Have you noticed? Most airline passengers do not pay attention when the safety video is being shown. Having seen more of the same again and again, they prefer to look out of the window, fiddle around with their smartphone or hide behind the newspaper. Well, airlines have noticed, too, and some have come up with innovative ways to capture the attention of you, the flying customer.
VX Safety Dance
In 2013, Virgin America (now part of Alaska Airlines) produced a memorable in-flight video that made the beginning of any flight so much more interesting than anyone would ordinarily hope for. Featuring Todrick Hall, a finalist from American Idol, the cheeky safety instructions and quickly changing dance and music styles (break dance, jazz, rap, tango…you name it) definitely had passengers moving in their seat before take-off. Expect anything from a dancing nun to a bunch of Men in Black educating you about the proper use of life vests. In its heyday, the video quickly went viral on YouTube and, at last count, had some 13 million viewers. How many actually had stepped on a Virgin America plane to see the video?….Pssst, that number remains unknown.
Virgin America: Safety Video #VXsafetydance
In-Flight Adventures on Your Way to Middle Earth
Not only are Air New Zealand in-flight videos, such as The Hobbit safety video below, entertaining for those tourists anxious to arrive in Middle Earth, they also represent the very best in destination marketing, demonstrating how a cooperation between the national tourism organization, airline and a filmmaker – namely, Peter Jackson – can truly benefit a destination. Air New Zealand has used the Lord Of The Rings / Middle Earth theme more than once to instruct passengers about safety in its own unique and always entertaining way; many surveyed visitors to New Zealand confirm that indeed they visited the country because they were inspired by The Lord of the Rings trilogy, or The Hobbit series. Air New Zealand successfully has shown the world what is possible in terms of destination branding and has also produced a whole range of other innovative and fun in-flight videos.
Air New Zealand: The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made
A safety film brought to you by Alice & Co
UK-based Thomson Airways (now called TUI Airways) used yet another approach for entertaining passengers just before they depart to their next vacation destination, and it is sure-fire to work because it involves…children! Cute children. As a matter of fact, very cute children – dressed up as pilots and stewardesses and explaining everything you need to know about safety procedures on board. Part of the appeal of the video is that it offers a peculiar combination of British cordiality and child-like sweetness. Naturally, all the passengers in this hilarious in-flight movie are also children, with some rather cool-looking tourist types among them, little boys barely filling the seat they are occupying and basically making the cabin look empty when the whole scene is filmed from behind.
So with all the great entertainment going on, will you still understand and follow all essential safety procedures? As the rationally thinking consumer that you are, of course, you will! Right?
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