WestJet’s ‘Christmas Miracle’ video went viral. But should a cause have been involved?
Campaign: WestJet Christmas Miracle
Company: WestJet
Nonprofit Partner: Ronald McDonald House Charities
Launch Date: December 9, 2013
Campaign:
A team of more than 150 WestJet employees pulled off a major holiday surprise for unsuspecting Calgary-bound travelers. Guests confided their Christmas wishes to a virtual Santa Claus while waiting to board flights to Calgary. Upon arrival, the travelers were greeted with the gifts they had asked for merely hours before. The entire operation was captured on hidden camera and produced into a shareable video. WestJet pledged to donate flights to a family in need via Ronald McDonald House Charities once the video hit 200,000 shares.
What’s Your Take?
More and more, we’re seeing companies embrace the gift of giving by utilizing unexpected surprises or gifts to customers such as this one from WestJet. But should these campaigns be combined with a cause? The “viral video” phenomenon kicked in with this particular effort and in just over a week, the video has earned almost 30 million views. When asked if that correlated to additional flights donated to RMHC, a spokesperson for WestJet said at this point, the company is committed to providing flights for a single family.
Should WestJet make an additional donation because the video spread far and wide? Or is it enough that customers were pleasantly surprised and video viewers delighted?
Should a cause have been involved at all?
Weigh in with your opinions below!
This is a great question.
This was a great concept, and as delivered it was a great promotion. As a standalone without the connection to a charity, it’s a great promo.
However, this was not a cause marketing campaign. Without taking anything away from them, it was a well-executed promotion that on its own merits will generate an extraordinary amount of goodwill for the airline. This is not a cause.
Had it been an actual cause marketing promotion, Ronald McDonald House would have been integrated into the promotion. The charity is more of an afterthought, and I wasn’t even aware of the affiliation until I read this article. It seems like someone in a pitch meeting said "we oughta include a charity," and no more thought was put into it. The benefit to the charity is a pittance compared to what was spend on production and the purchase of gifts.
Imagine if they had worked with RMH to identify specific needs. Imagine the impact had they provided gifts and vouchers for future travel exclusively to families traveling to a RMH. Imagine if they had thought more broadly and understood the difficulty these families face daily, and funded some necessities, or provided some respite for people who have a sick child.
It was a great promotion, as well as a missed opportunity to really do some good.
Thanks for weighing in, Mark. I think you weren’t alone in missing the fact that a charity was involved. I saw this promotion on my personal Facebook page several times before it came across my professional desk as a cause promotion.
It’s hard to be critical of a company "doing good" like this, but at the very minimum it’s very odd that RMHC isn’t at least benefiting from the awareness of the 30M views. They’re not a part of the video in any fashion or even mentioned on the partners’ acknowledgment page at the end. One’s hope is that the campaign far exceeded West Jet’s wildest expectations and that they weren’t low-balling with RMHC from the start, but regardless, they should reward RMHC after the fact just as they are being rewarded by the unexpected success.
Thanks for the comment, Donna. And good point about the awareness piece. This was such a production that if a cause was involved, they probably easily could’ve incorporated it into the video. You’ll notice it’s over 5 minutes, which is pretty amazing for an online attention span!
It’s pretty obvious that RMHC was a tick box exercise to add a little extra depth to the campaign. The fact that they aren’t really embedded into the video, and West Jet have already publicly stated only one family will benefit speaks volumes.
West Jet just look more like the Grinch than Santa.