Delta Air Lines

Case 02 · Aviation · 2020

Client
Delta Air Lines
Sector
Aviation
Engagement
CES 2020 opening keynote
Duration
Four months
Delivered
  • Live event keynote direction
  • Presentation design
  • Dataton WATCHOUT direction
  • Scriptwriting
  • Presenter preparation and coaching
  • Run-of-show prep and planning
  • Keynote motion graphics
Outcome
The first airline ever to open CES, in front of 4,000 industry insiders.

Delta was the first airline ever to present at CES, and we had the opening spot. This was not an opportunity to waste.

Brief

Four thousand people, most of them weary from their own journey to Las Vegas, in a room at the start of the biggest tech week of the year.

The question was how to get the tech community leaving that room engaged, ready for their CES experience, and above all excited about the future of commercial aviation.

Delta employees on stage at the close of the CES 2020 keynote, in front of a full room A statistic across the curved screen: 600,000 customer interactions Writer and director Lulu Wang in conversation on the CES 2020 keynote stage The ballroom set and lit before doors, four thousand seats empty

Approach

We worked alongside an industry-leading production, lighting, audio and tech team, and we designed the hour as an experience rather than a presentation.

The canvas was five screens curved around the room: 14,580 pixels wide by 1,080 tall. Nothing off the shelf composes for that. Every frame had to be built for a shape no one has ever designed a slide in, and still read from the back row.

We gave away free flights, travel points and carbon footprint offsets. We tucked the audience into cozy, sustainable blankets. We showcased Delta's partnerships and brought the first full-body powered exoskeleton onto a world stage.

We scented the room with the Delta brand.

Screen mapping test showing the keynote canvas divided across five screens totalling 14,580 by 1,080 pixels
Mapping the canvas across five screens before any content went on

Result

A room of four thousand industry insiders turned into an excited, warm and engaged audience who, for one hour, remembered the absolute magic of flight.

Four months of work for one awesome hour.

Watch the keynote →

4,000Industry insiders in the room.
4Months of work.
1Hour on stage.

On the whole, it wasn't just a good speech full of ambitious promises — it was a siren call to the entire aviation industry, whose leaders now face a choice: invest in new tech, or get left in the dust. Delta's dust, specifically, which Bastian makes look like glitter.

Forbes

This is how we'd approach yours.

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