Holidays can be a cluttered time for brands to activate, but also presents opportunities to capture the sentimentality of the season and create a special experience for brand’s consumers. The airline industry is competitive based on costs and WestJet makes it its mission to provide guests with an experience that will have them coming back for more. WestJet has become known for creating and sharing entertaining videos through social media around holidays such as April Fools and Christmas, but as well, around charitable initiatives. For this program, we wanted to take the opportunity to create a holiday program that incorporated giving for both a charitable partner and our guests.

On the heels of the '2012 Holiday Flashmob' video’s success, WestJet wanted to bring joy and happiness to its guests across the country by creating a first-of-its-kind experience incorporating the concept of real-time giving; and ultimately capturing and sharing the generous nature of the holidays.

This year, WestJet wanted to spread the joy even further by taking an activation to multiple airports, providing an opportunity to interact with more guests from coast-to-coast.

WestJet created a unique experience for its guests, that was captured by hidden cameras to develop emotional and timely online content, which engaged and entertained consumers in the target audience in Canada, and around the world.

On December 9, 2013, we unveiled the WestJet Christmas Miracle: 'real-time giving' video on YouTube and amplified reach with promoted posts on Twitter and Facebook, including two posts on the WestJet Blog. The content was first published online, but shared through print, television and radio internationally, and via social networks of people around the world as the most-shared viral ad of 2013 in Canada.

Output/Awareness:

328m+ media impressions worldwide from 1,600+ media stories (exceeded goal of 26m impressions by 1,200%)

Expected that actual impressions are higher than those measured due to the volume of international coverage $0.0001 cost per contact

35m+ views on YouTube – one of the most watched viral ads of 2013 worldwide (exceeded goal of 500k by 7,000%)

192,500 YouTube likes, 172,800 shares, 26,800 favorites, and 29,000+ comments

42.2m Twitter impressions for #WestJetChristmas and related keywords

Trended in Canada for December 9 & 10, 2013

3.2m Facebook impressions from two promoted posts

Action/Business Impact:

Comparing December 10-17, 19-24, 2013 vs. same period in 2012:

86% revenue increase

77% bookings increase

100% WestJet.com traffic increase

11,000% increase of new subscribers to WestJet’s YouTube page (30,747 new subscribers)

Additional 4.58m views on other WestJet YouTube videos, demonstrating consumer engagement beyond this initiative and building brand awareness

235+ countries viewed the video