Gulf Air Goes Straight For Its Passengers Hearts

Gulf Air, Bahrain’s national flag carrier, has facing some significant hurdles recently. On the heals of Gulf Air dealing with financial troubles, an inability to break free of government funding as intended, increased competition in the region and route restructuring, Bahrain has been rocked by political unrest, riots and a public violent divide as citizens demand greater democratic freedoms.

 

Bahrain’s geo-political crisis has had a profound impact on Gulf Air as businesses have shied away from tiny Gulf nation, air cargo has been shifted to nations perceived to be more stable and passengers traveling to or transferring through Manama have largely sought alternate travel options.   As Gulf Air copes with the geo-political situation outside of its control, the airline has turned its focus to winning the loyalty of Bahrainis.  Rather than using an outsiders view of Gulf Air and Bahrain, the airline has turned inward, using its own in-house creative teams to shoot a series of locally shot and produced Straight From The Heart promotional videos.

 

Gulf Air, an airline that has previously has problems connecting on a personal level with its core passengers through its marketing efforts, started fresh with the Straight From The Heart campaign. Each of the airline’s video segments features actual passengers, business travelers, athletes, children, in their own environment, at home, in their office, out and about … and to make each of the segments more interesting, those featured in the segments chose their own words rather than working off of a polished script.

 

Some of Gulf Air’s Straight From The Heart videos are in Arabic, others in English, reaching a broader audience. While the videos were intended for television ad spots in Bahrain, the message of the campaign and the uniqueness of the campaign for the region pushes Gulf Air into a strong position to achieve its intended goal of reaching out and touching its current passengers, former passengers and future passengers on an emotional level.

 

Below are a few videos from Gulf Air’s Straight From The Heart campaign.

 

Happy Flying!