Over the last years Amsterdam has seen a large growth in population and has turned into a chaotic place with lots of hidden dangers. This has caused an increase in accidents involving tourists. To help passengers during their stay, we created a mobile device that expands the ‘care’ of KLM’s crew beyond the plane. The Care Tag is an audio luggage tag equipped with GPS that automatically gives tips and tricks to master Amsterdam, based on your location.

A visitor can simply attach the tag to their bag. KLM flight attendants filled the Care Tag with thousands of caring tips. These messages were placed on the city map by coordinates at spots where visitors need more assistance. Like dangerous intersections, unsafe areas with pickpockets, drug nuisance and other tourist traps. Together with the Amsterdam tourist office we collected data of these spots and used it within the Care Tag.

Together with the Amsterdam tourist office, we created a heat map of Amsterdam, collecting all city data of spots where visitors need more assistance. KLM flight attendants recorded thousands of messages like when to watch out for pickpockets, how to lock your bike, and how much a taxi cost so you don’t get ripped off.KLM flight attendants recorded thousands of messages, like when to watch out for pickpockets, how to lock your bike, and how much a taxi costs so you don’t get ripped off.

But also other messages like how to find your way in the city.

The Care Tag played these messages automatically when people passed by the coordinates.

Over 10,000 Care Tags were produced in 6 different languages (English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian). The Care Tags were handed out to people who bought a ticket with KLM to Amsterdam. We also created an engaging online video around the device, shared this via KLM’s emails (with passengers who opted in for these mails) and social media (partially through sponsored posts) and sent it to selected media.

The Care Tag generated worldwide press coverage and was widely shared by travel sites and news media, including Lonely Planet and Fast Company (top 5 ads) for a media value of €1.6M. The campaign reached +34M people. Social sentiment was +97% positive. An enquiry amongst Care Tag users confirmed the tag enhanced their visitor experience and they used many of the tips, which accomplished the behaviour change.

All tags were handed out and more tags are in production at this moment. Brand reputation on the brand statement ‘KLM goes the extra mile for its customers’ was raised by +50% (exposed versus non-exposed). The video created to activate our audience (order tag) and generate PR hit over 6.5M views and generated 33K+ responses (Shares, Likes, Comments). With the campaign and service KLM proved to be the most customer-centric airline in the world.

The primary target audience were KLM passengers. Secondary: prospects (people who take more than one flight trip in a year). No better way to bring across the brand message that KLM staff care for their passengers and go the extra mile to service them, than to create a genuine service that proves they do.

To reach and engage as many people as possible, we aimed to develop a ‘story’ with talk value, which people would like to share and that would draw the attention from media. We connected tech (a smart device) with personal attention (assistance from KLM crew) to create the KLM Care Tag. The Care Tag tied in to a hot topic that received a lot of attention: the pressure that the growing population puts on the city of Amsterdam. The KLM Care Tag saves both passengers and residents from unnecessary nuisances (for example at busy junctions).

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has the ambition to stay the most customer-centric European airline and their brand purpose reads: ‘Moving Your World by creating memorable experiences’. In their brand communications they highlight the fact that their crew genuinely cares for their passengers and people in general. KLM staff goes the extra mile.

KLM asked agency to create, with a fairly modest budget, a brand message that would touch people worldwide, create sympathy for the brand that goes the extra mile, and contribute to KLM’s brand purpose. A message that people would like to share and thus would generate ‘earned media’ effects. A message that would engage KLM passengers (to strengthen the relationship and reinforce their brand preference) and preferably also prospects (to create brand sympathy and, as a result, build brand preference).