EasyJet’s Peter Duffy: ‘We can connect emotionally as well as on price’
Easyjet has launched a £10m European campaign to mark its 20th anniversary – combining a love story with a retro throwback to its very first ad from 1995 – as it looks to combine its price-led messaging with a more emotive style of storytelling.
The TV ad, created by VCCP, features a couple falling in love and having a child after meeting on an EasyJet flight.
The budget airline has also revived its first ever TV ad through social media, with the retro commercial talking up how its £29.99 flights “cost the same as a pair of jeans”.
Peter Duffy, group commercial director at EasyJet, says the brand’s history is something it can “be proud of”.
“It’s rare for a brand to be offering the same prices 20 years on and communicating our story really shows the warmth of the brand,” he told Marketing Week.
“Our amazing prices and customer service are integral to our marketing, sure, but we know we can connect beyond that through emotional storytelling too.”
Through the #TimeFlies hashtag, the brand is appealing for the public to send in their favourite EasyJet holiday snaps. Subsequently, it will turn the images into a mosaic for a special 20th birthday aircraft livery.
Duffy admits that social is now becoming “a bigger focus” for the brand and that being “social-led” is an emerging trend.
He also said the brand was continuing to successfully convert British Airways and Air France flyers into loyal customers; over the last year, 60% of EasyJet customers are people who have booked with the brand before.
Duffy concluded: “I wouldn’t call Ryanair a rival – as only around 6% of our seats overlap with Ryanair – our main competitors are the airlines who go to the primary airports.
“As soon as people use us they like us and stick with us. Our level of loyalty and repeat travel is growing extraordinarily every year.”
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