5 Ways New WestJet Dominican Republic Christmas Commercial Went Viral

While I was in the Dominican Republic, the Canadian airline WestJet surprised the people of the Nuevo Renacer village with a snowy white Christmas. WestJet surprised the people with a little make believe snow and probably their first ever gifts. Dominican families don’t celebrate Christmas with gifts as most North Americans and Europeans. Most can’t even afford the basic necessities of life, therefore Christmas gifts are not even a thought. Even when I asked my Dominican friend Rafael about buying Christmas gifts, he looked like a deer in headlights and for minutes he didn’t even understand what I was asking. A little later he clarified that Dominicans only celebrate the holidays with a meal and maybe a church service.

With a  Most Dominicans are happy people who manage to smile through rainstorms and poverty that embark the nation. With no government assistance programs such as welfare or food stamps in place, everyone does their part to survive. Smiling goes a long way no matter what country I visit. Personally, I am grateful that WestJet chose such a deserving land to bless this holiday season.

Gift giving or not, from the beaches to the villages, WestJet had both Dominicans, tourist throughout the islands, and people all over the world talking about the generosity and giving this Christmas. How did they do it? It’s sounds simple….they created a Youtube video that has already touched almost 3 million people since it’s release on November 30th.

This year’s Youtube video created by WestJet using Santa Blue invited members of the community of Nuevo Renacer, near Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic to tell Santa Blue still at the North Pole what they really wanted or needed for Christmas. WestJet’s team and other organizations in the community played Santa’s Caribbean elves and began making wishes come true that will impact a community for years to come.

Cory Evans, Manager, Sponsorship, Community Investment and Experiential Marketing at WestJet, said the reason they chose the Dominican Republic area

Watch this video to see how it all happened. Afterwards, find my gift to you, 4 ways you can create your own viral video.

5 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR VIDEOS OR SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT GO VIRAL

1.. Brainstorm to identify needs or concerns that your audience will connect with. Listen to your audience. Know what interests them, who else they follow, listen to their conversations in personal feeds. Geniunely be friends with the people you service. What do they really like or want to see more of? Use analytics and other listening tools to find out then be prepared to create the campaign based on what you’ve heard or seen. Of course, organizations often hire marketing and digital marketing firms like ours to consult with them for the brainstorming process or to fulfill a creative role that can sometimes be missed.

In the case of the WestJet, they knew that Canadians love to escape the snow in Canada and they have multiple flights per week to the D.R. and Puerto Plata (POP) is one of the major destinations Canadians fly into.

2. Find an organization or create a partnership with the same core values.  WestJet is an awesome company and one of my favorites when it comes to core values in not only social media, but real life. But, what does WestJet have in common with these people and why do they need the partnerships with organizations in the D.R.? The answer: They needed to create a good community culture and segway into the Dominican community surrounding the Puerto Plata (POP) airport. It was also important for WestJet to really understand the culture and people of the D.R.

The partnerships didn’t just start with the concept of the Santa Blue video. It began two years ago when WestJet sent 40 WestJetters to build 23 homes in the Dominican Republic and a basketball court among a new community favorite – a playground! WestJet began building homes and playgrounds for children who were traditionally either not enrolled in school or tardy to school. Now, kids want to attend school to arrive early play on a playground and parents are seeking to enroll kids in school even though attending school is not a requirement. Although unexpected,

3. Give from the heart and expect nothing in return, not even viral content. Ask my team or my clients and they will all tell you, there is no better way to create a viral social media campaign or viral social media content without one word – GIVE! And expect to receive nothing!  I love helping people, especially when they need something as simple as a pair of flip-flops, a blender, a horse, washing machine, and the list goes on when it comes to the needs of the Dominicans.

Notice earlier in #2, WestJet started giving to the Dominicans two years ago, not on November 30th when the video was released.

4. Capture the moments to tell the story.  Seek the best videographers and or photographers that you can afford or ask for their participation in the project. Again, seek the professionals that will best align with the core values of your company or organization. Who knows?! If they like the concept and idea enough they may be willing to donate their time and services for the cause. An image is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000! Make this part the best it can be from capturing to editing.

To create this video, WestJet hired local Dominican videographers and photographers that typically photograph weddings for Americans and Canadians. They did not skimp on quality or timing to edit. People worked around the clock to set up cameras and edit the footage in time for the November 30th release.

5. Create the social media strategy. After the footage is captured, edited and posted, now what? You can’t expect it to grow legs and start running. Name the campaign and make it simple to understand in writing. PuT it OuT there….on ALL of your social media channels! Ask employees to share it. Craft a traditional Public Relations campaign to support the Social Media Campaign. There is so much going on in the world around us, we can’t just expect a bird to fly without being nurtured. Nurture the campaign and may your views forever increase over time. Ensure your favorite news channels and papers, writers, bloggers, and magazines know about it.

Each year WestJet really goes all out on their video in terms of publishing it on their own social media channels, publishing the video on their blog, creating a why they did it video, and coordinating to use part of their footage from the Youtube video as their television commercials which alerts shows such as the Today Show, Good Morning America, and all other major news stations.

Thanks for inspiring everyone WestJet! For those of you who want to follow along the entire journey of some of my more personal projects or travel, please subscribe to my personal blog where I often blog about my travel experiences and more personal things that don’t involve social media – Follow me and subscribe there too: www.PSthisRocks.com. You’ll soon find out how WestJet and some of my other Dominican friends and photographer Genesis Reyes inspires me. Oh! Thank you Genesis Reyes for participating in the WestJet filming and for being a giving soul. You rock! If you all agree, leave Genesis a comment of gratitude below. He worked extremely long hours and was actually sick for a few days afterwards.

Click here to find more tips on creating awesome youtube videos. 

If you missed last year’s WestJet Christmas video with over 36 million views, here it is: