Show Stopover: Icelandair’s Live In-Flight Theater Performance

January 3, 2018  | Written by Stephanie Taylor

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APEX Insight: Take a seat. Icelandair employees are trained to perform more than safety instructions and rudimentary tasks.

Icelandair is celebrating its 80th anniversary with the introduction of an innovative campaign. Passengers flying across the Atlantic can spend up to seven nights in Iceland at no extra airfare and now, with Stopover Pass, can enter a prize draw to win tickets to local music, art and sports events to attend during their stay.

In September, Icelandair kicked off the campaign with a three-act immersive theater performance on a flight between London and New York via Iceland. The aircraft cabin was the stage of a play that recounted the airline’s history. The cast? Professional actors and Icelandair employees, of course.

“We commissioned some research, which revealed flyers are seeking both better customer service and more unique in-flight entertainment.” – George Bryant, Brooklyn Brothers

George Bryant, founder and executive creative director of advertising agency Brooklyn Brothers, which developed the campaign alongside Icelandic firm Íslenska, explains, “We commissioned some research, which revealed flyers are seeking both better customer service and more unique in-flight entertainment … We wanted to entertain passengers and attract new ones by turning wasted time traveling into time well traveled.”

Around 100 Icelandair employees auditioned for various roles by taking part in voluntary stage school classes, before the final 20 were chosen. “We had a very difficult job of whittling down the stage school attendees to the final cast due to the sheer number of staff that wanted to be involved,” Jon Skafti Kristjansson, Icelandair’s director of Marketing, says.

According to Kristján Schram, account director and head strategic planner at Íslenska, what came next was “pretty grueling” immersive theater training. “First, they learned exercises to loosen up and to react creatively to surprising circumstances,” he says. “Then, they started getting to know the character they were playing – how they thought and behaved – and had to create a story behind them.”

This isn’t the first time Icelandair put its staff in the limelight. “We know travelers really value human interaction and authentic experiences,” Bryant says, “both from consumer insight and following the success of Icelandair’s pioneering Stopover Buddy service last year, where we matched passengers to airline staff, who acted as their local hosts in Iceland.”

Because only a limited number of people will get to experience the in-flight performance, Icelandair is offering passengers the chance to attend events such as an international soccer match in Reykjavik, or a concert by Sigur Rós, courtesy of the airline. Harking back to a prior campaign, Icelandair is also hosting live mini concerts, each in the living room
of a Stopover Buddy

“Show Stopover” was originally published in the 7.5 December/January issue of APEX Experience magazine.