exciting challenge and a difficult puzzle.

Objectives:

• Put Delta at the center of the safe return to travel.

• Leverage talent that would give Delta authenticity with our audiences, connecting the brand to stories that our audience would love to hear.

• Utilize premium placements (high impact video & social) to engage consumers

Deliver against key metrics:

• Video: Video views & view rate

• Display: Clicks & click rate

• Social: Reactions & engagement

• To develop Delta's position with an eye to PR and brand semiotics, connecting the brand with creativity, connection, and safe travel.

Creator Connections is a video series about the connections we missed in 2020 that we’ll make up for in 2021 and beyond – thanks to Delta and the return of travel. Each episode features a creative from a different vertical who shows us an object that is emblematic of what they’ve missed out on during the pandemic, and what they’ll be able to do again thanks to Delta in 2021. Using talent we knew our audience would love – a chef cooking the fish they couldn't get in 2020 when their new restaurant got interrupted by the pandemic, or an emerging WMG superstar showing us their guitar, which they were separated from after having to head home to Panama during the pandemic – Creator Connections captured audience attention by telling unmistakable and universal stories from the pandemic with an optimistic eye toward the return to travel in 2021 and beyond.

Our insight was both philosophical and behavioral, at a time when Delta needed to reach consumers with a message about the value and safety of travel. We invited consumers to consider a concert ticket stub, a baby shoe, a “#1” foam finger from college. Individual objects can be unbelievable portals to experiences, connections to family and friends – these objects connect us in miraculous ways to what we value. Airplanes are powerful connectors too, but not all airlines are the same. There were missed opportunities for connection in 2020 – and Delta wants to remedy this by safely bringing travel back into our lives.

Key message: Delta genuinely understands the deep meaning of the return to travel after the pandemic.

We flexed our award-winning in-house content studio to create the videos and tapped our direct access to artists. We then used our massive global scale to reach fans worldwide.

Our PR strategy was to combine the Creator Connections custom video package with targeted preroll on Uproxx.com, targeted rotational media, and AV rotational media, to deliver key messaging around Delta and the deep meaning of the return to travel after the pandemic across as many different points of connection as possible. We executed this campaign across summer 2021 making sure our A18-24 audience as well as our lifestyle, music, and sports audience would connect Delta with the return of safe air travel after the pandemic lockdown.

Overall Campaign Delivery:

• 2.6mm total video views

• 25.9mm total impressions

• 110% overall delivery index

Creator Connections Custom Video

In addition to 2.6mm video views, we also saw 4.3mm total social impressions, reached 2.3mm total people, delivering 173% over client ask.

Cross Platform Targeted Uproxx.com Preroll garnered 8.2mm total impressions, targeted rotational mediate garnered 10.4mm total impressions, and rotational media garnered 2.2mm total impressions.

The main goal of the campaign was to increase trust and love for Delta & highlight the brand’s commitment to safety, as well as prove that Delta is the partner travelers can trust when they are ready to travel again. The tone was smart and stylish, showing care and focus, building trust in the brand in a vexing time for air travel. From comments on Youtube to Tweets and responses on IG, audiences responded well to the approach and Delta established itself with robust credibility with their target demographic.

At a moment in the pandemic when travelers were rightly being cautious, we sought to motivate the desire to travel in authentic ways and to position Delta as the air travel partner for consumers who understand the deep meaning of travel: Travel connects us to what we value. The custom video had the polish of award-winning content and the focused and thoughtful messaging of much bigger budget campaigns. Combined with the broad-reaching media outputs, Creator Connections reached millions more people than client anticipated and established Delta as the airline of the return to safe travel.