How an Airline Gets 15+ million YouTube views in 3 Days

If someone had told me, I’d watch a five minute unsolicited Christmas YouTube video from an airline, I think I’d have suggested that person book into the home for the bewildered.

Yet, at time of writing, I and fifteen million other people have watched and wondered, oohed and aahed at the wonderful video produced by WestJet.

If I might paraphrase Churchill – “Never in the history of aviation has one video been enjoyed by so many in so short a time.”

The net result is likely to be an astonishing jump in the brand awareness for an airline that is really only known in Canada.

But just as importantly, the brand perception scores are likely to go higher than any of their planes. Twitter is all agog. Comments include:

“Tell me you wouldn’t fly @westjet after watching this! Absolutely brilliant!”

“Oh my gosh west jet is probably my favorite airline right now.”

“Such a great video! If you haven’t seen this, you need to! Thank you so much @WestJet for the reminder of what #christmasspirit is about!”

This is the kind of reaction that marketers can only dream about and the net result is almost certainly going to be a substantial increase in WestJet bookings.

Interestingly, over 2,000 curmudgeons have given the video a thumbs down! One can by cynical and believe that WestJet would not have done this exercise if they had not been able to promote it, but who cares? It made a lot of people happy on the day and has lifted the spirits of it more than 15 million people and growing, growing, growing.

Go on. Make someone happy today.

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Blackberry – When your Brand Becomes a Joke

I attended an excellent seminar recently hosted by the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing on the topic of mobile marketing. In attempting to assess his audience, one presenter polled the room of about 40 people as to what phones they used.

“How many of you have an iPhone?”

“Wow! Does anyone use an Android?…….. Hmm, just two.” ( In fairness, this was an advertising/marketing audience, so not at all representative of actual share.)

He then said: “I hesitate to ask, but does anyone have a Blackberry?”

What happened? The room broke into laughter. One person did raise their hand, swearing undying love for their apparatus.

How did Blackberry become a Joke?

Mobile users are well aware of the current problems embroiling the Canadian based Blackberry, but it is astonishing the level of antipathy that so many people now have towards what was a shining star not so long ago.

In 2005, Time magazine named Co-CEO Jim Balsillie as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Balsillie and co-founder Mike Lazaridis were named 2006 Canada CEO of the Year.

Jim Balsillie and Mike Lararidis

At that stage, if you did not have a Blackberry, your colleagues looked down on you, smiled sympathetically and consigned you to Coventry. Remember when we all oohed and aahed at the President of the United States using a Blackberry?

Today, if that self-same colleague still has a Blackberry, you don’t even smile sympathetically. You look at them with derision and wonder if it is true that cell phone technology does actually impact the brain.

In July 2007, some poor suckers paid $227 to purchase a Blackberry share. They would get $5.75 for that same share as I write this.

What Went Wrong at Blackberry?

Quite obviously, the company misread the market and the impact of the iPhone and then Google’s Android platform. To be fair, they weren’t the only one to make that mistake. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer famously said the iPhone “is the most expensive phone in the world, and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.” The majority of industry analysts did not believe that corporate America would ever use anything but a Blackberry or allow its employees to use anything else.

In the end, Blackberry fell afoul of market dynamics. Consumers wanted apps and more apps on their phones, something not encouraged by the Canadian company. More and more developers were writing programs for the devices of their choice – Apple and Android and the momentum developed.

READ: Detailed report on Blackberry Demise at The Globe and Mail

Whether Blackberry will survive is anyone’s guess. Maybe a white knight will ride in and help them as Microsoft has done for Nokia. Who knows?

I am sure a Harvard Case Study will soon be written on the lessons from this corporate disaster, but the lesson everyone can take away today is that the world keeps changing and that none of us can take our success for granted. And God help you if your brand ever becomes a joke.

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Ryanair Twitchat – Friday’s Best Entertainment

The ever-restrained Michael O’Leary

For a company that only recently joined the twittersphere, Ryanair sure has taken to it like a duck to water. At least it’s (choose your word) combative, brilliant, obnoxious, successful, sexist, discourteous, hated, amusing, irreverent, job creating, union hating CEO Michael O’Leary has.

Just days after participating in his first tweetchat for which, as is usual,  he was roundly excoriated and sometimes praised, the head of the most successful / hated airline in Europe is taking to twitter again this Friday for another tweetchat.

Ryanair may have the worst customer service amongst the top 100 European brands, but for the 80+ million passengers it will carry this year, it keeps one critical promise. It is the lowest cost airline in Europe. O’Leary and Ryanair have figured out that a very high percentage of flyers will accept the level of service and comfort normally associated with their local transit authority. (OK, some transit authorities may feel insulted at this comparison, but you get the picture.)

Anyway, if you are looking for entertainment this Friday, check in for the @Ryanair twitchat with the hashtag #AskMOL . As you will see from a recap of of the first twitchat, it is unlikely to be boring.

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The Guinness Brand Experience