An Elvis Impersonator on a Digital Billboard Takes ‘Shotgun’ Weddings to New Heights.

BACKGROUND
Plenty of brands do interactive stunts. Plenty more create engagement. Lots of brands change behaviours and do smart product demonstrations.

But with just one digital billboard we achieved all this. And a hell of a lot more.

We entertained an entire shopping mall, encouraged sensible Stockholmers to unleash their spontaneous sides and even started a few happily-ever-afters in the process. All while creating rich content for sharing both real-time and later in earned, bought and social media.

It’s a story which led to Norwegian Airlines raising awareness of their brand new transatlantic route and even selling out of flights.

And it all began with a brief for a single billboard.

CHALLENGE
Norwegian Airlines had just launched a brand new direct route: Stockholm to Las Vegas. To dramatize our city’s new-found proximity to reckless, spontaneous, anything-goes Las Vegas we dared Saturday shoppers to say ‘I do’ – and get married on the spot.

STRATEGY
Norwegian Airlines is famous for having low fares. Less well known is that those low fares can take you non-stop to amazing far-flung places – like Las Vegas. So low, in fact, that a stateside adventure can now be a much more spontaneous decision.

And there was our insight: Las Vegas is all about throwing caution to the wind, daring to let your heart rule your head and utterly living in the moment.

Now, Swedes aren’t normally known for their recklessness. But with a little bit of encouragement and the right incentive, they can prove to be surprisingly spontaneous. We quickly realised the interactive nature of a digital billboard could be just the encouragement they needed.

EXECUTION
We didn’t want to focus on casinos or nightlife, wild as they might be. Instead we used our digital billboard to create a live link-up with Vegas’ most famous destination: The Little White Chapel. Home of the spur-of-the-moment marriages and celebrity nuptials.

With the Chapel’s world famous Elvis priest in residence, the live link-up invited passers by to take the plunge and say ‘I do’. Right there and then. And if a legally binding wedding wasn’t enough, we threw in a free all-inclusive Las Vegas honeymoon too.

RESULTS
As the digital billboard was entirely live (nothing was staged or pre-arranged) we had to hope shy Swedes would embrace the Vegas recklessness and take the plunge on the day.

And they didn’t disappoint. Five incredible couples stepped up to the challenge and up to Elvis’ altar. Unsurprisingly, the on-the-spot weddings sparked a flood of real-time social media coverage – and when a film of the event was released three days before Valentine’s Day, coverage spread internationally.

Will the marriages work? It’s too early to tell. But one thing’s certain: the campaign did.

Stockholm to Las Vegas flights sold out after the campaign period with fares for that specific route an unprecedented 7.5% rise. And with with turnover 16% higher in Q4 2015 than 2014, Norwegian enjoyed their highest passenger figures to date. A 19% increase in Nordic-Transatlantic routes were the biggest single contributory factor to those record sales.

VIEW ONLINE FILM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEfTglHXo-M