KLM

DARE TO BOOK.
OR CANCEL.

By telling travel-wary Swedes about the airline industry’s best cancellation policy, we helped them dare to dream of summer holidays. Right in the middle of a global pandemic.

THE CHALLENGE

Few industries weren’t hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. But few were hit harder than travel. With the world’s travel plans grounded overnight, no-one dared to book any flights.

Early in the pandemic chaos, KLM had developed the travel industry’s most attractive cancellation policy: a completely open purchase on all airline tickets, with free
no-questions-asked cancellation until the day before departure.

We seized this. And used the idea of cancellation as our hook to book.

THE BRUTALLY SIMPLE SOLUTION

This cancellation policy was so generous, we took care not to mess with it. Our job was simply to talk about it. All we added was a little summer holiday inspiration, to tempt people into dreaming about that long-long-long awaited trip – when they felt ready. The result? A classic travel campaign with wonderful pictures and destinations and an unexpected message: Feel free to cancel.

THE EFFECT

When the campaign launched in November 2020, Sweden’s Covid-19 situation had taken a turn for the worse. Infection was spreading. New stricter restrictions were being imposed. Demand for travel fell again with a further decline of -14%. Yet the campaign sparked a +17% spike in search, 20% rise in web traffic and a +10.7% lift in sales.

The second stage of the campaign broke in February / March 2021, just as the third pandemic wave hit. Nevertheless, KLM experienced a rise in brand awareness and an extraordinary +70% uplift in summer bookings during the campaign period, with sales for the year as a whole up 27%. These positive trends continued for several weeks after the campaign period.