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Digital signage and JetBlue play 'Vacation Migration'

To help promote budget airline JetBlue's growing number of nonstop flights to three vacation destinations, Pearl Media partnered with the airline and its advertising agency to create an interactive digital signage gaming experience.

January 26, 2015

To help promote budget airline JetBlue's growing number of nonstop flights from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to three vacation destinations, Pearl Media partnered with JetBlue and its advertising agency to create an interactive digital signage gaming experience last year.

According to an announcement from Pearl Media, the game used gesture technology to virtually "transform" consumers into pigeons, and had them competing in a race to arrive in Cartagena, Colombia; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; or San Juan, Puerto Rico. The experience touched down on trendy Las Olas Boulevard for three nights in October, and throughout the weekend 415 players participated in the Vacation Migration experience.

The gaming experience, Vacation Migration, was devised to deliver a unique and fun consumer engagement, bringing awareness to the brand's growing network of nonstop destinations out of Fort Lauderdale. JetBlue's ad agency, Mullen, and Pearl Media developed the game by leveraging gesture technology.

"Breaking demanding travelers out of their familiar patterns is an ongoing challenge for airlines, and this JetBlue game experience was intended to be a market disrupter to inform travelers about these new options," Pearl Media CEO Josh Cohen said in the announcement.

To play, two competitors positioned themselves in front of a 16-foot-by-9-foot LED screen, with an image of two pigeons sitting on the Las Olas Boulevard sign. Gesture technology came into play when each participant flapped his or her arms as quickly as possible to fly their pigeon to its destination. The winning bird, determined by number of flaps per second, landed at the chosen destination.

Once the second bird arrived, the winner was announced and confetti fluttered down across the screen. Finally, the top 10 flappers from all participants appeared on a leader board.  At the end of each day, the top five scoring participants each won two round-trip tickets to one of the three destinations, courtesy of JetBlue.

"We are always looking for uniquely fun ways to entertain our customers," said Phillip Ma, JetBlue manager of advertising. "In partnering with an innovative media company like Pearl, we are able to tap into the ever-growing consumer gaming trend while creating awareness around our new routes and encouraging travel."