To demonstrate just how different WestJet is, and emphasize their commitment to guests, we wanted to make the flight to Vegas even more spectacular and surprising than the destination itself.

Due to the tight restrictions for what can occur on or in an aircraft, we focused on the ground instead, thankfully Las Vegas is a city in the middle of the desert. Using the space and darkness of the desert to our advantage we built a gigantic roulette wheel in the desert outside Las Vegas. The wheel was made of lights and so large that it could be seen from 12,000 feet up in the air.

As the planes approach the wheel’s location, passengers were instructed to take note of their seat numbers and look out their windows. Then they saw was a spinning roulette wheel and when it stopped it displayed a seat number, indicating the winning passenger.

First we had to coordinate with WestJet’s flight operations to determine ideal timing for weather and their planned flight paths into Vegas so we could scout a location for the wheel.

For people to be able to see something from 12,000 feet in the air, it needs to be massive. To accomplish this, we partnered with Westbury Productions to bring 164 of the largest and brightest moving lights made on the planet to the desert. In total, the lights projected 4.5 million lumens, which was a world record achieved in this process.

We then had to establish direct contact with the pilots as they approached the location so we knew when to start the spinning and ultimately land on the winner seat number.

Everything had to happen in a window of less than 60 seconds.

By the end of the few short weeks this event was in market, we achieved over 4 million impressions, coverage in 25+ press outlets, and over 1.5 million views of WestJet’s Facebook video. Most importantly was the reaction garnered from Canadians, totalling 15,000 reactions, 600+ shares and over 1000 comments celebrating the event.

Uniquely, two world records were set including ‘greatest light output in a projected image’ and ‘largest circular projection’. Visible from 12,000 feet, the wheel was 785,398 square metres in diameter and reached 4,666,000 lumens.