Dreaming of the days when you can jump on a plane and jet off overseas to chill by a pool or take in the sights as you wine and dine in some of the finest restaurants in the world?
Sorry, we can’t help you but EasyJet – which recently reported a surge in people booking summer holidays for this year – is trying to do its bit to combat the gloom of lockdown with a series of three-minute films to transport viewers away from the humdrum of life for a moment on “mindfulness”.
Created by VCCP, the unbranded campaign features seven escapes that focus on popular European destinations, from “sun-kissed” Greek beaches to the snowy peaks of Austria and the cityscapes of Budapest and Venice – alongside the hashtag #HolidayDreaming – designed to show just how lovely life will be once the pandemic has eased.
Four three-minute clips launched this week across EasyJet’s Instagram channel, with three more videos set to be unveiled next week. The campaign also includes shorter cuts in different video formats with OMD handling media.
EasyJet is also releasing two guided meditation episodes and has partnered with Mindshine, a digital coach subscription app, to create travel-inspired guided meditation escapes. These episodes are aimed at helping to improve people’s overall well-being during the bleakest of January. The partnership, brokered by OMD and Fuse, will launch in the UK next month.
The airline’s head of brand and central marketing Lucy Outram seems quite chuffed with the campaign so far. She said: “We are pleased to launch our new 3 minute escape episodes. Whilst we are unable to travel on holiday right now, we hope that these serene and peaceful videos of our favourite European locations will provide the public with some well-deserved time to take a little break until we can welcome them back onboard in the coming months.”
Meanwhile VCCP creative director David Masterman added: “With these films we wanted to give everyone a little reminder of just how therapeutic travel really is, and how it will be again, once we’re on the other side.”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office? Did we feel transported away from the humdrum of January? Definitely. Did the films make us long for a break from the tedium of lockdown? You’d better believe it. Will we be rushing online to cash in our EasyJet voucher from last year’s cancelled flights and book a trip to our favourite Languedoc-Roussillon destination? Probably not.
You see, as relaxing and meditative as these ads are, they can’t transport us away from the fact that we are still in the grips of a global pandemic and no-one – certainly not the UK Government – knows when we will be able to travel abroad again.
Of course, travel firms can’t sit on their arses, they have to gear up for business post-Covid, but we’re sure we’re not alone in thinking that maybe this summer will be too early, despite EasyJet’s record bookings.
Ah well, back to the grindstone…
Decision Marketing Adometer: A “close our eyes and drift away” 8 out of 10
