At many competitive airlines you have to pay extra for services like entertainment, food and drinks. Whereas KLM has great customer service and a ticket is always all-inclusive. But it’s hard to reach an audience that never flies KLM. That why we created our own medium and infiltrated competitors’ flights and offered KLM’s services for free. With KLM’s Flight Upgrader. A VR tool that gave travellers the opportunity to turn any flight into a KLM flight. All they had to do is to put on a VR Cardboard, click their smartphone in, and start the app. Travellers of competitive airlines could now read their favourite newspaper, watch movies, have a VR taste of a free meal etc. All stuff they often have to pay extra for on the flight they are actually on. In addition to the Flight Upgrader, we created a social video to reach a bigger audience.

We recorded an entire KLM flight in VR, with services like a functioning entertainment system, access to thousands of papers and magazines and more. All things that many airlines charge extra money for. The KLM cardboards were handed out around airports to passengers who were about to board their flight. With Wi-Fi hotspots people could download the app for free in the App Store and Google Play Store. People could spend as much time on board as their actual flight. Enough time for us to show all the things that are great about KLM’s all-inclusive flying. People who wanted to enjoy the upgrade at home could experience it online at www.klm.com/flightupgrader where they could also order a VR cardboard for free. We shared the social video via KLM’s social channels (supported with a modest seeding budget) and sent it together with a press release to selected media.

We reached thousands of passengers as they boarded other airlines. Their response was overwhelmingly positive, generating a 99% favourable sentiment.

The video that covered the stunt generated +5 million views. The campaign received widespread coverage from travel blogs, tech sites and international news media. Achieving a click-through rate to KLM’s campaign website of 0.86%, significantly outperforming the industry average of 0.42%. The campaign reached +30M people.

The video was widely shared on social media, sparking discussion on Facebook and Reddit about the standards of some airlines and their hidden costs. Many concluded that flying should be a pleasure, not a burden, reflecting KLM’s vision of all-inclusive flying and the video’s core message.