[video_popup width="805" height="454" video_link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk" video_image_link="https://www.tnooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/WestJet-christmas-gift-Tnooz-2-690x300.png"]
Canadian low cost carrier WestJet surprised 250 passengers by bringing them the exact gifts they asked Santa Claus for at a digital booth.
WestJet placed a digital display counter in Toronto and Hamilton International Airports where WestJet travellers were asked to swipe their boarding cards.
When travellers stood in front of the digital counter, a digital Santa Claus interacted with the passengers by asking what Christmas gift they would like to receive.
To the passengers, it seems like yet another time-pass activity at airport, so many just went for it - ranging from a big screen LED TV to Android tablets to digital cameras to a pair of socks.
Behind the digital Santa, however, was a team who took notes of all the requests made by passengers.
When both flights took off to Calgary with 250 passengers on board, a team of 175 WestJet volunteers started shopping for gifts, packed it with passenger names written on each gift box.
When passengers were waiting at the baggage claim area at Calgary airport, they were taken for a surprise.
Instead of their bags in the conveyor belt, all they saw was varied sized gift boxes with passenger names written over them. Each box contained the precise gift each passenger had wished for before the flight.
There were hidden cameras in the baggage claim area that captured the surprise/happy/excited moments of passengers.
In just over a day, WestJet's video has received about 450,000 views in YouTube and more than 150,000 Facebook shares.
WestJet worked with Studio M for three months to design the event.
Two years ago, KLM Airlines famously executed the KLM Surprise campaign where the airline analysed its passengers social media data and presented a personalized gift to its passengers in the airport.