JetBlue’s online game show increases brand awareness 117 percent

Whether your ideal vacation involves sipping umbrella drinks poolside, sightseeing, or simply spending time with friends and family, there’s one thing all vacations have in common: They’re a break from the stressors of everyday life.

But unfortunately, planning a vacation can be just as stressful as the workload you’re trying to leave behind.

Sorting through travel deals and comparison sites for flights can be agonizingly confusing and exhausting. By the time you finally book your trip, you wonder if the money you saved was worth all the added stress.

JetBlue Getaways is JetBlue’s vacation package program that offers deals on flights and hotels. To increase awareness of the program and build buzz on social media, marketing communications agency Mullen created an online game show that earned the agency first place in the Best Use of the Internet or Digital Tools category of PR Daily’s 2013 Media Relations Awards.

The purpose of a vacation is to escape from everyday life, and the “Get Away With It” online game show did the same—people already turn to online entertainment to take a break from their lives.

The game show featured a real set on which contestants could appear live through Skype. By correctly answering questions about vacation destinations and JetBlue customer benefits, contestants could win real JetBlue vacation packages.

Here’s how Mullen team members promoted the show:

• They treated the fictional host as a celebrity and featured him within content on sites like E! Online and People.com.
• They enabled the game show to stream live on websites through rich media banners.
• They worked with TV Guide to create ads that looked like “Get Away With It” was part of a regular TV programming lineup.
• They created video overlays that allowed interested customers to add game times to their computer or phone calendars.
• They appealed to social gamers through sites like SocialVibe by providing points for gamers’ current games and directing them to “Get Away With It.”
• They purchased Facebook and Twitter ad options.

Awareness of JetBlue Getaways increased 117 percent, and the JetBlue Getaways site received 333,000 unique visitors during the one-month campaign. Additionally, for every contestant who appeared on the show, there were 100 more who wanted to play. (There were more than 13,000 total contestant sign-ups.)

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