Ingrid Barrentine/Alaska Airlines
E. Alaska Airlines Great American Eclipse Flight: There’s nothing Alaska Airlines pilots like more than a challenge. As a company that started out flying between remote airfields in the Alaskan “bush,” safely navigating where other airlines can’t is in Alaska’s blood. The 2017 Great American Eclipse was the perfect event to showcase Alaska’s reputation as a pioneering airline that goes beyond customer expectations—38,000 feet in the air.
While Alaska Airlines pilots were working with astronomers to determine the exact point in time and space to best intercept totality. We were positioning Alaska Airlines as the only airline to own the Great American Eclipse event from the air.
On June 26, Alaska was the first airline to issue a news release announcing their plan to host a Great American Eclipse flight. The release outlined the flight plan and the intention to include scientists, eclipse enthusiasts and news media in the festivities. The announcement set off a flurry of national stories, media inquiries and eclipse chasers vying for a seat on the flight.
Through a combination of inquiries received after the announcement and targeted pitches to key national media, the team assembled a guest list including NBC, CBS, AP, Reuters, USA Today, BBC, The Guardian, Radiolab and Weather Channel. In addition to national media, seats were made available to local Seattle, Portland and Bay Area media—a key market for Alaska Airlines expansion.
To create additional story angles and maximize social media opportunities, the team also built a list of key eclipse experts and enthusiasts to invite on the flight. In total, the team secured seven enthusiasts, including NASA Astronaut, Dr. Michael Barratt.
Leading up to the eclipse, other airlines began to announce “eclipse viewing” flights throughout the country. But months of careful planning told Alaska the only way to truly intercept totality was over the ocean, due to the angle of the sun. To further separate Alaska from the rest of the pack, we designed a “flight map” to clearly explain the importance of the flight path and timing to intercept the eclipse. In addition, the team placed a national NPR story leading up to the eclipse that focused on the flight mechanics, helping to tell the story of collaboration between Alaska pilots and astronomers. At the same time, the team secured a partnership with GoPro to shoot the eclipse flight exclusively on GoPro cameras and share the resulting video through both Alaska Airlines’ and GoPro’s social media channels after the flight.
The ‘Great American Eclipse Flight’ was a huge success. The blog post (https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/solar-eclipse/) and video were integrated seamlessly, resulting in a multimedia package that reached 2.5 million people. Positive customer posts flooded Alaska Airlines’ feeds with a 458% increase in social media engagement, departing from the “lost luggage” and “delayed flight” comments typically found on airline social channels. The event generated more than 3,700 stories and more than 1.3 billion media impressions. By being the only airline to get the eclipse science right, Alaska’s attention to detail from every angle allowed them to truly own the “eclipse from the sky” event.
