Travelling is very emotional and when something goes wrong, consumers nowadays immediately use social media to share those frustrations. So Brussels Airlines decided to put its new tagline 'we go the extra smile' into practice, and turn those dislikes and angry faces into likes and smiles.

Therefore Brussels Airlines launched, only one hour after the blackout, The BlackOut Bus: a bus service to treat stranded passengers to a sightseeing tour around Brussels.

We reacted very quickly. Only one hour after the blackout, Brussels Airlines launched the BlackOut Bus via its Twitter and Facebook page: a bus service to treat stranded passengers to a sightseeing tour around Brussels. Wasted time became fun time.

The busses generated a lot of smiles, many happy passengers and a lot of buzz. The news spread very fast on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and on the websites of national newspapers (HLN, Het Nieuwsblad, De Tijd, Le Soir, La Libre). It was also picked up by national television.

The BlackOut Bus even got mentioned in a quiz in the second most-watched Belgian TV show on the national channel “Iedereen Beroemd”. Almost 1.100.000 viewers learned about the action for about 40 seconds.

This case demonstrates how real-time intervention and quick, off the mark response via social media can portray Brussels airlines in a positive daylight, even when the entire airport was negatively portrayed by the press because of an electrical failure which left 12.000 passengers stranded.

Our primary target group were the 12,000 stranded passengers at the Brussels Airport on 27/5, which completely shut down due to an electrical failure. We wanted to turn their frustration into an "extra smile" by giving them the possibility to visit Brussels, the home base of Brussels Airlines.

Our secondary target were all other airline travellers, the general public. We wanted to show that Brussels Airlines can make the difference when it comes to taking care of travellers. Even in bad circumstances.

Last year, Brussels Airlines, Belgium’s national carrier, launched its new tagline: ‘we go the extra smile’.

May 27th 2015 was the perfect day to give that philosophy wings. That very morning, the Belgian airspace completely closed due to an electrical failure. 109 flights got cancelled and 12.000 frustrated passengers were stranded.