Air Canada plane
Canadian retailer Holt Renfrew is reaching consumers while they fly with the debut of a branded channel on Air Canada’s enRoute Inflight Entertainment.
Starting Sept. 1, the department store chain will roll out documentary-style content that takes consumers behind-the-scenes of its inner workings. This partnership gives Holt Renfrew access to a captive audience that is likely either visiting or based in Canada, perhaps prompting shopping excursions after landing.
“Holt Renfrew and Air Canada are both iconic Canadian brands, and we both appreciate that whether in-store on on-flight, experience is everything,” said Alison Simpson, senior vice president of marketing and customer experience at Holt Renfrew. “For nearly 179 years, Holts has been devoted to being Canada’s destination for elegant style, fine craftsmanship and innovative customer experiences and our focus continues to be on our unique specialty luxury position.
“We’re proud of our brands’ many ‘firsts’ – i.e. with earning royal warrants in our early days as the official furrier to her majesty Queen Victoria, being the first retailer in North America to host Christian Dior in 1947 when he launched his ‘New Look,’ scouting many of the great brands of today – and come Sept. 1, we’re pleased to launch the first style channel on enRoute Inflight Entertainment,” she said.
“From the conceptualization and creative of Holt Renfrew’s iconic store-front holiday window displays, to chronicles of the fashion journey from runway to retail, the Holt Renfrew TV Channel will celebrate and illuminate the Holts experience. It’s a portal into a world of luxury and we hope to transport passengers into a world of fashion, luxury and culture while on their own journeys of discovery.”
Insider access
Air Canada’s in-flight entertainment and media sales agency Spafax arranged the partnership and developed Holt Renfrew’s channel, which will be available in the Air Canada TV section. More than 33 million travelers fly with Air Canada per year, making it the nation’s top airline. Flights journey to about 175 destinations across five continents, enabling Holt Renfrew to reach a wide audience of fliers.
The airline describes its media placements as “the best way to reach influential decision makers and affluent consumers,” with its travelers generally having a higher disposable income than Canada’s average. Thirty-five percent of Air Canada Web site visitors have a household income of at least $75,500.
Air Canada business class
“Air Canada already offers more than 600 hours of in-flight entertainment content of all genres, and realized that behind-the-scenes content of the fashion and design industries had still been untapped,” said Éric Lauzon, manager of multimedia entertainment at Air Canada. “This decision fits in Air Canada’s marketing strategy to offer its passengers the broadest variety of high quality entertainment content possible to its passengers.
“With Holt Renfrew as a partner, it also contributes to Air Canada’s strategy to offer original Canadian content,” he said. “Both brands share the same clientèle of premium, highly-educated, trendy and hip passengers that like to travel in style to their preferred leisure and business destinations.
“Air Canada will benefit in associating itself with another premium Canadian brand that also shares a great heritage in tailoring their products and services to the needs of stylish Canadian travelers.”
Holt Renfrew has a uniquely Canadian view on the world of luxury, which it will communicate to travelers through the content it produces for this channel.
For its station, Holt Renfrew is opening up its doors, letting consumers peek behind the curtain at initiatives such as the creation of its holiday window display or the journey of a garment from conception to sales floor.
H Project artisan
At launch, five episodes will cover topics such as the creation of Holt Renfrew’s fall magazine and its H Project, which supports artisans through product collaborations (see story). “Front Row” will follow the retailer’s buying team as they travel to Milan for the fall/winter 2015 runway shows, offering a look inside brands such as Fendi and Stella Jean, while “Defining the Modern Man” will cover new menswear traditions.
Front Row
New content will be rolling out quarterly, ensuring that repeat fliers have new specials to watch. Future episodes will cover the launch of makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury’s line at Holt Renfrew and the retailer’s partnership with illustrator Donald Robertson. This partnership will last for one year, with 20 episodes total.
Charlotte Tilbury launch event at Holt Renfrew
The brand introduced the channel on social media, promising consumers they could “spend [their] flight immersed in a world of luxury.”
A short black-and-white clip shows a makeup artist at work backstage, followed by shots of other prep for a runway show, giving consumers a hint at the access the retailer promises through this content. Text overlaid explains “It’s new, it’s luxury.”
This fall, spend your @aircanada flight immersed in a world of luxury. #HoltsTV #ComingSoon ✈️
A video posted by Holt Renfrew (@holtrenfrew) on
Aug 26, 2015 at 9:27am PDT
Up in the air
In-flight placements have been used by other brands to reach affluent travelers enroute.
British department store Harrods partnered with British Airways to host a fashion show mid-flight on an A380 plane.
Two hundred guests sipped Champagne as they watched models walk the aisle of the plane wearing British designers. By hosting this fashion show in an unconventional setting, Harrods likely benefited from word-of-mouth and social media buzz (see story).
Also, British Airways tapped a new audience by introducing an iPad edition of its in-flight magazine for first class travelers that was sponsored by Patek Philippe.
The First Life digital edition was available for iPad users to download and offered more interactive qualities than its print edition did. The move to digital has allowed the magazine to gain more readers who are not currently traveling on a British Airways flight and those who are affluent iPad users (see story).
This partnership gives Holt Renfrew a new channel in which to connect with consumers and share its story.
“At Holt Renfrew, we are always evolving our luxury experiences, looking for new ways to share and celebrate the stories of the incredible people and detail that goes into curating the world’s best fashions for Canada, into opening a new store, eventing, etc,” Holt Renfrew’s Ms. Simpson said. “Our customers are global, traveling frequently for business and for pleasure, and this is a new and dynamic way to reach them and become part of their journeys.
“With our stores located in Canada’s key tourist destinations including Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal, the Holt Renfrew TV Channel will also be a new way to reach this audience.”
Final Take
Sarah Jones, staff reporter on Luxury Daily, New York