Campaign

Here are two of the latest spots from Southwest Airlines and GSD&M Idea City which are part of their Bags Fly Free campaign that has been running for most of this year. While some of the spots in this campaign have been hit-or-miss in my opinion, I’ve come to enjoy seeing the various incarnations of this series pan out. While some of that is due to the light-hearted humor used in practically every piece, a much larger contributing factor to why I enjoy these spots is because the agency has been able to turn a company who’s widely known as harvesting a culture of putting both it’s employees and customers first and exaggerating it to the point of playfulness. I’m willing to bet that the team who came up with the campaign has a well worn (probably heavily dog-eared) copy of the book Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success somewhere in the planning department.

While the book comes across as being a slightly exaggerated account of how the company operates (i.e. the recent Union disagreements within the company vs. one of the core company values brought up by the author as the ‘secret to their success’), it does stress the idea that if they treat their employees well, there will be a ripple effect resulting in a high-level of job satisfaction and in turn customer appreciation. For those not familiar with the history of the brand and it’s ability to maintain a profit while competing airlines were requiring bailouts, this might serve as a brief glimpse into that company culture. Plus they couldn’t make it any more clear that bags fly free – something that most travelers often forget until it’s too late and their already at the terminal. Below you’ll find the second new piece in the series named, We’ve Got A Runner.

Southwest Airlines – We’ve Got A Runner: