Introduction

Kenya Airways (KQ), the Pride of Africa, has always been synonymous with connection, convenience, and world-class service. To mark its strategic focus on regional leisure travel, the airline launched a limited-time 25% discount offer on flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town — two of Africa’s most in-demand leisure and business destinations.

The campaign’s objective was simple: drive bookings, inspire travel, and reinforce KQ’s reputation as the airline of choice for both leisure and business passengers. What followed far exceeded expectations.

Background

KQ’s offer was designed to:

  • Reignite leisure travel demand post-seasonal slowdowns.
  • Boost sales conversions by pairing a strong incentive with seamless booking journeys.
  • Differentiate Kenya Airways against regional competitors with a bold, limited-time proposition.

But in a competitive digital space, simply announcing an offer wasn’t enough. The challenge lay in ensuring the message cut through, captured attention instantly, and translated into tangible bookings

The Challenge
  • Travel audiences are constantly bombarded with flight deals online, making it harder to stand out.
  • KQ needed a strategy that went beyond generic awareness and created real urgency and intent to book.
  • The brand wanted a campaign that felt premium, trustworthy, and innovative reflecting its standing as a top African airline.
The Solution: MediaPal’s Approach

Audience Intelligence

We built precision travel segments by combining:

  • Past travel behavior and booking intent signals.
  • Audiences consuming travel, lifestyle, and business content.
  • Frequent flyer and international traveler look-alikes.
  • This ensured the campaign targeted not just browsers but high-intent bookers.

Contextual Precision

  • KQ’s message was placed across premium environments including:
  • Top regional publishers and travel hubs.
  • Lifestyle and news sites with high engagement.
  • Inventory known to drive conversions, not just impressions.

Innovation: Custom Brand Button

For the first time, a customized KQ brand button was introduced, a floating interactive unit that hovered across websites, keeping the offer visible as users scrolled. This innovation boosted recall, increased click-through rates, and made booking frictionless by leading directly to the offer page.

Results

The campaign did more than deliver it over-achieved across every metric:

  • 1M+ impressions delivered (exceeding planned volumes).
  • 0.42% average CTR, outperforming industry benchmarks for travel campaigns.
  • 72% viewability, ensuring the message was actually seen by audiences.
  • Significant uplift in bookings to Johannesburg and Cape Town, with conversion rates higher than expected.
Impact Beyond Numbers
  • Reinforced KQ’s brand as innovative and traveler-centric, thanks to the custom brand button.
  • Elevated Kenya Airways above competing airlines by combining urgency + premium digital presence.
  • Established a repeatable model for limited-time campaigns with measurable ROI
Industry Context

Across Africa, travel demand is returning rapidly, but consumers are more selective about deals and booking experiences. Kenya Airways proved that combining strong offers with smart digital engagement and innovation can not only drive sales but also strengthen long-term brand equity.

Looking Ahead

Following this success, Kenya Airways plans to scale such innovations across future campaigns using precision targeting, contextual relevance, and digital creativity to keep inspiring Africans to fly with the Pride of Africa.