Air Canada is running a pop-up restaurant serving gourmet versions of Canada’s national dish, Poutine, inspired by a selection of the airline’s destinations, for the second year running.

The ‘Poutinerie by Air Canada’, currently open in London’s Old Spitalfields Market, is offering variants of the dish – which usually consists of chips, curd cheese and gravy – including Hawaiian Loco Moco, Cancun’s Mayan Enchilada and Melbourne’s Prawn Star Chips.

The pop-up features an indoor and a covered outdoor area where visitors can enjoy their dishes with a selection of beer and wine, with destination-inspired music and imagery. There will also be a Virtual Reality (VR) installation allowing people to experience being on board an Air Canada flight. Visitors will also have the chance to win flights to one of the over 200 global destinations the carrier flies to.

The pop-up, created and managed for Air Canada by agency JWT London, runs until Sunday 14^th October. Proceeds from the activity will again support Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity.

Last year’s La Poutinerie activation, in Shoreditch, sold 2,133 meals and reached 47 million people via earned and owned media content, according to JWT.

The activation is part of an integrated campaign showcasing some of Air Canada’s ‘hidden gem’ destinations via Out Of Home, print, radio, video, social and programmatic channels around London.

Air Canada is Canada’s largest domestic and international airline, serving more than 220 airports on six continents and carrying more than 48 million passengers in 2017.

J. Walter Thompson London is a communications agency which offers a range of services including advertising, digital, social media, content, insight, shopper, experiential, employee engagement and partnership marketing. It is part of WPP Group.

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Specialist ski airline Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) ran a one-day experiential campaign at King’s Cross station last week, bringing a powder day to London and encouraging commuters to dig out their salopettes and book flights to the Alps.

Designed by creative agency Space, the activation saw an interactive billboard delivering on-demand snow when prompted on twitter with #SnowNow. The experiential campaign targets the typically late-booking UK market, aiming the encourage them to get online to book with SWISS, with the billboard underlining the message that “snow is only ever one click away”.

The integrated campaign featured the specially-designed billboard with a promotional overlay activated by the hashtag. Every tweet triggered a cascade of snow, while all participants received £25 off their next SWISS flight and the opportunity to win one of five pairs of return flights to the Alps.

Activity at the station was promoted by a series of Instagram influencers while a PR campaign provides exclusive competitions in London publications.

Chloe Ravat, Senior Marketing Manager at SWISS, said: “The 360o campaign is a fun and engaging way to attract attention to our brand. The reactive nature of the billboard activity mimics how UK skiers typically book their holidays – online and at the last minute.”

David Atkinson, Managing Partner at Space, observed: “SWISS is the skiers’ airline, with more than 180 flights a day from London and free ski carriage as part of its inclusive fares. The #SnowNow campaign is the perfect conversation starter for SWISS, disrupting the humdrum of the London commute, letting us boost brand awareness and drive traffic online, as well as offering the chance to win a premium taste of the Alps with SWISS.”

Space is an award-winning agency with a client list including Heineken, Arla Foods, William Grant & Sons, General Mills, Eurostar, Sky, Coral, Bundesliga, UEFA, NBA and AELTC.

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A new American Airlines campaign to drive awareness of its product and network offering from London has become the first of its kind to utilise geofencing technology with a moving object – in this case, a London black taxicab.

Building on a successful campaign last year where outdoor sites were geofenced, media specialists MediaCom has now taken this one step further by presenting consumers with highly-targeted digital ads from ‘wrapped’ taxis as they pass them on the street.

The innovative campaign, which kicked off this week and is due to run until the start of November, aims to connect the latest in digital technologies in GPS and Wi-Fi to the outdoor advertising environment, says MediaCom.

MediaCom has bought select advertising space around London, including OOH advertising on office digital panels, Canary Wharf shopping centre and a domination at Canary Wharf, together with online advertising.

The media agency has also worked with taxi advertising company Ubiquitous to upgrade the on-board taxi technology, partnering with location tech business Mobsta to build the API connections that connect the two together.

Brady Byrnes, Director of Global Marketing at American Airlines, said: “American Airlines is all about innovation. Our flights from London give travellers the most connected experience, with on-board Wi-Fi being at the very heart of this offering.”

Catherine Pronzato, Managing Partner at MediaCom UK, added: “We are always looking at how new technology can help our clients innovate in delivering their business needs. We’re excited to partner with American Airlines to launch this ground breaking technical solution.”

“Tapping into taxi location data to determine proximity to the target audience is an innovation that will deliver valuable additional brand touchpoints,” says Daemon Brown, Commercial Director at Ubiquitous.

The new application could allow brands to push promotional messaging to consumers on the move. A number of brands have already been experimenting with the delivery of mobile coupons offering money off products to drive consumers in store to buy.

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Former Managing Director of specialist experiential and staffing agency Blackjack Promotions, Sally Alington, has launched a new global consultancy, Ethos Farm, which aims to help companies transform their approach to the customer experience.

“Business leaders across the globe undervalue service. Yet it can deliver real differentiation in an increasingly commoditised world,” said Sally Alington, Founder and CEO, Ethos Farm. “Companies talk about having a customer-facing workforce but what’s actually needed is staff who fully understand the corporate values and business objectives. Only then can they deliver exceptional service levels that meet both customer and company needs.”

The idea behind the Ethos Farm name is about positively transforming attitudes and corporate cultures, supporting the development of a successful company ethos in which workforces become advocates of the company.

“We help organisations to do this by combining best practice in employee learning and training with the latest communications technologies to transform workforces into brand custodians,” Alington explained.

Alington has brought together a team of globally-recognised experts with in-depth understanding of the latest management practice and training theories, coupled with years of real-world experience at rolling out service improvement programmes for some of the world’s best-known companies, brands and organisations, including Heathrow and Dubai Airport, the BBC and Westfield, to name a few.

She says that at Ethos Farm’s heart is a unique ‘Customer Service Architecture and Engineering’ concept.

Architecture refers to the company’s Consultancy team, headed by Alington, which helps companies develop a blueprint for customer service to align workforces with their values and aspirations.

Engineering relates to the Learning Development and Technology teams, led by Josie Barton and Mat Garner respectively. These provide the building blocks to make the new service blueprint a reality and transform the customer experience.

Alington is a former Director of Retail and Experiential Services at OmniServ and Managing Director of staffing solutions and experiential marketing agency Blackjack Promotions. She has a deep knowledge of designing and implementing customer services solutions and brand ambassador training.

Josie Barton is former Head of Operations, Finance and Planning at the BBC. From building competency frameworks for British Airways to playing a key role in relocating 2,000 BBC staff to BBC Media City in Salford, Barton has 25 years’ experience of people and corporate development, including designing and managing apprenticeship strategies. She also helped set up the BBC’s first ever joint venture outside of the UK – the Media City in Abu Dhabi.

Mat Garner is former Operations and Customer Services Director of a 2,000-strong operation at Heathrow, ex-Head of Commercial for Manchester Airport Group and Passenger Services Director at Stansted Airport, and is highly experienced at designing and developing technology solutions that are built with the end-user in mind.

Ethos Farm Learning and Development is designed to inspire the highest levels of performance from teams using a range of next-generation training tools and techniques. These include specially developed ‘Performance Rooms’, where the Ethos Farm team can deliver immersive training experiences.

The latest state-of-the-art technology will play a vital role in supporting the efficient and effective delivery of Ethos Farm’s customer service design and development concepts. This includes both bespoke and ‘templated’ solutions to drive enhanced service levels and colleague engagement from frontline workforces, as well as providing data analysis to drive insights into staff behaviours and avoid service problems.

“Using a range of tools, we will guide clients and their teams to develop the insights and approaches that will ensure they stay close to their customers and are able to adapt and thrive in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world,” adds Alington. “Our role is simply to help clients find the unique formula that will inspire the highest levels of performance from their people.”

The fourth member of Ethos Farm’s founding team is Lauren Walsh, who heads up the company’s operation in the Americas, based out of New York. Walsh is former Global Head of Client Services at Blackjack Promotions, and was previously Travel Retail Regional Manager, L’Oréal Luxe UK for YSL and Biotherm.

The new venture has already secured backing from global facilities solutions provider ABM, with Andy Donnell, Group Managing Director of ABM UK, joining the company’s Board of Directors. ABM is the current parent company of Blackjack.

For UK clients, Ethos Farm is able to advise companies on the complexities of the new Apprenticeship Levy and will soon be accredited as an approved Apprentice Training Provider.

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Low-cost airline easyJet has partnered with the Netherland Board of Tourism and Conventions to promote its flights to the Netherlands via a pop-up, ‘Café van der Sprinkles’, which opens in London’s Leicester Square from Friday 22nd September to Sunday 24th September 2017.

The activation will give people the opportunity to experience the culture of the sixth happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Index, and in particular its traditional sweet breakfast delicacy, ‘Broodje Hagelslag’ (apparently known as ‘fairy bread’ in the UK).

Broodje Hagelslag is sliced bread which is then buttered and covered in sweet sprinkles. According to easyJet and the Dutch tourist board, 750,000 Dutch people eat it every day for breakfast, accounting for more than 300 million slices every year, a statistic which they suggest is related to the country’s score on the happiness index.

The pop-up will feature a DIY broodje hagelslag café, a beauty parlour with sprinkle treatments on offer and edible versions of Dutch art masterpieces created by food influencers The Meringue Girls.

Upon entering through a plane door, visitors will find themselves in the brightly decorated Sprinkle Café. Guests can order from the ‘DIY sprinkle menu’ choosing their preferred base, types of sprinkles and Dutch art template, giving them the opportunity to create their own masterpiece such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

Guests will also have the opportunity to win flights to Holland – they will be able to enter by sharing their snaps of the pop-up on social media with the official hashtag #SprinklesCafé.

easyJet flies to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol up to 36 times a day from across the UK.

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German low-cost airline Eurowings, the State Tourist Board Baden-Württemberg, Europa-Park, and Stuttgart Airport have once again partnered to promote their destinations and brands in the UK via a Virtual Reality experiential activation at Westfield Stratford City.

Created by London based communications agency, collab-ed, the UK Summer campaign built on last year’s award-winning #nextstop campaign to once again encourage Londoners to discover the beautiful SouthWest of Germany via convenient Eurowings flights between London and Stuttgart Airport.

In 2016, Ed Euromaus, the mascot of Europa-Park, was welcomed by Londoners as they helped him find the #nextstop for his bus in a campaign also created by collab-ed. This year, Ed returned to take Londoners on a virtual reality journey to his home, Europa-Park, in Baden-Württemberg.

The 2017 campaign centred around a VR experiential activation in Westfield Stratford City where visitors could check-in to #FlyWithEd on board his special Eurowings plane to the Sunny Side of Germany; touching down in Stuttgart Airport to discover the Black Forest, before taking a rollercoaster ride through Europa-Park, Germany’s largest theme park.

Campaign seeding via social media continued the narrative from last years’ campaign whilst this year the reactions of visitors were videoed and shared across the campaign channels via the hashtag #FlyWithEd in order to drive social amplification.

Additional Out Of Home activity consisting of digital OOH throughout Westfield Stratford City and print OOH throughout Stratford International Station further promoted the VR experiential activation.

Visitors also had the opportunity to extend the experience via campaign gifting, with VR cardboards and a free digital download of the Coastiality app (App Store & Google Play) enabling the experience, and partner brands, to reach directly into the homes of an even wider audience.

“The response has been fantastic,” says Manuela Spröwitz, International Marketing Manager at Eurowings. “The 360° video is a great tool to inspire visitors to travel with Eurowings to Europa-Park and the region. We are really happy to increase the awareness of our flight offers with this innovative and exciting flying experience – on ground!”

“It’s been great to be able to build on last year’s success and really take this story to the next level”, says Nichola Kirkman, Creative Director of collab-ed. “This year’s campaign has been tremendously well received by Londoners and is yet another indicator to us that audiences are increasingly receptive to innovative marketing and being reached in more meaningful and powerful ways.”

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The Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board (UK) is running an experiential campaign on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October 2016 at Manchester’s Trafford Centre, to promote the launch of Thomas Cook’s flights from Manchester to Tobago, starting 13 November 2016.

Experiential agency Kreate has put together the Island of Tobago experience, which features a 13m x 5m stand with a palm tree border effect, so physically creating an island in the shopping centre.

True to Tobago, the island will embrace the tropical look and feel and visitors will be fully immersed in the culture of the country, brought to life by an array of activities. Four zones within the island will all offer a unique experience:

• Relaxation – a relaxing beach setting, featuring a reception desk and brand ambassadors who will meet and greet guests to give them an overview of the island and the experiences they can immerse themselves in.
• Adventure – a physical-digital biking challenge with prompts to showcase various sites across the island to entertain the more adventurous.
• Nightlife – a limbo challenge accompanied by a MC and jazz music featuring videos of various popular night life locations for party-goers.
• Scuba – an opportunity for all scuba and snorkelling enthusiasts to have their photo taken behind a tropical fish tank for a scuba selfie.

Visitors start at an airport-style check-in desk, then travel through the zones, from one experience to another. Digital signage between zones will introduce each experience and footage relating to theme will be available on TV screens. Staff will be on-hand to answer questions, direct visitors to the dedicated microsite and capture data for those who would like more information post-event.

Visitors can take advantage of exclusive offers and take part in various competitions, including the ultimate prize of flights and accommodation for two people. Throughout the two days the experience is live, there will be incentive prizes for Leaderboard activity on the interactive stands.

Visitors will be encouraged to share their experience with friends and family via their own personal social channels.

Activity will be supported by a social campaign geo-targeting consumers within a 60km radius of Manchester Airport with an interest in Caribbean travel.

Sheona Walker, Promotions Analyst, Tobago UK, says: “We wanted Mancunians to live and feel our island and to really bring it alive. Kreate have certainly met the brief and recreated an authentic, emotive experience, which we are confident will engage with shoppers and deliver results. The Tobago Island experience allows consumers to be educated about the destination and immerse themselves in the location – before they decide to buy.”

Duncan McCaslin, MD of Kreate, adds: “Today’s traveller is all about seeking out new experiences. We created the Tobago Island with this in mind. An opportunity for visitors to feel the brand story and live the island experience. We’re confident the work will give the highest expression of the island.”

Kreate is an award-winning Experiential Marketing and Promotional Staffing agency with offices in London, Dublin, Sydney and Auckland. Clients include Budweiser, Mattel, NHS, Stella Artois, Swatch, Warner Bros and Proximo.

Trinidad & Tobago is the southern-most Caribbean island nation, located seven miles east of the Venezuelan coast. The country is home to the largest Carnival celebration in the Caribbean and ranked the happiest nation in the Caribbean in 2013 and 2015, according to the United Nations’ World Happiness Report. It is the birthplace of both limbo dancing and the world famous steelpan, the only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century.

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Vicki Folly of Blackjack Promotions looks at the power of cross-brand retail promotions and shares tips on how to create the greatest impact.

From Laurel and Hardy to Batman and Robin, Lennon and McCartney to Wallace and Gromit; sometimes, two heads are just better than one. We’ve grown up in an era where collaboration has made for some of the world’s greatest art, whether it’s film, music or TV.

If you transfer that knowledge into a retail environment, strategic brand partnerships can be a highly effective way to create stand out and achieve key business and sales goals for both parties involved.

The power of co-branding allows you to combine the best elements that two brands have to offer and presents a unique opportunity to expand customer bases. There’s also the obvious cost-saving advantage.

The most successful cross-brand promotions must present clear synergies, be relevant and complementary. Brands that share the same potential audience or audience mindset can work really well together.

Take Coca-Cola and O·P·I teaming up to create a line of nail lacquers inspired by a range of Coca-Cola’s most popular drinks (Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Fanta etc). The overarching idea linked to both brands ‘delivering happiness in a bottle’. Both have a core teen target audience so working together gave them a fresh and exciting way to engage with this demographic. A definite win-win for both.

With any cross-brand promotional activity, the trick is to offer a unique experience to customers, something they wouldn’t ordinarily be accustomed to. In a retail environment, supporting the activity with large visual POS materials and in-store merchandising can be an eye-catching way to draw people in with compelling promotional offers.

Mondelēz is a great example of a confectionery brand leading the charge in this area, most recently bringing together two of its most powerful brands – Cadbury Dairy Milk and Daim pieces – following the success of its Milka Oreo bars. Why did it work so well? Existing awareness of both individual brands enhanced the likelihood of trial while combining the two flavours offered consumers the chance to experience something new and exciting.

A cross-category, cross-brand promotion between Stolichnaya Premium Vodka and Swiss chocolatier Favarger at Zurich Airport saw travellers presented with an opportunity to sample a combination of fresh raspberries dipped in Favarger Fondue, complemented with a shot of Stoli Chocolat Razberi. POS materials included red and white pop up stands and large visuals to draw passengers in.

At Heathrow, Blackjack has worked with a number of brands in a range of categories that naturally complement each other. Take whisky and chocolate, for example – the pairing is such a natural fit that it goes down a treat with travellers.

For me, airport retail is one of the most untapped areas for cross-brand promotions; but I would argue that it has the greatest potential.

It’s an environment where customers are in a relaxed frame of mind and therefore are more receptive and open to brand interaction. The right kind of activity helps travellers pass the time as they wait for their flight, gives them the chance to try products before they buy, and drives them in-store to make a purchase. Create a good experience, and the chances are travellers will spread the word to families, friends and business contacts.

However, brands should also be wary of getting “too close for comfort” with direct competition. Take Burger King’s suggestion to McDonald’s on the International Day of Peace that the rival brands work together and combine their signature sandwiches to create the McWhopper burger – for one day only.

McDonald’s rejected Burger King’s advances and that’s understandable. While it was a nice idea and in sync with the idea of the International Day of Peace, perhaps it was a little bit too close to home and could risk losing customers to the competition in the long run.

So it’s best to choose a partner that complements your brand, rather than competing with it. But, then again, at the other end of the spectrum there’s always the fear that brands can be so far opposite from each other that it can lead to consumer confusion if the synergies aren’t present.

The key thing to remember is that one size does not fit all when it comes to cross-promotions. Communication and early planning is essential. Brands that can work together to bring new insight and loyalty are those that will reap the greatest benefits of cross-promotion.

Never underestimate the power of a cross-brand promotion; but be wary of the negative impact it can have if not done properly. When two brands come together, they can be stronger – but it only works if they complement each other.

Getting two brands to work together in harmony might sound simple in theory but it’s often easier said than done. Find the right fit, however, and you could be onto a winner.

Vicki Folly is Account Manager – Liquor and Confectionery at Blackjack Promotions, which provides specialist customer-facing sales teams and brand ambassadors across a number of travel retail categories, including beauty, liquor, luxury and confectionary. It has operations at 16 UK airports, on cross Channel and at three airports in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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Thomas Cook Airlines is promoting its services with a real-time 360º Virtual Reality ‘Fantasy Flight’ allowing potential passengers to try before they fly – and offering them the chance to win a £3,000 Los Angeles holiday.

Best experienced using Google Cardboard via the YouTube app, viewers can change their perspective of Thomas Cook Airlines’ refurbished premium and economy class cabins in real-time by moving their headset/device around. The video features real pilots and cabin crew going about their normal duties while the cabin comes to life with characters connected to the new destinations.

If users explore thoroughly, they can find clues to three of the airline’s newest destinations, which could win them the Los Angeles trip.

Thomas Cook worked with digital creative agency Catch and virtual reality production specialist Visualise to put the Fantasy Flight together.

The latest campaign follows on from Thomas Cook’s Virtual Reality ‘Try Before You Fly’ campaign, which saw Visualise visit popular tourist hotspots including New York, Egypt and Singapore to capture the immersive VR experience that allows customers to experience a holiday destination from within selected Thomas Cook Concept Stores in the UK, Germany and Belgium.

Tom Morey, Senior Marketing Manager for Thomas Cook Airlines, said: “We’ve used recently-developed 360-degree video technology to open the doors of our great new cabins on our Airbus A330 fleet. By summer this year, we’ll be operating seven of these long haul aircraft on direct flights from Manchester to Miami, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando and Las Vegas. Customers don’t have to wait and see how it looks, they can find out right now by interacting with these amazing videos.”

Henry Stuart, Founder & CEO of Visualise said: “This campaign highlights that travel companies are realising the potential that VR has when connecting with customers. The initial ‘Try Before You Fly’ destination campaign saw a 180% increase in NYC excursions booked after the VR launch, and we’re hoping that this campaign continues to build on that success.”

Jonathan Smith, founding partner at Catch Digital, added: “2016 is set to be virtual reality’s breakout year. This new technology is perfectly placed to highlight Thomas Cook Airlines’ new routes and high-end A330 aircraft. We had a lot of fun on the shoot with a 50+ strong crew of actors, airline staff and impersonators to bring the new destinations into the cabin, as well as providing clues which viewers can find to enter a competition to win a holiday to LA.”

The 360º VR film can be experienced at www.thomascookairlines.com/fantasyflight.

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OmniServ, which provides a range of services to airports, airlines and travel retail operators, has acquired Attitude Events, a provider of travel retail and customer service specialists in airports.

Attitude Events will become part of OmniServ’s Blackjack Promotions division, which focuses on airport retail and experiential marketing within the travel space. The move strengthens Blackjack’s travel retail presence and offering in airports across Europe.

Founded in 1999, Attitude Events delivers staffing solutions to the travel retail platform. The business currently works with clients including World Duty Free Group/Dufry, William Grants & Sons and Coty Prestige.

The news comes on the back of a hugely successful year 2015 which included the expansion of OmniServ and Blackjack into the Middle East. The company now has operations in Dubai Airport, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. In addition, the Airport Promotion Agencies (APA) network, of which Blackjack is a founding partner, has also been extended into new countries.

Sally Alington, Managing Director of Blackjack Promotions, says: “We are a dynamic and ambitious business, constantly focused on growth and expansion by providing elevated service levels and innovation for our clients. Over the last 12 months, we have seen consolidation in our industry with the acquisitions of P&G by Coty [Coty bought P&G’s global salon professional hair care and colour, retail hair colour, cosmetics and fine fragrance businesses, along with selected hair styling brands]  and World Duty Free Group by Dufry.”

Alington adds: “The travel retail industry is witnessing change and we must be able to match the demands of these bigger global clients by also consolidating, expanding and being able to offer solutions to them whenever and wherever they need. We are delighted to welcome the Attitude team to become part of this exciting journey.”

As a leading airport service contractor in the UK, serving over 15 airports, the acquisition strengthens OmniServ and Blackjack’s positions in Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.

Blackjack Promotions is the UK’s leading provider of specialist staffing solutions for travel retail and airport-related staffing (see picture) and a major provider of experiential solutions for specialist travel retail. Its has four core service: travel retail; customer service; experiential; and logistics. It also works closely with agency partners and media owners.

The company was founded in 1995 and acquired by OmniServ Limited, the European division of Air Serv Corporation in 2013.

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