WestJet is a company known for doing things in a big way, so it comes as no surprise the airline wanted to do something remarkable to mark its 21st birthday. WestJet gave Rethink the challenge of celebrating this accomplishment, in keeping with their history of pulling significant brand acts, in a place that was completely appropriate for the occasion: Las Vegas. Vegas is a growth destination for the airline, which created the ideal opportunity to remind flyers of WestJet’s service to the city as well as celebrate the impressive company milestone.

To demonstrate just how different WestJet is, and emphasize their commitment to guests, the airline wondered: could it make the flight to Vegas even more spectacular and surprising than the destination itself? WestJet went all in by betting on a unique experience. For three nights in May, passengers on flights to Vegas saw something they had never seen before. WestJet set up a gigantic prize wheel, modeled after a roulette wheel, in the desert outside Las Vegas. The wheel was so large it could be seen from 12,000 feet up in the air. As passengers looked out their windows the wheel was spinning and when it stopped it displayed a seat number, indicating the winning passenger.

For people to be able to see something from 12,000 feet in the air, it needs to be massive. To
accomplish this, Rethink partnered with Westbury production to bring 164 of the largest and brightest moving lights made on the planet to the desert. In total, the lights projected 4.5 million lumens, which was a world record achieved in this process. This display was split out into 2 major sections; the wheel display and the winning seat number display. For the wheel display Rethink used a 24-Segment display created by using high output lighting fixtures with fine tune control over position, focus, and colour. This allowed the agency to transform the terrain into brightly lit and clearly defined sections of the wheel on the ground. This strategy creates the intended effect without the need for massive infrastructure, walls, or reflectors. For the seat number the agency used a 7-segment display created by using 150’ x 50’ sections of truss and scaffold. We attached diffusion material to it, which created each of the “pixels” in the 7 segment display. In order to ensure this all came together WestJet had to coordinate pilots, in-flight operations, and the flight control centre.

By the end of the few short weeks this event was in market, the campaign achieved over 4 million impressions, coverage in 25+ press outlets, and over 1.5 million views of WestJet’s Facebook video. Most importantly was the reaction garnered from Canadians, totalling 15,000 reactions, 600+ shares and over 1,000 comments celebrating the event. Uniquely, two world records were set including ‘greatest light output in a projected image’ and ‘largest circular projection.’ Visible from 12,000 feet, the wheel was 785,398 square metres in diameter and reached 4,666,000 lumens.