Scoot converts the colour yellow into a currency in new marketing stunt

Scoot will be launching The Yellow Converter event this weekend, rallying customers to #GoYellow to get flight discounts.  In a Facebook event page, the budget airline, whose corporate colour is yellow, said: "We rate yellow so much that we’re now declaring it a currency."

The outdoor activation will be held at Wisma Atria's outdoor atrium from 11am to 9pm from 18 to 20 October. Consumers on social media were encouraged to bring as much yellow to the event to get more discounts.

According to Scoot, items can include things that are worn, quirky, surprising, travel-related, have a large surface area of yellow or has a yellow shade close to Scoot's. A "yellow appraiser" will be used to scan attendees items for yellow, but the items will be returned. In conjunction with the campaign, Scoot has also launched a contest on Facebook to recruit volunteers for a research study to better understand travellers who seek out a life less ordinary. Shortlisted participants are given a chance to win FLY return tickets to a Scoot destination.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/flyscoot/videos/585856288617362/[/embed]

Explaining the new stunt to Marketing, Jacqueline Loh, Scoot's VP marketing said, “Much like our bold brand colour yellow, Scoot strives to challenge the status quo in everything we do."Loh added that the activation is a means to bring to life its campaign ‘’Go Yellow, Escape the Ordinary!’’ campaign.

"Whether it is the recent removal of payment processing fees on all direct booking channels , the development of the transactional chatbot by an Asian airline, or the introduction of off-the-beaten-track destinations such as Laos and Trivandrum, Scoot’s longstanding mission has always been to make travel attainable for all and to enable them to venture beyond the familiar," she said.

With the new campaign, Scoot will take to multiple channels, including radio, content partners and sites, as well as via outdoor and digital media. The brand's key focus, Loh added, will be on the interaction and participation of customers, in using the "Yellow Converter" and it hopes to draw in at least 6,000 customers with the activation.

Meanwhile, to banking on the content marketing trend, Scoot will also be working with avid travellers to create content around how they strive to escape the ordinary in their travels. Loh added that as part of its wider strategy, as the brand plans to bring the Yellow Converter to more regional markets in the coming months.

For markets Scoot is unable to run a physical activation in, this campaign will also be extended digitally, via a digital converter. "In tandem with our growth plans for Asia Pacific, it is important that we continue to build our brand presence in these markets," she said.

Currently the brand works with BLK J and Performics Singapore as its creative and media agencies. Rowena Bhagchandani, CEO / Co-Founder, BLKJ added, "Scoot, in short, is a champion of the fun-loving, spontaneous traveller who seeks out the unexpected, the traveller who constantly looks to escape the ordinary. As a way of bringing that spirit to life in a way where the brand walks the talk and empowers travellers to do the same."

"We chose to leverage what's closest to heart - Scoot's signature Yellow. After all, it is a colour that isn't a default like black or white, it embodies the same said attitude that the brand represents. And because we rate it so much, what better way to celebrate and lend action to it than turning it into a currency where our travellers can use to fly with us!"

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Scoot has not had the easiest year with its service. Earlier this month, the airline made an emergency landing in Chennai due to a smoke alert and also was involved in a false bomb threat situation. Fortunately, there were no casualties reported by the airline. Meanwhile nearly a year ago in December the airline was called out by passengers over lack of communication from the airline when one of Scoot’s flights departing Taipei was unfortunately extensively delayed for two days to 1 January 2019 morning, causing 356 passengers to alter their New Year’s plans.

However, Scoot’s CEO Lee Lik Hsin made a swift comeback with a public apology for the airline clocking at least 12 major flight disruptions caused by technical issues since November 2018 and won praise from the PR fraternity. In an interview with The Straits Times, the CEO said that the brand has “heard the feedback [of the people] loudly and clearly” and shared steps taken by the airline to intensify its aircraft maintenance and inspections, as well as to address engineering issues and service gaps.