The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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Agency: Tin Man
Date: Feb 2019
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After research revealed 35% of Brits had fallen out of love with air travel because it had become mundane, Thomas Cook Airlines enlisted TV hypnotist Aaron Calvert to relight the fire by giving regular passengers a first-time flight experience while under hypnosis.

The idea stemmed from the research that found people had stopped feeling excited by flying, with 55% feeling flying was a means to an end, while 72% of adults remember their first flight fondly.

With this in mind, Thomas Cook wanted to give frequent flyers a ‘first-time’ flying experience to help them fall back in love with flying.

To do this, Calvert spent 20 minutes putting a group of frequent flyers under hypnosis to make them believe they'd never stepped foot on a plane. They were then told they were part of a documentary on first-time flyers.

In total, the participants spent eight hours under hypnosis, in which time they caught a flight to an unspecified location. The group were filmed as they waited expectantly in the departure lounge, anticipating the flying experience before they boarded an A321 to experience it for themselves.