Air Canada wants to give Americans a little taste of Toronto.
The airline recently surprised a flight of customers headed to the Canadian city with the chance for an all-expenses paid layover. The resulting experience was filmed for the brand’s newest ad, which is currently running in the U.S.
In the spot, by J. Walter Thompson Toronto, the airline offers a free layover experience in Toronto to a flight of passengers traveling from London, England – many of whom were headed to American cities as their final destination. Five Americans take the brand up on the offer and are treated to a full showcase of what Toronto has to offer, including a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario, a Segway tour of the Distillery District and the ‘edge walk’ on the CN Tower.
Produced in partnership with Tourism Toronto, the new campaign aims to paint Toronto as the ultimate destination for a layover. Last fall, Air Canada introduced a program that offers free 48-hour layovers in Toronto for American customers taking an international flight.
Mark Sniderman, Air Canada’s marketing and communications manager for North America, explained the brand is trying to win over customers who see Air Canada primarily as an airline to fly to Canada.
While brand awareness is high in the U.S., Sniderman said Air Canada still struggles to be seen by Americans as a carrier for travel to other countries. “Americans primarily think of Air Canada as the airline to Canada,” he said, “They’re not aware we can take them to the corners of the Earth.”
With the new campaign and program, the company is hoping to lure consumers away from Chicago and New York and instead choose an Air Canada flight with a layover in Toronto when en route to Asia or Europe. So far, he said the strategy is working and layover traffic is up significantly year-over-year.
The campaign follows the brand’s “Test Drive Canada” campaign from earlier this year, which played off of Americans threatening to move to Canada if Donald Trump wins the current U.S. election.
The Toronto stopover campaign also including digital display, search ads and social media. A 30-second version of the video spot is currently running on broadcast and the full version is running as YouTube pre-roll and via paid media on Facebook and Twitter.
Mindshare handled the media buy.
