How to launch a brand new First Class airline cabin across a region with a budget of just $30K USD, with no plane that were yet carrying this new cabin?

This was the agency’s challenge for AirFrance’s new La Premiere suite.

We clearly weren’t in a position to fly hundreds of opinion-leaders on a plane that wasn’t yet fitted with the new cabin and services. Nor did we have the budget for advertising. From this ‘beautiful constraint’ our idea was born.

We extracted the entire La Premiere cabin experience, and took it to the air in a different way, designed to resonate with Singaporeans. We put it in the Singapore Flyer, the largest observatory wheel in South East Asia.

This gave us the perfect platform for media engagement. The event was attended by key regional media including Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, AsiaOne and Indonesia’s NET TV which talked about the product and the luxury air travel segment, successfully capturing AirFrance’s key messages and unique selling points.

The two-day launch was lauded by media and VIP guests as a unique way of introducing a luxury air travel service, and resulted in nearly $500K USD of PR coverage. In approving the idea, the client set a target of at least $3 of coverage for every dollar spent. In the end, we were able to rake in $9.5 coverage for every dollar spent, delivering results more than triple the client target.

The agency launched La Premiere by organising a unique experiential event to extend the airline’s first-class experience directly to select key media and VIP guests.

The agency re-created the luxury experience of “France is in the Air” without leaving Singapore. We chose the iconic Singapore Flyer as the venue, and the guests were taken ‘up in the air’ in a unique way.

An entire La Premiere cabin was fitted into a Singapore Flyer capsule, complete with all its fine features including a fully flat bed over 2 metres long with a fluffy pillow and a Sofitel My Bed® duvet. All invited guests experienced La Premiere’s promise of unsurpassed luxury and comfort: a limo picked them up at their preferred destination to the Flyer, where they boarded a real First Class individual cabin and experience the La Premiere difference, same space, same dining, same entertainment and same top-notch service.

As La Premiere had not been introduced at the time the campaign ran, we haven’t been able to track its immediate effect on purchase, and we are aware that, due to the nature of the product, its commercial value will be seen over a period of 3-6 months.

Having said that, we knew from the beginning that the right coverage from the right media greatly influences our expectations of airlines.

Media talked positively about the whole engaging experience through their articles, social media posts and even on broadcast. The operation garnered a total of S$682,214 in PR value (based on industry standard, PR value is calculated with a credibility multiplier of 3 times the amount of ad value an article, post or clip would occupy).

The agency delivered a S$9.5 coverage for every dollars spent, securing an ROI of 9.5:1, exceeding campaign objective by over three times.