‘Bonding Christmas Buffet’
by KLM Airlines
Campaign Context…
During Christmas of 2016, KLM Airlines launched a campaign video demonstrating their value system of connecting not just places as an airline, but also connecting people.
The video shows random strangers who are alone on an airport, where a tall platform is put up with seats all around it.
A curious passenger sits on one of them and that brings the platform a bit lower, which tells other passengers that if they fill all the seats, the surprise hidden above them will come down.
When everyone sits, the platform comes down and converts into a buffet table for the passengers and the airlines staff comes in to explain them everything.
The video demonstrates a very kind gesture by KLM which shows that the brand understands and cares about the passengers’ feelings and is there for them always.
Our analysis of the campaign…
Christmas is a very special occasion in Europe. Everyone tries to be with their friends and family to celebrate the prime holiday every year. It’s a kind of community festival in Western culture.
For the same reason, it’s the best time for any airlines to have bumper sales as people will definitely fly down to their hometown or somewhere their friends and relatives live to spend the off-work time.
Realizing the opportunity, KLM challenged themselves to come up with a campaign not based on festive discounts and offers or superior service differentiation, but raise the standard a level up.
They found that they are an airline whose job is to take people places by running flights between different cities across the world. So, in a way they are a connecting link.
Now, they thought how can this connection be shown so that it would delight the consumers. They observed that at every airport, there are strangers who are waiting alone for their flights.
Seeing strangers coming together can certainly induce a feel-good factor in the minds of the viewers and the brand can associate itself as the enabler who brings them together.
‘KLM is a brand that not just connects places as an airlines, it also brings people together’ – that’s the message the ad is focused on.
We think it is a very good example of how a brand can up the game and ditch the traditional tactics of positioning itself apart from the competitors based on functional differentiator.
Involve the consumer emotionally and you will establish a deeper connection with them.
If the brand would have talked about itself, its superior service, its special discount just for you, then people would not pay any attention to it as every other airline would be doing the same thing.
It turns out that the video was not a fictional piece of visual, KLM really put up such platforms at dozens of airports and consumers truly admired the effort and happily shared their experience with their near and dear ones.
People talked about the brand because it chose to showcase its value system and associated itself with a higher purpose and took action that tells the story for itself.
This is what builds trust among the consumers.