Thanks to technological progress people nowadays have the opportunity to travel much more and for longer distances in a very short time, either for pleasure or for business. However, the fact that many people need to work on a daily basis does not allow them to go on a journey whenever they want. Therefore, people wait for the cold season to pass in order to start thinking of the next vacation.
Motivated by people’s desire to travel even when they can’t or lack time to do so, the largest German airline, Lufthansa, assembled an OOH installation in Dusseldorf’s streets which allows people to feel like tourists, even for a short period of time. Thus, the city residents had the opportunity to travel to one of the four destinations offered by the airline company via a digital shop dubbed the Lufthansa TravelKiosk.
This intriguing idea is the brainchild of the German creative agency Kolle Rebbe — Lufthansa’s lead agency. Speaking about this campaign, Christian Kroll, Unit Leader, Creation, explained that “The TravelKiosk is a fascinating Out-of-Home idea which is not only entertaining, but that also offers real added value: a unique travel experience in the middle of a gray winter.”
With the digital shop, the airline together and Hamburg-based agency took pedestrians on an artificial journey via a live stream, during which they could have real-time discussions with the kiosk’s vendors from Tokyo, Miami, Hong Kong, and New York.
Also, thanks to a snack machine incorporated inside the TravelKiosk, passers-by receive a special, but somehow peculiar, souvenir from the shop’s sellers, like a bacon-flavored lip balm, Ramune with wasabi flavor, or baseball bat shaped balloons – and all of these items were given away for free. Even though the products offered are quite strange in Germany, they are very popular in the selected destinations.
Head of Marketing Communication at Lufthansa, Benita Struve, said “This way, we’re giving people a taste of Asia and America. And luring them for a moment to the other end of the world. This is an innovative way for us to increase people’s desire to travel.”
The TravelKiosk was available in Dusseldorf’s Kö-Bogen shopping area and now the special shop, which offers pedestrians the chance to visit new places, is in use at the ITB fair in Berlin. Following the tagline “Nonstop you,” Lufthansa’s initiative was to provide an original experience to its customers.