KLM Wraps Plane in Consumer Portraits with User-Generated Content

NEW YORK, June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has today unveiled a Boeing 777-200 airplane exterior wrapped in a selection of 3,965 crowd-sourced tile images and uplifting quotes. This world-first event follows a global social media campaign developed by Tribal DDB Amsterdam to generate crowd-sourced uploads of consumers' photos, a selection of which is now gracing the outside of a real Boeing 777-200 airplane currently en route from Amsterdam to Atlanta. The "Tile & Inspire" campaign encouraged consumers to make a traditional Dutch-style tile featuring their portrait and an inspiring message. The KLM plane took off this afternoon at 4:55 p.m. and passengers of this maiden voyage flight will receive a chocolate Delft blue tile and a leaflet with information about the unique aircraft's exterior design.

The campaign is part of KLM's effort to encourage community-based design while preserving the brand's Dutch heritage. Using the convenient interface, participants easily uploaded their profile pictures and transformed them into a piece of Dutch tradition, individual Dutch Delftware blue tiles. Consumers chose from a variety of special tile designs and added inspiring phrases of their own. Tiles were uploaded through facebook.com/klm or the tileyourself.com website, as well as through local Dutch social media site Hyves.

Site users could create a tile in any language, from Korean to Spanish, and entries were judged in ten languages: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. This allowed most of the world's population to use their native language to vie for a space on the KLM aircraft. The tiles on the plane hold inspirational words in ten different languages, from Chinese to English, from Portuguese to Russian.

"The campaign let people get actively involved in the brand. Even if your tile was not selected for use on the plane, you can still share it with the world through Facebook, Hyves, Twitter and e-mail," said Jacco ter Schegget, Managing Partner at Tribal DDB Amsterdam.

"The campaign was developed by Tribal DDB and DDB. We aimed for the ultimate integration of the digital realm and KLM's physical world," added Esther te Pas, Client Service Director at DDB.

"The energy of 'Tile & Inspire' fits the KLM brand positioning perfectly," said Frank Houben, Director of Communications and Corporate Identity at KLM.  "It is as open, reliable, inspirational, and Dutch as KLM strives to be when creating a memorable flying experience for its passengers.  We bring people together from all over the world – just like Facebook. This unique campaign joins pride of national heritage with the KLM brand image and offers people the chance to use virtual channels to get their portrait on a real airplane."

The tile-wrapped Boeing 777 unveiled today will be travelling around the globe for the whole world to see and read. A documentary on the making of "Tile & Inspire" will be available on tileyourself.com, YouTube and various blogs, and will be announced via KLM's global Facebook page. Winners will receive a personalized video that shows their tile attached to the plane.

About Tribal DDB Worldwide

Tribal DDB Worldwide (www.tribalddb.com), an Advertising Age A-List Agency, is headquartered in New York with 60 offices spanning 42 countries around the globe.  Since it was founded in 2000, Tribal DDB has expanded and been recognized well beyond its digital roots.  By 2005 Tribal DDB was named Interactive Agency of the Year by Adweek and at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, where it took home the most Lions and the Cyber Grand Prix. This was followed in 2007 by Tribal DDB being the first "digital" agency to win Global Agency Network of the Year from Advertising Age, and then, in 2009, being the first to win the Grand Prix in Film at the International Advertising Festival at Cannes.  Tribal DDB continues to draw on its expertise in digital innovation and its heritage of creativity and insights to bring clients the most effective and differentiating marketing solutions for today's world.  Tribal DDB Worldwide is part of Omnicom Group's DDB Worldwide.

About DDB

DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc (www.ddb.com) ranks among the top five consolidated advertising and marketing services global networks, according to Advertising Age. Consistently one of the most awarded networks globally for creative excellence, DDB was Campaign's 2009 Global Network of the Year, the 2010 Spikes Asia Network of the Year, 2010 Eurobest Network of the Year, 2010 Campaign Asia Pacific Creative Network of the Year and captured both the Cyber Grand Prix and Film Craft Grand Prix at the 2010 International Advertising Festival in Cannes. With more than 200 offices in over 90 countries, the DDB Group helps grow the value and influence of leading brands around the world. DDB Worldwide is part of Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC).

SOURCE Tribal DDB