Airport’s Addictive Instagram Game Nails Engagement & Branding Objectives

The Dutch are kicking butt marketing-wise these days. We have Pim De Koel explaining to Americans how cool Holland is in a series of hilarious videos. Now we have Amsterdam’s Schipol airport using Instagram to tout the airline’s destinations.

They’ve created an addictive game called Destination Unknown which tests players’ knowledge of global destinations. The game features upward of 300 destinations to which airlines fly out of Schipol.

The game, which relies solely on sourced user-generated content, begins with the presentation of several location-based Instagram images that have been collected using a proprietary algorithm.

Once the game begins, there is a 4-minute time limit and the images flip presenting further clues as to the destination. Players can opt to select up to three hints such as local time, flight duration and airline. Selecting these hints dings the player a few seconds for each hint but greatly narrows down the choice of destinations.

Once the 4-minute time span has lapsed, players can enter their score, play again or subscribe to the airport’s newsletter. A leaderboard keeps track of the top 50 scores and those who make the leaderboard have a chance to win free airline tickets. Players can play the game as many times as they like which benefits the airport by hammering home the destinations to which people can travel from it.

The gamification of user-generated tourism photos is a trifecta of genius that provides both an enjoyable distraction and means to educate travelers not only about where they can fly from Amsterdam’s Schiphol, but also about the destinations themselves — feeding visitors’ travel bug and hopefully inspiring a journey.