westjet coke

WestJet and Coke get personal with travelers

The airline partners with Coca-Cola to bring its popular "Share A Coke" program to the skies

WestJet is in the sharing spirit. The airline has partnered with Coca-Cola, bringing the cola maker’s “Share A Coke” campaign to the skies.

On a Sept. 18 flight from Calgary to Halifax, using a special vending machine set up in the airport lounge, travelers were given the opportunity to create customized cans of Coke to share with whoever they were meeting at the other end of their flight.

The personalized vending machine is an activation Coca-Cola brought to music festivals and other venues across Canada throughout the summer, but WestJet upped the ante, offering prizes on some of the cans, such as free flights and upgrades to ‘plus’ seats.

Once they boarded the plane, they found a personalized can with their own name on it waiting for them at their seat. Then, out their window, they saw WestJet staffers waving to them from the tarmac. The wave-off has long been a WestJet traditional, but this time they gave it a new spin, with a staffer holding a sign in the shape of a Coke can with the name of each guest, lined up near their window.

According to Christina Clifford, sponsorship and experiential coordinator at WestJet, the brand partnership was bred out of WestJet’s “Buy Onboard” program. Coca-Cola products are available on WestJet flights. As Clifford put it, the airline “shares a Coke with 50,000 fliers a day.”

Clifford said the companies chose a flight headed to Halifax because it was a market the “Share A Coke” campaign hadn’t hit yet and they learned through social listening that many consumers in Halifax wanted it to come there.

As part of the partnership, WestJet also created a faux in-flight safety video that showed guests how to properly drink a Coke on board. In the video, a flight attendant gives the familiar safety speech, subbing in Coca-Cola for the safety manual.

“Please take a moment now to locate your Coke and familiarize yourself with it’s magnificence. Also, please make sure it’s stored in an upright, standing position,” she says.

The video goes on to show how to open the can and advises fliers not to shake it, given the pressure of the cabin.

The initiative was done with Coca-Cola’s agencies, with Mosaic handling the experiential aspects and Gravity and Studio M handling content.

“Share A Coke” is a global brand campaign that was first launched in 2011 in Australia. Since then, it has been adapted in over 50 countries, including Canada, where the campaign launched in June with cans featuring 290 of the most popular names in Canada.

Brands Articles

30 Under 30 is back with a new name, new outlook

No more age limit! The New Establishment brings 30 Under 30 in a new direction, starting with media professionals.

Diageo’s ‘Crown on the House’ brings tasting home

After Johnnie Walker success, Crown Royal gets in-home mentorship

Survey says Starbucks has best holiday cup

Consumers take sides on another front of Canada's coffee war

KitchenAid embraces social for breast cancer campaign

Annual charitable campaign taps influencers and the social web for the first time

Heart & Stroke proclaims a big change

New campaign unveils first brand renovation in 60 years

Best Buy makes you feel like a kid again

The Union-built holiday campaign drops the product shots

Volkswagen bets on tech in crisis recovery

Execs want battery-powered cars, ride-sharing to 'fundamentally change' automaker

Simple strategies for analytics success

Heeding the 80-20 rule, metrics that matter and changing customer behaviors

Why IKEA is playing it up downstairs

Inside the retailer's Market Hall strategy to make more Canadians fans of its designs