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Company Notes
Icelandair sales and marketing staff are located all
around the globe, and are constantly thinking of new
and improved ways to get the positive message about
Iceland across to the rest of the world. Last January,
around 1,000 advertising posters were placed in the
Paris Metro railway station. If one happened to be in
Paris, it was quite hard not to see these posters for
they were two metres wide and 1.5m high. The
posters encouraged Parisians to travel to the myste-
rious country in north, promising them a unique and
a surprising life experience. The advertising campaign
resulted in an immediate positive impact on flight bookings from Paris to Iceland. It was the premiere
of this particular campaign in Paris, but the idea was actually developed first by Icelandair in the
London Underground. With over one billion passenger trips per year, the Underground is a superb
way to get the message across to the UK public. In London, there are four different packages to
Iceland being advertised in the Underground: clubbing, horse riding, snowmobiling and the Blue
Lagoon. The adverts have a UK theme based on the old English seaside ads, and can be seen on 550
sites throughout the tube network.
Icelandair USA and its advertising agency Nasuti & Hinkle won the HSMAI (Hospitality Sales and
Marketing Association International) Annual Awards ceremony for radio and print ads.
The HSMAI is the most prestigious competition within the travel and hospitality industry and the
2001 show drew more than 1,500 entries from 46 countries around the world. In the past two years,
Icelandair has won eight awards in the competition, three in 2000 and five in 2001. In the most recent
show, an individual radio spot and the image campaign both won Silver Awards while another indi-
vidual radio spot, image campaign and transit campaign all won Bronze Awards. Last year, Icelandair
won two Gold Awards - one for its image campaign and a second one for a radio campaign - and a
Bronze Award for an individual radio spot. This is a great honour for Icelandair and an inspiration
towards further achievements in the future.
Icelandair and Toyota recently joined forces to create an
ad campaign with strong marketing results. An
Icelandair Boeing jet was emblazoned with an image of
the new Corolla on its wing.A special advertising leaflet
was distributed with the Morgunbladid daily paper
under the headline "Take off with the new
Corolla" with a photo of an Icelandair plane carrying a
brand new Corolla on its wing. All readers were invited
to a special Corolla weekend where Icelandair had spe-
cial offers to Florida for the occasion. The campaign
was an experimental one for Toyota and Icelandair and
no decision has been reached on further cooperation.
According to Icelandair's PR director, Gudjón
Arngrímsson, "this is a fun new way to advertise and
created interest in Icelandair and Iceland abroad. "
Icelandair celebrates summer by sponsoring Cesaria
Evora´s concert in Reykjavík on 24 April. Many people
missed her two unforgettable sell-out shows at
Reykjavík’s Art Festival in the year 2000, but this time
around, she will be performing at a larger venue: the
Laugardalur Sports Stadium. Evora's Grammy-nominat-
ed debut album was cited as ‘Best of the Year’ by
more than a dozen major US publications. Her best-
selling 1995 album Cesaria was released in more than
20 countries and has consistently remained near the
top of Billboard's world music chart. Evora has unin-
tentionally joined the select ranks of the world´s most
widely acclaimed artists.
For more information see www.icelandair.net
Icelandair takes Toyota
to the Skies
The Barefoot Diva in Reykjavík
Icelandair
Advertising
Wins Award
Underground Marketing
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