Retard Gagnant (Winning Delays)
CANAL+ Switzerland
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
Havas Village Geneva
Creative Team
Creative Director Gabriel Mauron Art Director Thomas Lafourcade Copywriter Pascal Charvet Junior Art Directors Leo Bonhomme, Laura Cros
Production Team
Operations Director Camille Delesalle Production Company Cher Ami
Other Credits
Marketing Manager Myriam Hofstetter
Date
December 2019
Background
During last summer, airports in Switzerland, like airports everywhere else, suffered from overcrowding as flights get delayed because of heavier traffic than usual and a lack of air traffic controllers to deal with the extra workload.
One report stated that travellers had a 50% chance of flight postponement.
Canal+ saw this as an opportunity to get people to see the quality of their TV shows for themselves.
Idea
The idea was to transform travellers' waiting time into a moment of pure entertainment.
Throughout the holiday airport, passengers at Geneva airport were able to watch content precisely tailored to their waiting times.
Digital posters encouraged them to scan a QR code which took them to a landing page for “Retard Gagnant” where all they had to do was enter their flight numbers.
Combining technology and real-time data, if the flight was delayed, the user was offered an access code which allowed them to watch a film or a show of exactly the same length as their expected wait.
Results
Whether any travellers whose flights departed on time felt cheated of experiencing Canal+ great shows is unrecorded.
However, more than 37% of delayed passengers participated in the activation.
60 times more content was viewed on the platform leading to a 180% increase in subscriptions over the period.
And, thanks to the calming influence of entertainment, there was said to be a 300% reduction in tension with airline staff.
Our Thoughts
Many marketers think that personalisation is simply putting someone’s name on a letter.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, it’s more complicated than that. It’s a philosophy that starts by thinking about the customer first rather than the brand and asking, what can we do that is useful or usable.
In this instance, personalisation is knowing exactly how long the traveller is detained and serving content to fill that exact time period.
It’s a clever way of getting disgruntled people to both sample the product and feel warm towards a brand that understands their plight.
And it nearly trebled subscriptions.
I love it when ideas sell stuff!