Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
Bermuda's unique geographic location often leads to confusion, with many people mistakenly associating it with the Caribbean, other islands that start with the letter “B,” or for being further from the U.S. than it actually is. It was time to set the record straight on Bermuda’s proximity as just a stone’s throw away and entice travelers with its breathtaking beauty and engaging activities, beginning with the island’s number one feeder market, New York City.
New Yorkers have a variety of weekend trip destinations at their disposal, from the Hamptons, to Nantucket or upstate New York. Our goal was to put Bermuda on the radar of these travelers as an appealing candidate for their next quick getaway, offering access to natural wonders, exhilarating adventures and international culture in the same amount of time they’d otherwise spend sitting in traffic on the way to Montauk.
Together with JetBlue, we highlighted the convenience of travel through a visually striking hourglass filled with a replica of Bermuda’s iconic pink sand, symbolizing the 90-minute flight time from island to island. Each time the last grain of sand hit the bottom of the hourglass, we released a free trip including roundtrip flights to the island and a hotel stay for two.
To enter, participants were required to answer a Bermuda trivia question, with bonus entries for those who posted photos to social media from the hourglass lounge, a setup of branded beach lounge chairs complete with AR “waves” and sound effects.
With the activation strategically located in New York City’s popular Meatpacking District, surrounded by upscale shopping and dining, we aimed to attract and educate affluent consumers, successfully positioning Bermuda as a year-round destination for frictionless getaways, boosting bookings and increasing overall demand.
Placements in news outlets and collaborations with travel influencers amplified the campaign's reach and drove attendance to the activation.
Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)
We implemented an engaging experience that showcased Bermuda’s unique appeal and accessibility, leveraging social, earned and paid media, and our industry partnerships to drive attendance and visibility. The results of the activation proved successful in increasing awareness, generating significant engagement within a key market and gaining valuable consumer information.
Man-on-the-street interviews during the event confirmed existing misconceptions capturing sentiments such as: “I thought [the flight time] was two hours, three hours at least,” or “I would’ve thought it was way longer. I have a two and a half hour commute to the city so a 90 minute flight to Bermuda sounds pretty good.” Other attendees walked away with our intended messaging in mind: “If I wanted to drive in from anywhere out of New York City into New York City it would take me less time to fly to Bermuda.”
Earned media exposure resulted in more than 528 million impressions from local digital and broadcast outlets including Time Out New York, NYC Plugged and PIX11 to national syndicates such as Yahoo Life and MSN. Secret NYC urged readers to seize the opportunity declaring, “Your dream could become a reality real soon by participating in JetBlue’s ultimate giveaway coming to NYC.” The initiative garnered more than 1.7 million recorded social media impressions thanks to earned in-feed and story posts from Secret NYC (1.8 million followers) and a paid collaboration with travel influencer Amorray Marcano (350,000 followers) which pulled through content from her previous visit to the island. Stories on our Instagram account generated a higher audience retention rate compared to other story series, while additional stories from JetBlue further supported the effort.
The sweepstakes received 4,570 entries providing us with entrants’ contact and location data to be utilized in future marketing efforts. In May, when the event took place, New York was the origin city of most of our website traffic.
Return on Investment: How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?
These efforts to promote proximity messaging led to a substantial increase in bookings. Bermuda saw a 2.5% increase in air visitors from NYC while JetBlue experienced a significant rise in passenger bookings, with 730 bookings from January to May 2024, nearly 500 of which occurred in May alone (the event took place on May 2).
This campaign effectively positioned Bermuda as a convenient and appealing travel destination for New Yorkers, boosting brand awareness and driving tourism, with a total media value of $54,664,547.91.
Entry Title
90 Minutes to Paradise: Bermuda and JetBlue Bring a Slice of Island Life to NYC
Division
Integrated Campaign - Experiential Marketing