Although Jetstar Asia is a joint Australian and Singaporean venture, not many know that Singapore is a part of the airline’s heritage. Instead, Jetstar is lumped together with the other foreign Low Cost Carriers, as Singapore Airlines’ homegrown budget carrier, Scoot, slowly increases its share of voice in the category, playing its local advantage card with pride.

We needed to position Jetstar as one of Singapore’s own, with a campaign to build brand affinity and love amongst locals.

On the eve of April Fools (beating all the other pranks to the punch) we pressed play across all social channels and distributed the ‘corporate’ release to media. With pick-up from almost every national media outlet in Singapore and media coverage regionally, film views hit 500,000 in the first 24 hours, driving traffic to the Jetstar website to confirm whether the rumours were true.

We leveraged every editorial opportunity to create powerful media coverage that brought out the humour of the idea. On social media, we responded to comments to further increase engagement and showcase Jetstar’s prowess with the Singlish language.

And when consumers begged us to make the flights a reality, we listened. Overcoming logistical challenges, we launched Singlish flights for one day only on Singapore’s 51st birthday. We created a new film, captured on the first Singlish flight and secured another wave of national news coverage.