Production

As all travellers know, take-off and landing can sometimes cause pain in the ears. The cabin pressure varies and can block passengers’ ears. Chewing can be enough to balance this internal ear pressure and make the flight more comfortable. For Air France, caring about every detail of their customers’ flights was paramount. Even managing ‘popping’ ears.

Idea

Air France created its very own French chewing gum, available in two distinctively and typically French flavours, pistachio-macaroon and crème brûlée. The gum was made in France and was 100% natural. It was offered on flights from Paris to the USA and Mexico and was on offer in Air France lounges at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.

To raise awareness of this ‘savoir faire’ approach to passenger relations, packs of the gum were mailed to journalists and influencers. In addition, the experience was translated to Snapchat as well, with a Gomme à Mâcher lens.

Results

If you want to know how successful this mailing was, just Google ‘Air France Gomme à Macher’. It comes up with over 16,000 results. The first pages are all news stories from around the world about the macaroon and pistachio flavoured gums. The video has got 1.5 million views on YouTube and a stack more on Facebook. The Drum even posted a video of their newsroom staff all sampling the products (to mostly favourable reviews).

The genius thing about mail is it gets your product into people’s hands – and mouths. And if it’s good, then they’ll talk about it.