KLM Royal Dutch Airlines believes flying should always be a pleasure. Their brand purpose ‘Moving Your World by creating memorable experiences’ underlines this belief. The airline experiences competition from Low Cost Airlines in the US. As a result, KLM already lowered their ticket prices. Still, budget airlines look cheaper. But after paying all the extra fees (entertainment, food, drinks, etc.), the total price isn’t that much lower than a KLM ticket.

KLM asked the agency to create a striking message that would make people in the US market who consider taking an intercontinental flight trip realize this. Preferably a message with talk value that would yield earned-media effects, to reach (and activate) a larger audience than they would be able to reach with the available budgets for this campaign. Though KLM aimed for earned-media effects, it would not fit the brand to bring the message across with ‘cheap’ comparison advertising.

We recorded an entire flight in VR, with services like a functioning entertainment system, access to thousands of papers and magazines and more. All things that budget airlines charge extra money for.

The KLM cardboards, together with the app, were handed out on airports to passengers who were about to board a budget airline. And they were available for everyone in the App- and Google Play-Store. People could spend as much time on board as the duration of their actual flight.

And so they ended up enjoying all the benefits of flying all-inclusive without paying a single dollar extra.

People who wanted to enjoy the upgrade at home could experience it online at www.klm.com/flightupgrader where they could also order a VR cardboard for free.

We shared the social video via KLM’s social channels (supported with a modest seeding budget) and sent it together with a press release to selected media.