Icelandair launch new Celebration Stopover Buddy Service with The Brooklyn Brothers and Islenska

­­The new Celebration Stopover Buddy service from transatlantic airline, Icelandair, sees members of the airline team, matched to passengers in the ultimate personalised concierge offering. Following the success of their last initiative in early 2016, which saw staff become ‘Stopover Buddies’, acting as local hosts helping visitors make the most of their time in Iceland.

On a transatlantic stopover, all passengers can request a free Buddy and are matched according to their celebration request. Buddies will be on hand to act as a host in Iceland and offer their personalised local expertise, to make the day even more memorable.

This campaign aims to make whatever you’re celebrating a once in a lifetime experience, from a birthday to an anniversary or a promotion. For example, Captain Bjorn, a keen adventurer could help  plan the ultimate proposal in one of Iceland’s best secret beauty spots. Or, for music lovers, Co-Pilot, Sverrir’s brother is in Icelandic band, Of Monsters and Men and could arrange a celebration at Iceland Airwaves festival.

The Celebration Stopover Buddies are an extension to Icelandair’s year round Stopover service, which offers transatlantic passengers the option to take a stopover in Iceland for up to seven nights at no additional airfare.

Earlier this year, the Stopover Buddy service was launched in response to global research highlighting how people want to experience local culture and unique adventures over anything else whilst on holiday. The Stopover Buddy campaign received £106.1m worth of global coverage and hero pieces of coverage include CBS, Fox News and The Guardian.

This latest activation from Icelandair has been developed with creative agencies, The Brooklyn Brothers and Islenska. The co-created content and offering aims to highlight Icelandair’s Stopover service and encourage visitors to experience Icelandic culture with an Icelandair twist. The agencies will lead the campaign side by side including global PR (across 11 markets); media liaison and overseeing asset creation (including web build and video content creation); providing local market engagement opportunities; digital, content and social strategy.

Birkir Hólm Guðnason, CEO of Icelandair said: “Travellers are seeking local, unique and personalised adventures in an experience economy. By bringing back our Stopover Buddy service, with The Brooklyn Brothers and Islenska, and focusing around celebrations, we are able to help passengers create unforgettable memories on an Icelandair Stopover through our Buddies’ local knowledge and connections.”

George Bryant, founder and executive creative director at The Brooklyn Brothers said: “Following on from the success of the Stopover Buddy service, we wanted to take the idea of personalised customer service to the next level, by offering the Buddies not just as local hosts but by using their connections to help arrange incredible bespoke celebrations for passengers.”

Kristjan Schram, head strategic planner and partner at Islenska said: “Our Buddies are passionate and friendly individuals who can not only help take passengers off the beaten tourist track but also educate them in local culture and responsible tourism.”