How To... Influence Travel; The $21,000 Seat

There's a great line from Robert Louis Stevenson that I first came across almost a quarter of a century ago; "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."

Stevenson was a journey-is-the-destination kinda guy, a traveller in the true romantic sense.

Just last month, digital media super influencer Casey Neistat channelled Stevenson with a video upload already watched by over 20m people, and where the long tail will no doubt wag well beyond 30m views.

Neistat's video, The $21,000 First Class Airplane Seat [below], is currently clocking 21.83m views on YouTube, showing all the assured ascent of an Airbus A380.

Aside from being an indirect but affectionate 10-minute nod to Stevenson’s ‘great affair’, this latest influencer meme should prompt a question within branding circles; Has the consumer journey, the customer experience, and the expressing of product attributes ever been more fun to watch and witness?

Marketers have long-adopted the language of travel, talking of consumer journeys and paths-to-purchase, steps brands need to encourage consumers to take across emotional and physical terrain.

Step-by-Step

That first essential step is awareness of a brand, leading to consideration of it based on rational or emotional terms, before that crucial, behavioural step towards trial or purchase, followed by repeat purchase and advocacy. 

The consumer journey and how to shuffle folk along it is the touchstone of every marketing brief, while recognising that its ‘linear literalness’ is the best-we-have-to-work-with-but-far-from-how-it-is in-the-real-world. 

There are also many who happily challenge the prosaic and figuratively pedestrian view of consumer decision journeys. [Consultancy firm] McKinsey, for one, constructively stirred the debate with suggestions of a path that is circular (but where ever-decreasing circles are to be avoided).

McKinsey suggest folding the straight line, turning it oval, proposing, simply, that (especially in a digital age) consumers investigate more, accumulating knowledge that builds (or not) to the tipping point of decision. Whether you map a journey left-to-right, or create a more esoteric track, the fundamentals of forward and backward motion along a cognitive and behavioural path remain.

I don’t know whether Casey Neistat has ever turned his Wayfarer-lensed gaze to Consumer Journey periodicals – but I do recognise that he’s something of a marketing Jedi, regardless of whether he’s trying to be or not. By simply being his genuine and enthusiastic self, Neistat’s video dispatches demonstrate an understanding of what online audiences want to watch, and of how ‘brand experience’ can be chronicled in ways that feel relaxed, informal, and very watchable.

Be active in activation

Prior to Neistat’s trip home from Dubai, the big sponsor airline known notoriously in agency circles for ‘never activating’ has remained conspicuously and sadly low profile in the world of online video. Emirates did play a blinder with their Benfica Safety video back in October 2015 [above], and subsequently serialised the concept with reasonable success… but perhaps their brief but serendipitous encounter with Casey Neistat will give them the necessary confidence to take a full- rather than half-leap of faith. Certainly the travel category is not lacking exemplars in case study success; Turkish Airlines and Destination Canada represent a quick-fire two.

Who can you trust?

Personal narratives… human stories… real people… the recognition that we trust friends and family more than strangers and vested-interest corporations: chuck all these well-acknowledged and over-familiar headlines in a pot, sprinkle in a smidgen of consumer journey context, stir gently, and what you get by way of salving your online video appetite is a campaign like Destination Canada.

Of course, the likes of Turkish Airlines and Destination Canada would never agree with Stevenson [pictured above] in matters of ultimate destination. Stevenson didn’t believe in one, while for marketers of all categories, the consumer journey is closer to a Hero's Journey, a quest with a clear and desired outcome, a Holy Grail ending where market share is absolute, with everyone buying and advocating in perpetuity.

Free market forces like ‘competition’ prevent the ultimate ending for any brand - but then, that's all part of the fun of it. It’s where influencers like Casey Neistat come in, and the good news is that means better watching for the rest of us.