To help celebrate and promote easyJet's new routes out of Manchester airport, the budget airline launched a mobile experience in the form of the easyJet holiday fun bus.

Created by Beatwax, the bus took off on 31 March, making its way through Manchester city centre, stopping off at well-known locations in Manchester and picking passengers up along the way for a fun-filled day.

The double-decker bus was decorated from its top deck to its wheels in the easyJet trademark colour orange to grab the attention of shoppers around the city centre. The bus came complete with beach games, music and dancers to make sure it has that holiday feeling.

"easyJet is very excited about arriving in Manchester and what better way to do
it than involving the whole city," said Marianne West, consumer PR executive at
easyJet. "A big bright easyJet orange bus gave away easyJetHolidays and flights to hot summer destinations, such as Malta, Cyprus, Tenerife and Malaga. Dancers in traditional costumers brought a taste of summer fun to the city and families from the region will be heading off to soak up the summer sun in Europe with easyJet in 2008."

With the help of easyJet ambassadors, passengers knew when and where the fun bus was be stopping, and once on board they had the opportunity to take part in various activities, such as guessing the new routes that easyJet will be flying to using an interactive map. And as West pointed out, they also had the chance to win return flights, holidays and other goodies.

"Our brief was to create awareness of the new routes easyJet will be flying to from Manchester, as well as boosting the sales of flights," said Michael Brown, managing director of Beatwax. "The experience called for something that was genuinely engaging – flagging a bus down and getting on board definitely fulfills that ideal. In effect, the good citizens of Manchester were flagging down the easyJet brand and could have been bussed straight out to the airport for a flight to one of easyJet's sunshine destinations. It can't get more engaging than that."

Beatwax also enlisted media partners, including The Daily Star, Manchester Confidential and Galaxy Radio, to help promote the fun bus and provide further giveaways, such as return flights and holidays.