Norwegian Airlines preference in the regions of Norway is sinking, and we were challenged to come up with an idea that could change this trend. Our insight was: If we find an idea that the local press around in Norway will write about, we will also win back the preference in the regions. The challenge is that all communities in Norway are very different regarding size and population. But they have one thing in common; some sort of local hero. We decided to challenge people in the regions to nominate their own local hero. And then execute a public vote. The heroes with the most votes would end up as portraits on the tailfin of Norwegian Airlines aircrafts. To make sure we would get the interest from the local press we created regional nomination committees led by the mayors of the biggest city´s in Norway. The committees pre-qualified a number of candidates.

When votes and nominations piled in on the campaign site, the names and the history of the candidate gave us a tool to write over 100 unique press releases with an unique local angle related to the local hero nominated from the community. This generated over 1000 media stories during one month including international media, national TV, local papers and blogs. The discussions in media even reached up to political level, and people started their own campaigns promoting their favorite hero. The activity reached far more attention than campaigns for Norwegian Airlines with 5 times bigger media budgets.

To kickstart the campaign and ensure we would get attention from the press, we created nomination committees led by the mayors of the biggest cites in Norway. These committees pre-qualified a number of candidates. Then we did a number of activities to promote these candidates: Guerilla stunts, advertising, propaganda videos, election event - all integrated with social media. When new candidates was nominated, we checked up on each background and contacted local media with a unique angle. Of course people nominated controversial candidates, which made this idea a full scale public debate raging on a political level. While discussions about controversial candidates raged in social media, we monitored Twitter and Facebook and actively participated in the debate to get in dialogue with the strongest opinion leaders. We also contacted hundreds of businesses and organizations and gave them the tools and opportunity to nominate their own hero.

Over 250,000 votes were given and 1,300 new candidates were nominated. The discussions in social and traditional media even reached up to political level, and people started their own campaigns promoting their favorite hero. The activity generated 1,000 media stories during one month including international media, national TV, radio, papers and blogs. 7 out of 10 in the targeted regions recalled the activity. Brand preference in the region went up drastically. And the activity reached far more attention than campaigns for Norwegian Airlines with 5 times bigger media budgets. Budget: €250,000 Measured value: €5m.