Between massive delays and an uptick in instances of lost luggage, frustrating experiences during air travel have become a more common experience recently. But Corona is having fun with the idea, giving the most unlucky travelers a chance at vacation redemption.

“Corona Lost & Found” is asking Canadian vacationers to share their most negative and nightmarish experiences in traveling on Twitter, with the most compelling stories winning  an all-expenses paid trip to Corona Island.

“Since we know that consumers tend to turn to Twitter to share their travel frustrations, we wanted to create a campaign journey that started on the platform, allowing us to listen and interact to consumers’ travel nightmares, and use its functionality to drive conversation to our strategic advantage,” says Mike Bascom, senior marketing director for Corona at Labatt Breweries of Canada.

The beer brand also expanded to other channels to drive awareness and sign-ups all driving to a contest landing page.

“While the majority of this campaign is living on Twitter, we did leverage paid influencer content on Instagram for that cross-platform awareness,” Bascom notes.

The campaign idea is rooted in the fact that 40% of Canadians report that travel stressors such as lost luggage, airport delays and canceled flights are preventing them from taking a trip.

And while beer campaigns are frequently associated with summer months, according to Bascom, Corona is always creatively challenging itself on ways to activate within the shoulder season.

The brand is challenging the competition in unique ways as well: it launched nonalcoholic beer, Sunbrew, and recently expanded beyond the beer category through its ready to drink market offering, Tropical, both of which, par for the course for the brand, are all about fun in the sun.

“Our brand identity is certainly rooted in the beach, but we’re also passionate about encouraging Canadians to disconnect in order to reconnect with nature, as well as championing sustainability initiatives through our commitment to environmental conservation, which is top-of-mind in everything we do,” Bascom says.

The contest locale, the brand says, is a first-of-its-kind island paradise in the middle of the Caribbean, owned by Corona. The brand partnered with non-profit Oceanic Global to ensure Corona Island operates with a minimal environmental footprint.

Corona’s CSR initiatives are always centred around the ocean: it hired a “Nature Ambassador” in 2021, and in a 2019 campaign, fashioned mannequins out of discarded plastic to bring the problem of aquatic waste to life.

Anomaly handled creative, Dentsu led the media buy and Veritas handled public relations and influencer.