In April 2012, South Africa’s controversial President, Jacob Zuma was about to add a fourth wife to his collection of spouses, which was obviously going to fuel massive public conversation.

This was the perfect opportunity for kulula.com - a cheeky low-cost airline with a reputation for making the South African skies a fun place to fly - to make a uniquely South African offer.

The world’s first deal for polygamists with large families: fourth wife flies free!

News of the offer dominated social media and headlines in South Africa during the wedding and it spread internationally with coverage from many of the world’s largest media outlets.

We launched a cunningly timed offer to fly fourth wives completely for free on the eve of Jacob Zuma’s wedding.

The offer, while never specifically mentioning the president, was briefed to media, bloggers and the airline’s social media community the day before the presidential wedding.

We put in place a completely genuine offer open to all families with fourth wives (staff were briefed on how to sensitively handle the promotion at sales desks).

Over 100 million media impressions were achieved globally, including many of the world’s largest media outlets such as Fox News, Good Morning America, ABC News, CNBC, The Daily Mail and many others.

50 key pieces of national coverage were achieved in South Africa including front page headlines in Cape Town and Johannesburg’s biggest daily papers. Over 90% of media coverage was positive and 100% mentioned that the offer was from kulula.com. The campaign trended nationally on Twitter on Zuma’s wedding day and reached over 3 million people through social media channels.