Finally, an airline gets it right!

I’m pleased to report that I haven’t gone on holiday recently.  Yep, I’ve been right here in London – happily going from SE to E (and back again) via train, bus, tube or my own two feet. Ah land based travel. You just can’t beat it, can you?

Well, flying sure can’t. All you have to do is blink these days and a volcano erupts, cabin crew go on strike or taxes triple that ‘oh so tempting’ fare. Frankly, it’s no surprise so many Brits think flying is more trouble and money than it’s worth.

That said... all this palaver does have its upsides. Because now, we can sit back and watch the airlines get creative.  And let’s face it; they’ll have to be if they want to coax us back to a 30-inch seat in time for the all-important choice – chicken or beef?

Personally, I think this little gem from low-cost carrier Germanwings does just that. 

It’s pretty obvious that the Germanwings viral is a real departure (sorry I couldn’t help myself) from the way airlines usually advertise. Low cost carriers generally focus on price for pretty obvious reasons. But here, Germanwings make sure we know that they’ve got another thing many of their competitors don’t – the chance for a family to actually sit together. Isn’t it funny how easily we are impressed?

To be fair, I think they’ve achieved a lot here. They’ve put the message across really creatively and got a dig at the competition to boot. Most importantly, though, they got my attention. Because before I knew it, I was on the Germanwings website, checking out trips to Berlin, Zurich or St. Petersburg.

And presuming I’m not the only one that has had this reaction, well, that’s not bad for a viral that cost them four tickets on EasyJet (a guess - orange headrests), right?

Essentially, the money Germanwings spent went mostly on their flash mob style concept, because the execution was so inexpensive. And by allocating their spend this way – rather than throwing money at flashy design – the viral stands out a mile from the competition.

As for charities, well the logic really need not deviate too much from what Germanwings have done here. Because once you’ve got that great idea, you can still stand out, get attention and engage donors without spending a fortune on gimmicks, giveaways and graphics.

A case in point is the series of press inserts Bluefrog recently created for our client, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

In the first round we ran two inserts. One was, as we say, very ‘inside track’ – it looked like it was sent directly from the field, from an MSF nurse. And believe me, when I’d finished the interview, I had a feeling we were onto a winner. Her experiences were so compelling.

 So, we typed the insert in courier, used real handwriting, printed on a very inexpensive stock, and put it all in a cost-effective ‘no bells and whistles’ layout. The finished product was convincing. The other option, although also straight from the field, was much more designed and glossy.

When the results came in, our initial hunch was right. Just as the Germanwings viral has done, the MSF insert really grabbed donors’ attention. And at the end of the day, it was the inexpensive looking insert that fought off the competition and convinced donors to sign up to a £20 a month Direct Debit. Not bad.

 So where do we go from here? Well, in round two, we’ve taken that learning, built on it, and created two brand new inserts. One ran in the Guardian two weeks ago, and the other may have dropped out of your Sunday copy just this past weekend. If you missed them, here’s a look:

This insert (based on the winning insert last time) is about kala azar.

One of the inside spreads

This is a new approach about Fistula

This is the first spread. 

So far, it looks like our new inserts are creating the same positive reaction as the first one. In fact, Nick Nunn of the Lancashire Telegraph has already blogged about the first of our two inserts, and I think his headline says it all... One leaflet that put things into perspective.

You can read Nick’s full post here, but this is just a taster:

“A LOT of printed material has come through the letterbox in the past week.

“Some is extremely boastful and it’s all designed to appeal to self-interest usually by suggesting we will be better off financially if we vote a particular way...

“...But one item, a few pages of cheaply printed, A4 paper, was none of the above. It was all about kala azar.”

I’ll leave it there for now. But I suggest keeping copies of the MSF inserts... they may come in handy next time your brand team say, “but that’s not one of our agreed fonts/colours/insert whatever you like here”.

Thanks for listening,

Joanna Gaunt, Bluefrog