American Airlines’ powerful new ad, “Let’s Go Further Together,” marks the eighth collaborative fundraising campaign between the brand and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C).
Creative agency Walter Isaacson follows the journey of director and cancer survivor Michael Marantz to his profound bell-ringing moment. The campaign not only highlights individual victories but also emphasizes the importance of contributions by both large corporations and individuals in advancing cancer research.
Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed on actual viewer response to the campaign.
The Details:
- “Let’s Go Further Together” was a smash hit with American viewers across age/gender, who ranked the :60 in the very top percentile of airline ads over the past year on many performance metrics, including overall response:
- Breakthrough (Attention and Likeability), Relevance, Watchability, Information and Change all placed in the top percentile, with the Desire built by the spot placing it in the 90th percentile.
- Viewers gave high praise to the Corporate Responsibility and Philanthropy demonstrated in the Heartfelt message of the spot, with that message and the brand rated the Single Best Things about the creative at disproportionately high rates vs. category norms (the message at 2.5X the rate).
- Rosario Dawson (not widely recognized) and the deal/offer of bonus miles in recognition of donations were not particular standouts to most viewers.
- While at airline norms, there is opportunity for the brand to boost American recall (at 65% unaided), perhaps via on-screen branding to coincide with audio mentions such that the brand is linked more closely with the cause (and earlier in the spot).
- As a result of the strong emotional reactions, 65% of all viewers reported positive consideration—which tracks an impressive +22 pts above norm. These results support strong budget behind this creative to boost business outcomes for American as long as the link to the brand’s involvement is clear.
- Breakthrough (Attention and Likeability), Relevance, Watchability, Information and Change all placed in the top percentile, with the Desire built by the spot placing it in the 90th percentile.
- “Let’s Go Further Together” sparked Empowerment at the highest level as well, an Extremely Rare occurrence across all ads (less than 0.1% of ads achieve this level), with 63% of viewer sentiment on the ad positive:
- Viewers were most affected by the positive, heartwarming, and inspiring narrative while 31% of positive sentiment specifically mentioned support of cancer research.
- There could be opportunity for new creative by the brand that expands viewer knowledge of American Airlines’ cancer research support beyond donation gathering.
- Viewers were most affected by the positive, heartwarming, and inspiring narrative while 31% of positive sentiment specifically mentioned support of cancer research.
Sample comments on “Let’s Go Further Together” :60
“First off, Rosario Dawson is a great spokesperson for their brand. Secondly, I thought the ad was very informative as to what your money was being used for.”
Male 21-35
“I like that American Airlines joined Stand Up To Cancer, it’s something that speaks to me too much for words. I’ve lost many family members to cancer and hopefully now that people are joining with this company, we will find more ways to treat and cure cancer patients.”
Female 21-35
“It’s nice to see that cancer survivors/victims are being cared for and looked after by big companies, the donation is highly moving, especially for those that also like to travel by planes. American Airlines is a go!”
Male 21-35
“What I think about the ad is it does not convey the notion of how American Airlines is connected at all with cancer research. I don’t follow the message on how it’s different than any other company.”
Male 36-49
“This almost made me cry. What a wonderful message and what a wonderful thing for this airline to do. It was uplifting, and it made me feel a little bit better about American Airlines.”
Female 50+
“Ad was sad. At first I didn’t know its direction but it ended with a heap of information and the patient ringing the bell for being cancer-free.”
Female 36-49
- One of competitor Delta’s Olympic ads this year was nearly as Empowering, but connected with viewers through Inspiring visuals rather than messaging:
- “Going Somewhere” welcomed the four sports new to the Olympics in the Paris Games (breaking, surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding) by showing representative ‘unexpected’ athletes practicing their passion before the opportunity arose for them to ‘take flight.’
- While equally Empowering, the Delta creative did not drive gen pop viewers to as high a level of consideration for the brand as “Let’s Go Further Together.”
- “Going Somewhere” welcomed the four sports new to the Olympics in the Paris Games (breaking, surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding) by showing representative ‘unexpected’ athletes practicing their passion before the opportunity arose for them to ‘take flight.’
- Of the five best received airline ads over the past year, “Let’s Go Further Together” led the pack through the delivery of new (Change) Information in an Attention-getting and Likeable manner:
- The American Airlines spot also led this group of ads in driving consumer purchase/visit intent.
Ineffective creative, even if delivered to the right audience, results in missed opportunity and performance shortfalls. Great creative delivered poorly also results in failed campaigns.
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Creative Agency: Walter Isaacson