CASE STUDY: Finnair completes longest, highest Angry Birds flight

On 20 September last year, participants competed for the Angry Birds Asian Challenge at an altitude of 10 kilometers, the longest and highest Angry Birds flight ever.

Aim

To publicise Finnair's new Helsinki to Singapore flight.

Execution

1. Prebuzz

To create buzz and encourage participation, Finnair launched an Angry Birds Asian Challenge website. A video trailer for the competition was utilized on multiple social media channels to drive website visitation.

From 31 August 12 September, 2011, Finnair opened its worldwide online search for the biggest Angry Birds fans to compete in the Angry Birds Asian Challenge aboard a Finnair flight on 20 September, 2011, from Helsinki to Singapore. Chosen according to their application, the eight biggest Angry Birds fans, as well as normal passengers and a genuine Angry Bird, boarded Finnair’s Angry Birds-branded Airbus A340 to Singapore to participate in the contest.

Ten to 15 journalists and bloggers were also invited to follow the action onboard the plane and attend a press event in Singapore.

2. Flight

During the flight, passengers were given touchpads to compete in the Angry Birds Asian Challenge at an altitude of 10,000 meters, billed as the longest and highest Angry Birds flight ever. In addition, 12 seats were reserved for media and bloggers.

Live updates about what happened onboard the aircraft were available through the Angry Birds Twitter feed, Facebook, and the Angry Birds Asian Challenge website. Right after the arrival, photos and video were posted on social-media channels.

The flight differed from a normal flight in several ways: Angry Birds music, customized announcements, cabin crew uniforms, an Angry Birds trailer playing on the in-flight entertainment system, special meals and Angry Brids soft toys instead of pillows. Outside, the plane was decorated with Angry Birds stickers.

3. Media event

Upon arrival, the Asian Challenge was presented for Singaporean and international media in a press event. The press event summarized Angry Birds arrival with Finnair and discussed Angry Birds as a phenomenon bigger than just a mobile game and Finnair’s Asian strategy. It also introduced Finnair as a creative design airline.

4. Photo competition

All the passengers were given Angry Birds soft toys. Upon return home, their task was to gather their friends and shoot a photo capturing the spirit of Angry Birds. Photos were uploaded to the campaign website, where the best photo was chosen with ‘likes’, with a prize for the winning photographer.

Results

Finnair’s Angry Birds Asian Challenge was successful in generating awareness of Finnair’s new direct flight to Singapore. Finnair received nearly 400,000 hits on Google and the campaign website had 50,000 visits before the flight launched.

The promotional video trailer received about 750,000 views on YouTube. The online photo contest had more than 1,000 ‘likes.’ By the end of the campaign, more than 300 articles were published on the flight including mentions in Adweek, Los Angeles Times and The Detroit News.