Let's Talk Favorites

My favorite number is 15. My favorite color is Paris Grey. My favorite item in the frozen section at Trader Joe's is the gorgonzola gnocchi.

I'm a big fan of favorites -- mostly because I'm a creature of habit. I know my favorites frontwards and backwards because I revisit them often (the gorgonzola gnocchi in the Trader Joe's frozen section being no exception).

I wanted to write today about one of those favorites -- my favorite ad campaign -- because it's one of the things I revisit often in my mind -- really. Like I'll be driving home one day and just think, wow that was such an incredible campaign. [If that doesn't make me an Ad nerd, I don't know what does.]

So without further adieu, let me tell you why I love #NYCTakeoff.

The campaign was created for jetBlue on behalf of Mullenlowe. If you haven't heard about it, watch this short clip.

To summarize, jetBlue tasked Mullenlowe with executing an out-of-home campaign across the five boroughs of Manhattan. As a self-identified "challenger airliner", jetBlue had only a modest budget to offer the agency.

To add to their challenges, Mullenlowe was working in a completely over-saturated market. Have you ever stopped and looked around a Manhattan side walk? I would venture to guess 85% of the people walking are staring down either at the gum-stuck, trash littered ground or at their phone, and the 15% that are looking up are glaring at the back of the head of the person in front of them -- thinking about something that happened five minutes ago, or something that was going to happen five minutes in the future. Not much opportunity to seize attention, let alone spark engagement.

So how did Mullenlowe do it? How did they grab that attention, spark that engagement? By posting thousands of nondescript bus ads in light colors and small font -- that nobody would think to look at. And waiting. Waiting for those few, fantastic people who enjoyed reading fine print.

And for those observant enough to stop and look, they were asked to steal. Steal? Yes, to take that nondescript bus ad off of the bus stop and bring it to a jetBlue counter to redeem a prize, as a reward for paying attention. The campaign caught like wildfire in the press, earning over 65 million media impressions in 30 days (read more on that here).

This campaign rocks for two reasons. The first. and most obvious, is that Mullenlowe leveraged paid media to exploit earned media, yielding an exponential ROI for the airline.

But beyond the ROI, the success of this campaign teaches a larger lesson about perspective, which brings me to the second -- perhaps less obvious -- success of the campaign: that fact that Mullenlowe saw an obstacle as an opportunity.

Instead of being discouraged by the completely over-saturated market, Mullenlowe used the crowded space to their advantage, calling the issue on its face, changing the game and rewarding people for paying attention. It was a huge risk, but as an underdog agency themselves, Mullenlowe knows that size and flash are outmatched by quality of content.

So that's why I love #NYCTakeoff; that's why it has a spot on my list of favorites. #NYCTakeoff was the first Ad campaign that inspired me, and it's premise still helps me challenge myself to shift my perspective, and to view obstacles as opportunities.