The Journey
KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines
Issue 52 | September 2019
Agency
Airborne
Creative Team
Concept, Creative Direction: Marvin Jacobs
Production Team
Project Management: Nicole Florencio, Maaike Luijer, Rhona MacGuire Visual Design: Marijn Slot User Experience Design: Maxim van Dam Motion Design: Enzo Greco Development: Arjan Kruithof Strategic Planning: Harm Balvers, Arne Stierman Host: Jonathan Groubert Music/Sound Design: Big Orange, Lab3
Other Credits
Account: Sander de Graauw
Date
From March 2018, continuing
Background
As a pioneering airline KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was always looking for new ways to connect with its audiences.
The question they asked was, would it be possible to give people a travel experience without flying them to a destination?
Idea
'The Journey' tells true stories from real people who talk about a journey that has changed their lives forever. The first series launched in spring 2018 and a second season in 2019.
12 half-hour episodes have been released, taking listeners to the icy plains of Alaska, the hectic streets of New Delhi and to one of the most remote islands of the Pacific. Presented by Dutch journalist Jonathan Groubert, the podcasts are in-depth interviews about the transformative effects of travel.
KLM’s owned media (including inflight entertainment and boarding cards) drove listeners to the landing page, where they were redirected to all the major podcast platforms.
Results
The Journey has put KLM in channels it has never been in before, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts allowing the brand to connect with new audiences in new environments.
It received huge media attention leading to 654,811 unique listeners as of July 1st 2019, with an average listening time of 27.2 minutes.
Our Thoughts
Well, who’d have thought it? Good old audio has made an astonishing comeback with the podcast and here’s KLM, who have done some very clever things in digital, now going relatively low-tech.
Podcasting lets you tell your stories to people in places other media can’t reach. On the train, on the bus, on the plane. And it lets you talk in more detail, with greater depth than most radio programmes.
The series was created by specialist audio agency Airborne, providing evidence that as the media landscape continues to break up, every fragment is an opportunity for someone.