Aircraft maker Embraer roared at the Paris Air Show with Gravity Global

The Embraer ‘Profit Hunter’ campaign by Gravity outperformed competitor aircraft manufacturers globally.

The campaign’s key objectives were to support the global roll out of the all new E195-E2; lead the aviation headlines during Paris Air Show and beyond; beat previous campaign results; outperform Positive Brand Sentiment with Boeing and Airbus; increase global reach and brand awareness by maximizing media opportunities across paid, owned and earned on same budget as previous year; and to ensure prospects visit the aircraft during sales tour.

The strategy

The team designed a global campaign that integrated paid, owned and earned channels and events at air shows. Gravity created personas for the audience and the aircraft. Renaming the not particularly memorable E190-E2 and E195-E2 as the ‘Profit Hunter’ reflected the proposition (most efficient/profitable) and the target market’s needs (profit) – something even more relevant in the current environment.

The ‘big idea’ was to use hand-painted predators from the natural world on nose cones to attract attention and reflect efficiency and profit making.

The Paris Air Show was chosen as the stage for the global roll out of the all new E195-E2 – famously nicknamed the Profit Hunter – Tech Lion. The lion was chosen because of its predatory prowess and for being known as the King of the Jungle, perfectly matched to positioning the Profit Hunter’s technology.

As well as reflecting the predatory theme, the team needed to highlight the new technology on the aircraft. It created experiences using AR and VR to showcase technological innovations.

The lion creative required bravery because never before had the company attempted to paint an entire aircraft and neither had the artist, an employee of Embraer. This was so successful customers are now asking for their own aircraft to be painted in similar styles.

The campaign

The idea was hugely positively received, dominating the Paris Air Show, featuring extensively in the world’s leading media, doubling the reach of the campaign and creating queues to see and be photographed with the aircraft.

The teaser video for the Profit Hunter Tech Lion received over 1m Youtube views. The follow up reveal video , featuring an animated ‘Tech Lion’ brilliantly transforming into the Profit Hunter aircraft achieved 1.2m views, and is now Embraer’s most watched video of all time.

The team also created documentary style films called Incredible Journeys, showing how the new Profit Hunter aircraft are enabling airlines in places like Kazakhstan and Brazil open up to new routes. In addition, it created a news TV show from the Paris Air Show called Air Sights engaging our audiences with ‘snackable’ news items broadcast on Youtube and receiving an average 50k views per news item.

The results

The campaign completely outperformed across all KPIs:

• Achieved 12 new customers and 86 aircraft orders $5bn in order value
• Brand mentions up 88.8% YoY
• Audience reach up 79.3%
• Engagement up 26% YoY
• Net sentiment +85% monthly average for Ejets – highest recorded net sentiment of all manufacturers
• Growth as a global brand with increases across all regions in impressions: Americas +25%, Europe +125%, Africas +400%, Asia-Pacific +35%
• The Azul aircraft delivery ceremony was streamed on Youtube and received more than 250k live views – the first ever aircraft delivery to be streamed live
• Covid pivot – Youtube video ‘For a Different World’ received 325k views in the first two weeks
• Six episodes of Incredible Journeys – achieving 1.7m video views

This project was a winner at The Drum Awards for Marketing 2021. Find out which competitions in The Drum Awards are currently open and don’t forget to visit our new interactive calendar.