Emirates Tries to Tap Into Flyers’ Inner Children With Its First Instagram Hack

A giant Connect Four game piece took over Herald Square and Instagram was turned sideways to promote Emirate’s fourth daily flight out of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).

Being one of the airlines in the Open Skies debate did not stop Emirates from inviting New Yorkers in the tri-state Area (New Jersey, New York and Connecticut) on a wintry day to play for a chance to win a business-class trip for two to any of its 140 destinations that leave from JFK.

The event was promoted on Facebook — with a separate Facebook Invite — and Twitter, and passersby and fans on social media were welcome to play. The connection of this local campaign to the Connect Four game was not just related to the number four. According to an Emirates spokesperson, “[The game] was popular with parents that gave it to their children when traveling before the age of seat-back personal entertainment screens.”

Emirates has roughly 420,000 followers on Instagram and wanted to continue this offline experience on the platform. “We wanted to replicate the Connect Four experience on social media and identified Instagram as the most relevant channel to execute this campaign.”

They cleverly simulated a scavenger hunt for the Connect Four chip in a dedicated Instagram account, @connect4_with_emirates. The description instructs users to turn the orientation of the phone length-wise to begin the search in a continuous array of 144 posts made up of photos and videos that are a composite four distinct images: The Great Wall in Beijing, China; V & A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa; La Digue Beach in Seychelles; and the Red Fort in Delhi, India.

Each video reveals an enthusiastic crew member who urges participants with motivational, directional, and factual clues, which makes the game quite addictive. Once the chip is revealed, the crew will direct winning seekers to the post caption for instructions on completing the entry.

The contest ends on April 1 and currently, there are roughly 1,000 winning likes and just as many comments. The winner will be awarded a pair of economy tickets to any Emirates destination, valued at $4,000.

“Awareness of our global network, modern fleet and product choice from a brand perspective as the main key performance indicator [KPI], with consideration to fly with Emirates as a secondary KPI. From a social media perspective, entries, fans and engagement,” said an Emirates spokesperson.