WestJet Pulls Off Another Social Media Marketing Miracle

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Two years ago I wrote about my favourite all time social media marketing miracle, WestJet Airline’s Christmas Miracle. For those of you who aren’t familiar with WestJet, they are probably Canada’s most loved airline. They are plucky, fun, casual…  everything their main competitor Air Canada is NOT. Don’t get me wrong, WestJet flyers still suffer from cramped seats, baggage fee charges and bare-bones on-board amenities, like they would on other airlines. But many Canadian travelers just feel better about flying WestJet. What WestJet has over their competition is personality and heart. They have a certain warmth about them. Their savvy marketing team knows this is one of their competitive advantages, and they use that warm and fuzzy to execute social media marketing very, very well.

Case and point: WestJet’s first Christmas Miracle video in 2013 has had spectacular success on YouTube. As of today it has earned…

  • almost 44 MILLION views
  • close to 211,000 likes
  • 14,706 comments, mostly like these ones:
    • “That’s how you get customers for life, I’d fly this airline anyday”
    • “What a wonderful company WestJet is!”
    • “I could watch this a million times. WestJet: Thanks for getting into our hearts! :)”
    • “Watching with a tears of joy in my eyes”
    • “Experiential marketing at its best!”
  • 54017 Subscribers to the WestJet YouTube Channel…  which means every time WestJet posts a new video, YouTube will notify 54,000 subscribers on WestJet’s behalf, for free, to let them know there is something new to watch. Take THAT to the bank.

Westjet Christmas Miracle Youtube Stats

If you haven’t already checked it out, you can see the YouTube video here.

This Year’s 12,000 Christmas Miracles

With these numbers, it is no surprise that WestJet continues to release new videos, especially at Christmas time. This year’s theme features their blue Santa and his helpers enacting 12,000 mini miracles around the globe, one for every WestJet employee, to be executed within a 24 hour period. Part of this giving was included on the Ellen Degeneres show’s 12 Days of Giving, which  gets over 5 million TV viewers. In addition to 1.5 million YouTube views in the past 4 days, WestJet managed to get the making of its latest video featured on The National, the CBC’s nightly news broadcast. Free advertising on CBC.  

Here’s what the get right on the social media marketing front:

  • Their videos are heartfelt, authentic and feel unscripted
  • They invoke emotions in people, and these emotions compel them to share the video
  • They use their social media campaigns as a launchpad into more traditional media avenues like TV
  • The videos wonderfully reinforce their WestJet brand, their warm, fun personality, which differentiates them starkly from their biggest competitor.

Kudos to StudioM in Toronto for the great work. Nailed it!

So grab yourself a tissue, shut your office door, and enjoy the ride on this latest Social Media Marketing Miracle, compliments of WestJet Airlines.

Merry Christmas!

 

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