While there are many aviation programs, they tend to be small and under-funded. They struggle to reach prospective students beyond a specific region, and students have difficulty comparing their options. We recommended that these schools pool resources into a single, industrywide campaign and website, through which all participating schools could expand their reach and deliver a more compelling marketing experience.

Our focus group and survey research revealed that students who are drawn to this career are interested in adventure and a strong sense of purpose. They also heavily consumed YouTube content about airplane physics and engineering. We then built a campaign website to play into these interests, capture their imagination (and information), and foster engagement. The “Unreachable No More” marketing strategy we developed pushes prospects to that website, where students are empowered to investigate many flight schools and programs from one place.

The name of the campaign drove home the message that, by 2030, one billion people will live in areas unreachable by roads. Students could help reverse that statistic by answering a purpose-driven call to mission aviation.

Given a target demographic of young people, we knew the site needed to feel fresh and unexpected. One way we achieved this was through horizontal scrolling instead of the traditional vertical scroll. Like an airplane flying over a landscape—and reflected in the “runway” at the bottom of each page—the website carries visitors through a journey of discovery.