We Like This Promotion

As I write this, Iceland has just been eliminated from the 2018 World Cup. And even though I am officially an England supporter (as dictated by my heritage), I found myself rooting for Iceland as well.

How couldn't you cheer for a World Cup team that comes from a country of only 334,000 people? Compare that to much larger countries that didn't qualify, like the US (323 MILLION people) and Italy (60 million). Or even my home country of Canada, at 36 million people and exactly zero World Cup qualifications.

As I watched the great underdog story of Iceland in the World Cup, I was reminded of the great marketing program run by its home airline, Icelandair. For years, they have promoted "The Icelandair Stopover". Fly with them across the Atlantic, stopover in Iceland, and stay for up to a week for no additional airfare.

We like this promotion for its simplicity. It's easy to understand, and it's been a huge success.

A year ago, we took advantage of this promotion when we flew home to Toronto, from Amsterdam. Without the stopover promotion, we probably wouldn't have thought to stop in Iceland. We're glad we did. It is a stunning, beautiful country that is almost difficult to describe. In some places it is like being on a different planet. One moment the scenery is rugged rocks, and a moment later it's lush, green, rolling hills. Later, it looks like you're on the surface of the moon.

In our case, we flew Icelandair from Amsterdam to Toronto for approximately the same cost as flying other airlines, with the added benefit of our wonderful 3 day stay in Iceland. Since that trip, we've recommended Iceland to anybody who will listen to our stories of how beautiful it is there. And that's the kind of ROI that's never really reflected in a boring spreadsheet.

I'm sure at some point in this promotion's brainstorm stage, an accountant at Icelandair said, "A stopover for no extra airfare? Think of all the money we'll be turning away". And that is the great foresight of this promotion. Whatever Icelandair loses in extra airfare, it gains in referrals, goodwill, happy customers and a huge influx in tourism dollars for Iceland itself.

It's the kind of promotion that's so simple, I'm sure other airlines wish they thought of it first.

Photo credits 2017 Joe Middleton