Breaking the Status Quo

Consumer habits are rapidly changing due to shifts in content discovery, distribution, and consumption, which is significantly impacting the media and entertainment industry. As content is becoming increasingly accessible and readily available to consumers, it is important to provide relevant and fresh content that passengers truly enjoy onboard airplanes. Touch designed and coordinated a joint brand activation initiative between Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max and LATAM Airlines, collaborating on a project that took the inflight entertainment (IFE) experience to a new level.

Touch aimed to prove that airlines and media companies can deliver a relevant and meaningful inflight experience, “breaking” the rigid IFE monthly cycle while leveraging the IFE platform to support marketing initiatives, build engagement, and deliver memorable passenger experiences.

Enhancing Passenger Experience

True entertainment lies in its ability to surprise and delight.

On August 23, 2022, passengers flying with LATAM from Santiago, Lima, and São Paulo to Madrid experienced a special flight featuring the worldwide exclusive premiere of the HBO Max hit series “House of the Dragon” on the in-flight entertainment system, just 48 hours after its release on the streaming platform.

But the premiere was just the beginning. To deliver a truly immersive experience, HBO Max and LATAM combined onscreen content with a physical activation. Passengers on these flights were treated to a special in-flight experience that included greetings in the Valyrian language, as well as gifts such as a pin from the hand of the king, a chocolate dragon egg, and a luggage tag.

After the premiere of the first episode, LATAM continued to surprise their passengers by being the first airline to offer the first three episodes of the series on board their flights across their entire fleet.

Technology and Collaboration

“How might we break the paradigm to deliver content at record-breaking speeds to deliver better and more relevant inflight experiences?”

Historically, providing content to an IFE system required a lot of planning and could take up to two to three months before it was available on the aircraft. Today, the industry is comfortable with this reality, with stakeholders accepting the cycle’s lengthy nature.

Here’s how our team answered the question, making this project a success:

1. Reforming the old ways of doing things – Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max facilitated access to the “House of the Dragon” media files the very day it got released, a decision that broke the 30-day exhibition cycle, entirely disrupting the IFE licensing business model and unlocking initiatives like this project.
2. Evolving internal and inter-company relations – IFE stakeholders usually operate in silos, but Touch broke these silos, bringing together LATAM’s marketing, operations, and IFE teams, Warner Bros. Discovery’s IFE team, and HBO Max’s marketing team. We fostered true collaboration across the board for a memorable inflight experience.
3. Overcoming supply chain restrictions – Touch and its venture ABOVE used a cloud-based platform for automated media encoding and distribution, which enabled the most pivotal step of the project: preparing the “House of the Dragon” episode and uploading it onto the three aircraft scheduled for the flight in less than 48 hours.

Benefits for the Partners

Through the activation and the delivery of content in record-breaking time, LATAM generated positive social media engagement, differentiating its brand with a focus on passenger treatment. The activation allowed LATAM to connect with its customers, aligning with its latest brand campaign, “LATAM Without Frontiers”.

HBO Max provided an opportunity to promote its highly anticipated “Game of Thrones” prequel in a unique way, evolving from content producers to active participants in the passenger experience. By creating positive brand awareness, this initiative will help turn passengers into HBO Max subscribers.

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