NORWEGIAN AIR
Norwegian Air boosted brand awareness by 95% in the UK and 79% in Spain with an Instagram and Facebook video ad campaign that invited people to experience the sounds of New York.
Norway’s largest airline, and the fourth-largest low-cost carrier in Europe, Norwegian Air was founded in 1993 as a regional airline. It has since expanded to serve holiday destinations from many European cities, and to offer long-haul flights to Asia and North America.
increase in brand awareness in UK
increase in brand awareness in Spain
additional people in Spain and UK indicated they would fly Norwegian to New York in the future
Norwegian Air wanted to run a campaign on Instagram and Facebook that would help build its brand in the long term, while also producing short-term results.
Working with its content creation agency Ink Global, and with advice from Facebook Creative Shop, Norwegian created a campaign based on the distinctive sounds of a city. This was the first time a travel company had relied on sound to appeal to an audience within the predominantly visual video environments on Instagram and Facebook.
Norwegian decided to test this sound-based creative approach in New York. The videos, comprising four noisy “only in New York” scenes, were shot in three days, using the vertical format that works best on mobile. All videos were both visually attractive and rich in audio. Although this was designed as a “sound on” campaign, the ads also needed to work with sound off. The visuals were therefore loaded with lively graphics, branding and visual hints about sound.
The “Sounds of a City” campaign ran in France, Spain and the UK, although activity in France was curtailed by travel restrictions.
The results, measured via a brand lift study on Facebook and Instagram, were so impressive that Norwegian plans to extend the campaign to feature London, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles. Running during January–February 2020, the first campaign produced:
95% increase in brand awareness in UK
79% increase in brand awareness in Spain
1.6 million people reached in Spain
2.8 million people reached in UK
58,000 additional people in Spain and UK indicated that they would fly Norwegian to New York in the future
