This airline made a travel show aimed at aliens--and beamed it into space

W&K Amsterdam's 'Visit Earth' for Russia's S7 introduces space visitors to nature, art, love and more

Published On
Mar 05, 2019

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Russia's S7 Airlines has come up with an unusual way to promote world travel--it produced a TV series aimed at introducing aliens to Planet Earth, and actually beamed it into space.

Created by agency Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, the branded content series "Visit Earth" first aired in Russia at the end of last year, and has now been translated into English. Six 12 minute-long episodes, hosted online, introduce its viewers to different aspects of life on Earth--Nature, Food, Parties, Art, Sport and Love-- as if they’ve never experienced them before. They feature wittiy scripts and some quirky footage -- the production team traveled to Iceland, Italy, Japan, Thailand and Russia and found obscure stories featuring Italian cheese bowlers and Icelandic nudists.

The films, directed by Mackenzie Sheppard via Popcorn, merge real travel footage with graphics, comedic narration and even commercials for things like gravity, air and dumplings. W&K Amsterdam developed the idea, wrote the scripts and led a second director unit. The agency also led on editing, produced the animation and titles and composed several musical pieces.

The series was beamed into space on November 23 by Bauman Moscow State Technical University with an RT 7.5 radio telescope and a specially developed transmitter. The signal is expected to reach exoplanet Gliese 581c in 20 years.

So far, the films have had over 35 million views (on this world, that is), and as part of the campaign, Russians could also become "Earth Ambassadors" and create travel guides for aliens for a chance to win airline tickets. There are no details so far on whether actual aliens have seen the films (or can even understand human-speak, for that matter).

Eleonora Romanova, marketing director at S7 Airlines, says: "The mission of the S7 Airlines brand is to inspire people to travel. Nowadays, with TV views decreasing and younger audiences turning more to online platforms, unusual content is increasingly in demand. This presented us with an opportunity to engage and inspire our audience in a different way. "

Credits

Date
Mar 05, 2019
Client :
S7 Airlines
Agency :
Wieden & Kennedy-Amsterdam
VP Operations :
Tatiana Fileva
Marketing Director :
Eleonora Romanova
Marketing Communications Director :
Natalia Kozlova
Brand Manager :
Kristina Slavnikova
Head of Creative Group :
Konstantin Belyakov
Head of Production Group :
Alexey Krasnov
Production Manager :
Maria Artemchuk
Head of PR :
Anna Bazhina
Head of Direct Communications :
Elmira Agaeva
PR :
Anna Bazhina
Head of B2C Communications :
Yana Chupina
Media Group Head :
Irina Nekrasova
Executive Creative Director :
Eric Quennoy
Executive Creative Director :
Mark Bernath
Creative Director :
Evgeny Primachenko
Creative Director :
Joe Burrin
Art Director :
Emma Mallinen
Copywriter :
Chris Taylor
Head of Integrated Production :
Joe Togneri
Broadcast Producer :
Jaime Tan
Broadcast Producer :
Pavel Ananich
Group Account Director :
Kirk Johnsen
Account Director :
Jorge Fesser
Account Manager :
Yulia Prokhorova
Head of Planning :
Martin Weigel
Planner :
Alex Janneau
Comms Strategist :
Jocelyn Reist
Art Buyer :
Rachel Perry
Head of Design :
Joe Burrin
Studio Director :
Lizzie Murray
Motion Designer :
Gustav von Platen
Studio Artist :
Noa Redero
Project Manager :
Katie Finn
Project Manager :
Cory Chonko
Business Affairs :
Akvilina Jaskunaite
Production Company :
Popcorn Brain
Director :
Mackenzie Sheppard
Director of Photography :
Ian Avery Holliday
Producer :
Tjalf Melle van Dijkhuizen
Producer :
Stefany Rietkerk
Executive Producer :
Diego Molina
Executive Producer :
Daniel Bruce
Editing Company :
Ambassadors
Editing Company :
Wieden & Kennedy
Editor :
Oscar Marmelstein
Editor :
Meghan Sims
Editor :
Joe Walton
Audio Post :
Ambassadors
Sound Designer/Mixer :
Rens Pluijm
Composer :
Sebastiaan Roestenburg
Composer :
Rens Pluijm
Composer :
Ed Meijaard
Sound Producer :
Zoe de Regt
Music Company :
Ambassadors
Creative Production Studio :
Ambassadors
Managing Director :
Hannah Glazenbrook
Head of Operations :
Gayle van Bochoven
VFX Supervisor :
Stephen Pepper
VFX Supervisor :
Sil Bulterman
VFX Supervisor :
Bas Moonen
VFX Supervisor :
Inti Martinez
VFX Supervisor :
Jeroen van Berkel
3D :
Will Jeffers
3D :
Ivor Ribeiro da Silva
3D :
Robin van As
3D :
Ralph Meijer
3D :
Jeroen Cloosterman
3D :
Sjoerd de Greef
Colorist :
Matt Hare
Associate Design & Animation Director :
Nick Groeneveld
Associate Design & Animation Director :
Jurrien Boogert
Design :
Jurrien Boogert
Design :
Maureen van der Hout
Design :
Rachelle Slingerland
Animation :
Nick Groeneveld
Senior Producer :
Bo Kops
Senior Producer :
Brittany Blazer
Creative Director :
Vincent Lammers
Screenwriter :
Andrew Ryvkin

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