Imagine inviting your best clients to a party, telling them to bring a suitcase full of clothes and giving away the holiday of a lifetime, which starts that very night.

This idea was dreamt up by Paul Hawes, UK and Germany regional manager, Destination New South Wales. He says: “I had the idea for a surprise trip campaign a couple of years ago, to help us encourage clients to stay in the state for longer. It sat on the back shelf until Destination NSW found the right partners, so we were excited when Flight Centre and Qantas expressed interest. Everyone loves a surprise, and the idea of leaving on holiday to an unknown destination created quite the buzz.”

Sarah Dean, marketing and partnerships manager at Flight Centre, didn’t think too long and hard about the idea. “We’re always interested in new ideas and mixing up our marketing,” she says. “Earlier this year, we reunited 40 UK customers with 40 friends and family in Australia. Anything like that which is outside the norm, we jump on it.”

Flight Centre asked consultants in the London area to nominate their top customers – they didn’t have to be the highest-value bookers, but they needed to be clients whose loyalty deserved recognition. Seventy customers were invited to Shangri-La at The Shard one night in May – a mix of couples and friends. Consultants were invited too, so they could share in the excitement with their nominated clients.

The Shard was a deliberate choice, says Dean. “We knew not everyone could win, so had to pick a venue with the wow factor, so they were still happy to come along.”

“All the customers knew was that they were invited to an event, and they had to come with a suitcase, having freed their diaries for the next 10 days because there was a possibility to win one of four holidays for two people, departing that night, destination unknown.”

Packing them off Dean sent the finalists a packing list in advance, and threw in a few red herrings to throw them off the scent: “I covered every base, from sunny to colder places. Some said they hoped it might be Australia as it’s our core destination, but others didn’t believe we would fly them all that way, so they guessed other places.”

For the first hour, Flight Centre hosted a champagne reception in a function room in the Shangri-La without branding, keeping the finalists in the dark. The suitcases were piled up in a corner, their presence feeding excitement levels. It was only after they moved into a second event space, which had New South Wales imagery and Qantas branding, that the penny dropped for all concerned.

“Everyone got really excited then. Sydney is one of the world’s most iconic cities and Qantas is a quality carrier – the whole event grew in prestige once the partners were revealed,” she says.

Client names were written on paper and dropped into a glass bowl. These were drawn out one by one over the course of an hour, allowing time to showcase the four itineraries in all their glory and ratchet up excitement levels. The eight winners’ reactions were understandably ecstatic and there were no sore losers, says Dean.

“A number of customers booked the very next day to go away anyway – they had their suitcases and annual leave booked, so they thought, why not? They were still grateful to have an incredible evening, and to be recognised as valued customers.”

With the support of the airline, booking holidays for unnamed travellers wasn’t complicated, says Dean. Partygoers sent copies of their passport in advance, and Qantas handled the last-minute matching of names to bookings.

Flight Centre’s content team filmed the winners enjoying their holidays, and that footage will be integrated into phase two of the wider New South Wales campaign, kicking off this month, and showcasing the road less travelled in the Australian state. But Dean says the primary motivation for the Suitcase Party was to reward loyal customers.

“The winners had superb experiences, and of course they were all extremely grateful to the consultant who had nominated them in the first place.”