Schiphol’s ambition to grow is a highly sensitive topic in The Netherlands. Politicians are keen to preserve a delicate balance of interests. This limits the ways in which traditional advertising can be used. Therefore, Schiphol has started to use branded content and branded services as a way to create value for the target audience.

We chose media that would enforce the basic thought of the idea: to make you feel close to the people you love at the very moment they go away.

By nature of the idea, social media was an obvious choice. We took maximum advantage of the natural tendency to wave goodbye to someone together.

But in addition, we decided to use the airport itself as a medium. Huge displays showed people waving goodbye to their loved ones that were about to take a flight. This allowed us to touch people at the moment they were most susceptible to our idea.

In just five months, Big Wave Goodbye attracted more than 80,000 unique visitors and more than 3,500 people have waved goodbye to their friends using the service.

In light of this quick success, Schiphol has decided to make The Big Wave Goodbye a permanent service for the Dutch public.