Dutch PR Awards 2025 - easyJet x The Flying Cake

The Romans made an activation that embedded easyJet as a player in the Amsterdam community

Name Case: easyJet x The Flying Cake | Inzender: The Romans | Category: Travel

Can you introduce The Romans?

The Romans was founded in the UK in 2015 and came to the Netherlands in 2023. The agency was born of being bored of boring PR. We use creativity and our obsession with culture to connect diverse audiences with stories and collaborators they care about. We earn attention by being genuinely relevant – staying at the forefront of niche and mainstream trends to find ways for our clients to show up for communities authentically. Since inception, The Romans have had a singular business strategy: seek out the very best talent in the world and develop them to be individually exceptional.

Who was the client?

easyJet's Head of Marketing for Central Europe, and Marketing Manager for Netherlands and Germany

The briefing and objective

A simple brief: secure earned editorial coverage for easyJet in Dutch lifestyle media, with a fun activation that would embed easyJet as a player in the Amsterdam community.

Why? The aviation industry in The Netherlands is fiercely competitive and external factors make it challenging to operate and grow. Limited slots at Schiphol have slowed or halted capacity growth and increasing APD (up 52 procent) means prices to consumers are up for all airlines; so consumer choices are often made heavily on the basis of price and availability. Effort was needed to drive top of mind awareness, connect with consumers, and stand out.

What’s more, easyJet had not activated in earned consumer media in The Netherlands before. To fight for attention against Dutch stalwart, KLM, and its low-cost little sister, Transavia, the marketing approach had been focussed on digital and broadcast paid media, instead of PR.

With the imperative of becoming locally relevant enough to cut through in earned consumer media with a fun campaign – The Romans were brought in.

Insights and strategy

Beyond a 10 year milestone of operating from Schiphol - we had no natural news to share. Plus, consumer-centric communication was new for the airline in The Netherlands, so journalists weren’t used to hearing from them - this was dipping a toe in the water.

To feel local, we knew we needed a local partner, one Amsterdammers connected with and that was renowned for facilitating fun and community for local creatives. We also needed a story - one that positioned easyJet as an airline for the Dutch, that understands its audience here, and that listens when they talk about their love of travel.

We also knew we needed an idea that was sweet enough to eat – one that would give back to local travel lovers, media and journalists alike. Finally, we needed something recognisably easyJet – but subtly sharable too.

The case

We celebrated the 10 year anniversary, in true Dutch style, with a cake. We partnered with loved-by-locals, Amsterdam bakery and hub for creatives, YUSU, to create the cake. The brief was to make it the airiest, lightest mix they’d ever cooked up, complete with whipped icing - perfect for those who love air-travel.

But this wasn’t just any light and fluffy cake. This was a ‘Flying Cake’ that crowdsourced flavour and travel preferences from the local community and was crafted to taste like a holiday. YUSU's co-founder and master baker, Nicole Lieuw, developed the recipe in collaboration with the cafe’s creative community - asking them to share their favourite easyJet holiday destinations and creating the flavour profile to match.

Marrakech was the most popular destination, so YUSU used warm Moroccan spices like turmeric and cinnamon. London came second, which inspired the tangy lemon curd at the heart of the biscuit - a nod to classic English flavours. Finally, YUSU created a fluffy orange meringue topper with a hint of Greek honey, with Corfu rounding off the top three destinations.

The cake was delicious – and we made sure we had enough to give to consumers, as well as media and influencers, who we invited along to an easyJet pop-up at YUSU.

And to really show the love to travel fanatic locals, we offered the chance to win flight tickets with every cake sold at the pop-up, and donated all proceeds to charity partner, Unicef

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Gepubliceerd door: Daan Dekkers