Reference no: EM133353932

Little did executives at WestJet know in July 2019-as they picked up the award for top honours in marketing at the 2019 Airline Strategy Awards in London, England-that the regular ways in which the company had used marketing for decades would be rendered almost irrelevant less than seven months later.

First, let's go back to 2013 to understand how WestJet became synonymous with advertising and promotion. A viral video uploaded before Christmas that year depicted a group of passengers waiting for flights leaving from eastern Canada (Hamilton and Toronto) and heading to Calgary. A video screen was set up at the airports in Ontario, and on the screen was a Santa Claus-adorned in WestJet blue-asking people in real time what they would like for Christmas. Unbeknownst to these passengers, WestJet employees in the destination city, Calgary, were busy fulfilling requests so that when passengers disembarked in WestJet's hub city the presents they requested would be ready.

As passengers waited for their baggage at the carousel, they began to see wrapped packages come out with their names on them. Slowly, the waiting passengers started picking up and unwrapping the packages, finding to their complete amazement the presents they had requested before their flight. As images of WestJet Santa hugging overwhelmed passengers began to circulate on social media, the 5-minute video became a worldwide sensation. A UK-based ad agency had this to say: "The viral video shows us how portraying the Christmas spirit of goodwill in a very real and imaginative way really captures and moves people, and can work far more effectively than a glossy, big-budget TV advert."

This event secured a place for WestJet as a caring brand, an image the company had been cultivating for years. And it emboldened the company to continue looking for ways to promote itself to the flying public. As WestJet began to internationalize, so did these types of promotional videos; the company shot videos in Haiti, France, and the United Kingdom. And while the subsequent videos from the 2013 viral hit were not the same in content, the overall message was clear: WestJet is a company that cares in an industry that is not always seen in such a positive light.

Fast forward to a few months after winning the Airline Strategy award in July 2019, as WestJet continued to produce content that sought to make it stand out from competitors in the airline industry. The advertisement shows cows roaming an otherwise empty airport, and as the animals move around a voiceover talks about how WestJet cares about its guests, does not overbook flights, and in general does not treat airline travellers as "cattle." The advertisement gained renown as a clever way to communicate the company's message using humour.

However, what happened not long after this campaign launched was anything but funny. A global pandemic struck the world in early 2020, and by March airline passenger traffic had come to a standstill. The industry was decimated as travel restrictions limited even the most hardened business travellers: the world was being told to stay home.

Instead of accepting awards and designing clever advertising campaigns, WestJet was faced with the spectre of trying to survive unprecedented challenges to the airline industry. By early summer 2020, the company announced layoffs of more than 3,000 employees, with many others such as flight attendants relying on government wage subsidies to tide them over until planes started flying once again. At the time, Ed Sims, WestJet CEO, said this: "Throughout the course of the biggest crisis in the history of aviation, WestJet has made many difficult, but essential, decisions to future-proof our business ... (t)oday's announcement regarding these strategic but unavoidable changes will allow us to provide security to our remaining 10,000 WestJetters, and to carry on the work of transforming our business."

Questions

Throughout its many successful promotional campaigns, observers have touted the strong marketing presence at WestJet-after the 2013 "Christmas Miracle" campaign was released, the Financial Post called the promotion a "marketing miracle." What WestJet needs now is to use the full potential of marketing to help it get through these tough times.i t involves much more than advertising videos and promotional campaigns. You are tasked with preparing a marketing brief for WestJet to follow in the wake of the pandemic. You could use a miracle, but you know that when marketing is implemented properly it is one way to avert disaster.