OLIVER North America’s creative in-house team demonstrated its effectiveness with the creation of WestJet’s recent April Fool’s campaign (WestJet-X: We Do Space Now) to strengthen the Canadian airliner’s core message: affordable flights and excellent customer service.

In the wake of the pandemic, the airline brand had a clear mission: drive seat sales by capitalizing on April Fool’s Day. 

Known for its good humour, strong customer relationships and April Fool’s Day antics (you may remember their hugely successful Flyre Festival Campaign), WestJet was keen to make 2022 a landmark year. 

OLIVER’s Bernardo Andrada, Executive Creative Director, North America, said: “Even though being an airline during a global pandemic isn’t easy, WestJet is still the same fun airline people fell in love with 26 years ago. 

“What better way to achieve this than to take aim at the most expensive flying in the universe – commercial space travel?” By contrasting the highly exclusive nature of space travel with more accessible prices, WestJet reinforced the position of affordable air travel. 

Propel, WestJet’s creative agency powered by OLIVER, knew that customers valued the airline brand’s playful and humorous nature, so it was crucial that this be utilized and managed effectively.   

 The campaign included a fully-fledged website, a social campaign (across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) and video; WestJet’s CEO (who actually has a doctorate in astrophysics), Alexis von Hoensbroech, was also brought into the campaign in the company’s April Fool’s press release. 

As WestJet is known to its customers as a fun and friendly airline, the Propel team were determined to use this as a vehicle to communicate the airline’s core message of affordability and great customer experience.

After 1 April, the WestJet-X landing page was updated to include their Unearth More Campaign, with the tagline: ‘We may have spaced out for a minute, but we’re back and ready to help you unearth your next adventure.’  

Enticing customers to take the opportunity to fully explore earth by flying all over the world with WestJet before heading into space, and at much more reasonable prices.  

You can watch the campaign message here