Best Travel Ads This Week: Making Freebies and Surprises Count

Branded marketing events can take place at high traffic areas in cities — the word activation is forbidden at Skift — to create awareness or digitally to excite and interact with people.

Oftentimes, these happenings aren’t promoted or replayed on video but Uber, JetBlue, and Delta are leveraging these past and future moments with a little help from their friends at Capital One, Coca-Cola, and the New York Yankees.

For all of our SkiftAds of the week, view our travel ads archives here.

Uber

Summer and ice cream. What can be a better combination? Its fourth annual promotion called #UberIceCream ad shows work clothes turning into shorts and flip-flops; heels into jelly sandals; and a fancy meal into multiple ice cream choices. Uber and Capital One sweeten the deal by allowing Uber users to get this ice cold treat delivered to their door in participating cities. Capital One cardholders can get it for free if they use their card to purchase and punch in a code. BTW, this is happening at select cities today, July 24!

Delta

https://youtu.be/q5FM-nU_Swc

Being hyperlocal is one way marketers are making their way into people’s memories through crafting unforgettable moments. Some passersby on the pedestrian area in front of New York’s Madison Square Park were drawn to answer a ringing phone attached to an outpost of the New York Yankees dugout. A few were compelled to pickup and hear the voice of Mariano Rivera — baseball pitcher — who was live on the other line watching them on a camera. He surprised them thrice by his presence on the phone and in person and two free tickets to the game that night, courtesy of Delta. Not sure if Delta’s brand got the credit for this one over the Yankees franchise.

JetBlue

Coca-Cola baits pop-drinking humans, but in this case, the beverage company — JetBlue’s onboard concession partner — was the airlines’ worm. The big and bold soda machine was placed in the Amtrak concourse of New York City’s most hated train station, Pennsylvania Station. It dispensed an extra bottle with instructions displayed on a screen that read, “Share a Coke with Humanity.” It was part an experiment to see if “Busy New Yorkers will take the time to share” and part marketing opportunity for JetBlue to reward people — with two roundtrip tickets — who are inadvertent advocates of their mantra, “Air on the Side of Humanity.” Interestingly enough both Coca-Cola and JetBlue share kindness as part of their brand identity and advertising campaigns.