JetBlue
I led JetBlue for 6 years and it was without a doubt, the most strategically and creatively fulfilling brand I’ve ever worked on. Not only did we drive love and billions of earned impressions year after year for this 5:1 outspent challenger airline, but we put butts in seats and increased market share, too. What we lacked in budget we made up for in tensions that put the brand’s mission to bring humanity back to air travel in the center of cultural conversations.
11 years of JetBlue
More than a decade of growing a little challenger airline.
Flybabies
With an all-in budget of $500K, we tapped into the second biggest annoyance when flying: the crying baby. To make parents feel seen, we made crying babies a good thing. For every baby that cried on our New York to Long Beach flight, customers enjoyed 25% off a round-trip ticket. This single online video turned parental stress and shame into support and commitment to the brand. Launched for Mother’s Day, FlyBabies created a global conversation that drove record lifts in consideration of the brand among a key segment: parents traveling with children.
The Challenge: Drive consideration of JetBlue among parents who weigh the dollar cost of flying with kids over the emotional cost.
The Insight: Flying with baby is as hard for the parents as it is for everyone else.
The Idea: Make crying babies on planes a benefit rather than a detriment.
Bringing the Idea to Life: On a special Mother’s Day flight from NY to Long Beach, JetBlue rewarded everyone on board with 25% off their next flight every time a baby cried.
The Results: A global conversation that increased consideration of JetBlue amongst parents by +15pp to 88% (a record high).
Smile at a baby, for crying out loud!
REACH ACROSS THE AISLE
In politics, when opposing sides come together to achieve a higher goal, it’s called “reaching across the aisle.” Well, that wasn’t happening (and still isn’t!). Nothing was getting accomplished in Washington. To demonstrate what people are capable of when they set aside their differences, JetBlue put a plane full of complete strangers to the ultimate test: Embrace compromise and unanimously agree on a single destination in order to win round-trip tickets to that destination. Our attention-grabbing social experiment increased consideration and commitment for JetBlue, earning $1.37MM in media, and inspiring us all for just $300K.
The Challenge: Hijack a cultural conversation to drive an unfair share of attention for JetBlue during a time when the brand would be media dark.
The Insight: Compromise isn’t about losing. It’s about what we all gain.
The Idea: If 150 unsuspecting strangers on a JetBlue flight can put aside their own self-interest for the greater good, surely there’s hope for the rest of us.
Bringing the Idea to Life: “Reach Across The Aisle” was the 35K ft social experiment that put flyers to the ultimate test: embrace compromise and unanimously agree on a single destination to win round-trip tickets to that destination.
The Results: Broke through election clutter, earning $1.37MM worth of media and driving significant increases consideration and commitment for JetBlue.
Get Packing!
How do you cut through over $52B in U.S. holiday advertising spend with less than $400K? You offer an escape from a real holiday problem: family tension. JetBlue created “Get Packing!,” a limited-edition board game that gave families a fun, much-needed respite from holiday awkwardness, and for the winner of each game, a free JetBlue flight outta there. We promoted the game with social video and PR seeding, and sold on Amazon for $19.99. We sold out in seconds, making JetBlue quite the conversation and driving a +15ppt lift in “first choice” airline in the process.
The Challenge: With <$400K, make JetBlue “first choice” during the holiday travel season—the most difficult time of year to break through.
The Insight: The only thing better than family time during the holidays are little escapes from family time during the holidays.
The Idea: Give people an escape from the inevitable family tension of the holiday season.
Bringing the Idea to Life: “Get Packing!”—the board game that gave families a respite from the tension, and for the winner, a free flight.
Results: Cut through holiday clutter: +15ppt in “first choice” airline (a metric correlated with market share gain); $2.14M in earned media.
Pie in the sky
Dominant on the East Coast, JetBlue was known as “JetWho?!” on the West. As New York’s Hometown Airline, JetBlue knows no one does pizza like New York. That’s why we decided to fly an iconic taste of our home—authentic New York pizza—across the country to LA. “Pie in the Sky” was the first ever same-day transcontinental pizza delivery service that gave West Coasters unfamiliar with the brand a real taste of the JetBlue experience, leading to a 22ppt increase in “first choice,” a metric correlated with market share gain, and earning $4.1M worth of media (8x our budget).
The Challenge: Overcome “Jetwho?!" by making JetBlue the “first choice” airline of those on the West Coast.
The Insight: Sometimes, the best way to someone’s heart is through their stomach. West Coast pizza just isn’t real pizza.
The Idea: Give them a real taste of the JetBlue experience: deliver authentic New York pizza pies to LA.
Bringing the Idea to Life: “Pie in the Sky” was the world’s first same-day transcontinental pizza delivery service—authentic NY pizza delivered by plane to LA.
Results: +22% lift in “First Choice”, $4.1M in earned media (8x the paid investment), and even a lift in transcontinental bookings.
YOU ABOVE ALL
gold Sustained Success
In a category where choice is rational, we galvanized the JetBlue brand around a powerful emotional truth – people tolerate a level of treatment on planes they don’t tolerate elsewhere. For the Human Class, flying is an exercise in survival: confined quarters, scraps for snacks and a lack of common courtesy. Our big idea in three little words, You Above All, brought humanity back to air travel by championing self-worth and humanized JetBlue’s mission for the long term. Despite low single-digit market share and being outspent by competitors, we punctured the indifference of marginalized fliers, delivering double digit YOY revenue growth since 2010 and a Gold Sustained Success Effie.
The Challenge: Drive loyalty beyond reason—get people to fly JetBlue even when other airlines offered better prices, destinations, schedules and, after a while, the same features that JetBlue had always offered.
The Insight: People tolerate a level of treatment on planes that they don’t tolerate elsewhere.
The Idea: Get people who were accepting a level of treatment in the air to realize they deserved better.
Bringing the Idea to Life: A rallying cry for customers and a promise the entire company could get behind, from CEO to inflight crew to ground crew to customer service—You Above All.
Results: Communications that drove loyalty beyond reason, increased commitment to the airline, increased load factor, and +11% ticket revenue.
Air on the side of humanity
In a category where choice is defined by rational factors, how could we get people to fly JetBlue when it was less convenient, more expensive, and not as competitively differentiated as it had once been? Despite being outspent 2.5x to 6x by competitors, the “Air on the Side of Humanity” campaign punctured the indifference of marginalized fliers and gave them a reason to fly JetBlue, leading to boosts in both bookings and ticket revenue that outpaced the flatlining industry and didn’t involve discounting.
The Challenge: Break through rational category clutter with a reason to fly JetBlue that nobody else could copy.
The Insight: People tolerate a level of treatment on planes that they don’t tolerate anywhere else.
The Idea: The airline that offers a more human way to fly.
Bringing the Idea to Life: “Air on the Side of Humanity” brought out the human side of JetBlue’s You Above All platform by showing empathy for the world’s most marginalized flier: the pigeon.
Results: Increased bookings and ticket revenue +8% YoY in a category growing 1% a year.
Go get gifted
How do you cut through the $40B U.S. holiday advertising environment to influence an audience already skeptical of airlines? With a simple truth that really hits home: This holiday season, your presence is worth more than presents. “Go Get Gifted” gave people the opportunity to be gift wrapped head to toe and delivered to friends and family just in time for the holidays. We broke through by earning 596M impressions, which helped us change the non-customer perceptions that then drove a +22ppt lift in non-customer “First Choice” airline (highest ever), and a +1ppt lift in overall market share gain.
The Challenge: Return to market-share growth by making JetBlue the “First Choice” airline of non-customers during the highly cluttered holiday travel season.
The Insight: Physical presence is the best gift you can give, but it’s not a real present if you can’t open it.
The Idea: Make presence the best present: encourage people to surprise their loved ones with the best gift ever: themselves!
Bringing the Idea to Life: Gift-wrapped head to toe, “Go Get Gifted” turned people into presents, delivering them to loved ones just in time for the holidays.
Results: +22ppt lift in non-customer “First Choice” (highest ever), 596M earned impressions, a +1ppt lift in overall market share, and incremental revenue.
just alright doesn’t fly here
JetBlue non-customers perceived them to be no different than any other airline. How do you get them to see JetBlue as different? Open their eyes to the truth: When it comes to air travel, we’re increasingly satisfied with the bare minimum. “Just Alright Doesn’t Fly Here” deployed a little friendly agitation to get those resigned to accepting “just alright” treatment in the air to realize they deserved better. The campaign won over non-customers, driving a massive +22ppt lift in perceptions of “first choice” airline, an +18ppt uplift in ‘Booked/Plan to book JetBlue’ and a 125% conversion rate increase.
The Challenge: Reestablish JetBlue differentiation with non-customers to drive overall conversion and brand momentum.
The Insight: When it comes to air travel, we’re increasingly satisfied with the bare minimum.
The Idea: Dramatize the poor service customers had come to accept in order to get them to realize they deserved better.
Bringing the Idea to Life: “Just Alright Doesn’t Fly Here” used fictional antiheroes, the Alright Brothers, to dramatize air travel’s mediocrity and raise non-customers’ standards.
Results: A +22ppt lift in non-customer perceptions of “first choice” airline. JetBlue’s conversion rate increased 125% (surpassing our aggressive 2x goal).