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16 . 05 . 17

“Same, but different” – Scoot’s DM message for airline rival

Words by: Print Power
How claims of plagiarism lead to a multi-platform PR win
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The power of print at a glance

  • A campaign covered by over 100 media outlets globally
  • To date, the campaign has generated $41m of earned media thanks to extensive coverage on CNN, Bloomberg, Channel News Asia and USA Today
  • The number of people searching for Scoot on Google increased by 32% during the campaign period

Singapore-based low-cost airline Scoot had discovered that another budget airline had adopted very similar branding and advertising to theirs. From the font, the colours, to the tone of voice and even to the illustrations used in Scoot ads. The similarities were very apparent.

However, rather than sue Spirit Airlines for copyright infringement, they decided to launch a campaign, through Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore, to have some fun, leveraging social media and PR to achieve brand awareness. This approach was also very ‘Scoot’ as the fun and playful ad will have reflected their personality. 

In a tongue-in-cheek online video, Scoot's CEO informed Spirit Airlines that if they wanted to duplicate his brand, they should at least do it well.

This was followed up with a direct mail kit with everything Spirit Airlines needed to properly recreate Scoot's brand personality. This included a step-by-step guide on how to create the ads as well as Scoot's full corporate identity guidelines. It included a kit to help Spirit make their very own Marketer of the Year trophy, like the one Scoot won in 2014.