Welcome to the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report
As innovative campaigns come in all shapes and sizes, this month’s edition of the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report is categorized into the following four themes:
October 2012
Published by market research agency airlinetrends.com and aviation marketing strategy frm SimpliFlying, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report analyses a wide range of airline marketing case studies each month, providing you with an update of the latest and most innovative social, digital, experiential and traditional airline marketing campaigns, as well as assessing their effectiveness. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, understand how your airline is performing with respect to competitors or wanting to help your airline move into the next stage of engagement, these montlhy reports are indispensable for airline professionals working in the feld of marketing and corporate communications. The reports also help agencies that work with airlines stay on top of the latest airline marketing innovations and initiatives. For any questions about the report, please contact Shubhodeep Pal at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.
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Campaign Of The Month Our monthly selection of a major cross-platform, cross-functional example of an integrated marketing initiative. Experiential Faced with ever more experienced consumers, who routinely ignore the commercials and ads thrown at them, airline brands are fnding new ways to break through the advertising clutter to reach and engage consumers. Social Media Besides engaging their online audience via Facebook and Twitter-based campaigns, the airline industry is also busy experimenting with new social media platforms, as well as launching mobile campaigns that link the online with the offline world. Traditional Despite the current focus on social, mobile and experiential campaigns, airlines continue to serve up creative, traditional media-based initiatives.
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Virgin America ‘#myVXexperience’ | Virgin America is an airline known since its inception for its quick adoption of new technologies and for having a tech-savvy customer base across the United States. The airline’s latest campaign shed light on its dedication to technology, design and entertainment through a multimedia campaign.
Virgin America established a dedicated, interactive website for its new campaign, entitled MyVXEexperience. Branded by the airline as an “immersive digital portal”, the site offers an interactive, virtual tour through a Virgin America cabin, blending 3D visuals representative of those to be had on board. At the site, customers can submit Instagram images of their Virgin America experience and post messages and Tweets with the hashtag #myVXexperience. Additionally, Virgin America also set up a #myVXexperience pinboard on Pinterest to share customer submissions to that platform's audience. Virgin America's taken the campaign to offline spaces as well, with banner ads and outdoor displays; these included “a wrap of a BART transit tunnel in San Francisco,” billboards in major US metropolitan areas, as well as a special electronic billboard at New York City's Times Square which features passenger-uploaded #myVXexperience photos.
The Experience campaign launched in early September featuring Virgin America Originals, frequent-flyers of the airline who are “known for shaking up the status quo in their own felds.” Originals include Pandora founder Tim Westergren, Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork Media, and a variety of personalities in the creative and tech spaces, who, through the campaign, offer their favourite Virgin America amenities like food, entertainment and things to do on board. This alignment with leading social media fgures, who've been actively promoting the #myVXexperience hashtag through the course of the campaign, opened the door for Virgin America to tap into thousands of new followers across the social web. In addition, the campaign also featured a connected fare sale for passengers to book before September 24. Virgin America’s MyVXexperience is illustrative of a dedicated effort to differentiate the airline’s product experience while targeting all niches with an experience that promotes a near-cult following. Moreover, it’s notable that the scale of the Experiences campaign is conducive for easy social sharing, thereby vastly increasing Virgin America’s reach.
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Ryanair ‘Pop-up Shop’ | While most carriers are increasingly using digital media to promote their brands and campaigns, providing people with real life experiences has maintained a valuable role in customer engagement. This year, Ryanair, whose presence has been notably absent on the social web, took to a 'pop-up shop' to highlight the carrier's signature low fares in an interactive way.
Delta ‘Sky360 @ Chelsea FC’ | Delta in recent years has launched a large number of innovative brand campaigns, using traditional media, social media and experiential platforms. In 2010, the airline launched its Sky360 lounges to let customers sample the Delta product in a non-aviation setting, eventually establishing the lounges across the US in locations such as home venues of sports teams that Delta sponsors.
In Manchester's city center, near Piccadilly Station, where heavy foot-trafc is everpresent, Ryanair rented out store space for four weeks. The premise of the shop is to invite customers in to “browse Ryanair’s lowest online fares in-store, book flights on Ryanair.com and talk to dedicated Ryanair staff.” If a customer fnds a fare cheaper than the one offered by Ryanair, the airline pledges to “pay double the difference to anyone who manages the feat.” Additionally, the store serves as a platform for a promotion whereby a customer wins a free flight to a Ryanair destination everyday throughout the duration of the campaign.
Following the airline's announcement to sponsor British football club Chelsea, September saw the opening of the frst ever Sky360 lounge outside the US, at Chelsea's home stadium in London. The Stamford Bridge lounge will host VIP guests of ofcial Delta partners VIP guests on matchdays. In the Sky360 lounge, the airline aims to provide a Delta-branded experience through features such as airline-style tickets inviting attendees to 'check-in' for matches and an LED-lit runway leading guests to a dedicated entrance to watch football games. The 108 square metre Sky360 lounge includes a dining area and full service bar, is located in the attached Millennium & Copthorne Hotel at Chelsea Football Club, and is accessible for hotel guests and visitors on nonmatchdays.
The Ryanair shopfront design also features the airline's familiar low-cost and often brashperceived branding, with a picture of Michael O'Leary inviting passersby into the shop. Though the designed experience concept isn't new to brands, it's notable that an LCC such as Ryanair has taken to such a promotion, which offers customers a chance to interact and engage with the airline outside of the traditional setting. Moreover, it also opens a channel for direct and live sales through the campaign.
Delta's partnership with Chelsea FC, which follows similar partnerships with the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins American baseball teams, is an ongoing brand positioning effort by the airline to align with entities that encapsulate a passionate customer base. The new lounge at Chelsea FC, which will be open daily between 7am and 10pm, is expected to receive 250,000 visitors each year.
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Virgin Atlantic ‘Air-prentice’ | Over the last year, Virgin Atlantic announced a major investment in product and service upgrades valued at GBP100 million. One of the major projects has been a full refurbishing of the airline's ageing 747 fleet. To commemorate the occasion, Virgin Atlantic launched a competition entitled “Air-Prentice” (modeled after Donald Trump's 'The Apprentice') to search for a “junior approvals associate” to testdrive the new inflight product.
JetBlue ‘Simply Marble-ous’ | Among global brands around the globe, the emphasis on community development and environmental consciousness has been on an increaseon the rise in recent years with brands globally. A recent airline example in the airline space comes from JetBlue in the United States, whowhich, during a collaboration with Boston-based environmental group Save the Harbor, created a ‘surprise n experience’ for Massachusetts beach-goers throughout thethis summer.
The competition, inspired by Richard Branson's own passion for flying, brought in 600 applicants, of whom 10 year-old Billy Yeomans was chosen to spend a day on board a newly-refurbished Virgin Atlantic 747 that departed from London Gatwick Airport. From the experience, Billy had to create a full report on the food, in-flight entertainment system, cabin crew and redesigned seats and hand it to Branson for a “review.” A video of Billy's experience was posted on Virgin Atlantic's YouTube channel, where it garnered over 5000 unique views.
In its 'Simply Marble-ous' campaign JetBlue released 300 glass marbles on public beaches throughout the Greater Boston region after a 100-volunteer-strong cleanup mission in June. The bright blue marbles, were made of a sand-based environmentally recycled glass, in line with the conservation mission of the organizations involved, and were part of a JetBlue contest: Those who found a blue marble on any of the 12+ Boston-area beaches would be entered in a draw from which fve people would win 40,000 TrueBlue points. Begun in June, the treasure hunt ends October 8. To enter the contest, participants simply have to submit a photo of themselves with one of the blue marbles to Save the Harbor's Facebook page.
Billy was also given the task of being an advisor to Branson on “any future developments to Virgin Atlantic's aircraft that are focused on children.” For an airline with a reputation as flashy as Virgin, the 'Air-prentice' exercise can be seen as an interesting way to frame and align the brand with the family-travel market. The competition also creates an avenue to promote product upgrades.
With the contest JetBlue aimed to drive awareness about the growing polution of the sea and beaches, and align itself with a local cause. The airline’s effort resulted in wide publicity across local Boston-area media, as well as a host of user-generated videos on YouTube.
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ANA ‘Is Japan Cool? Season 2’ | While ANA is not the ofcial flagcarrier of Japan, the airline has engaged in a variety of nation-as-abrand initiatives over the recent years, including its 'Inspiration of Japan' in-flight experience and its 'Is Japan Cool?' campaign. The latter has been expanded to a series campaign, with Season 1 featuring Japanese cultural traditions, and with the recently launched Season 2 focused on showcasing actual places, attractions and juxtapositions of old and new Japan.
'Is Japan Cool?' Season 2 features a dedicated social website whose key element is to give visitors the option to choose what aspects of Japan are 'cool' and 'not so cool' in three categories – Tokyo, Okinawa and Cosplay. For each category, a number of characteristics of that category are presented for voting through short videos and descriptions. Upon voting, users have the option to share their opinion and the category characteristic (for example, beaches in Okinawa) to Facebook or Twitter. Additionally, the site features a competition whereby entrants have a chance to receive round-trip tickets for two to Okinawa. After the launch of the 'Is Japan Cool?' campaign, ANA has gained over 23,000 “likes,” as well as a following of nearly 2000 on Twitter. The campaign is an integrated, social branding effort between an airline and a location, giving users the power to decide positives and negatives for themselves, while framing Japan as a viable tourist destination and ANA as the airline of choice.
Air New Zealand ‘The Great Walker’ | Having earned quite a reputation for innovative marketing campaigns over the past years, Air New Zealand's latest campaign aligns the airline brand with that of its country in a contest that spans celebrities, social media and government agencies. Created in collaboration with the New Zealand Department of Conservation (NZ DoC), 'The Great Walker' campaign sheds light on the country's opportunities for eco-tourism with a social media-based contest. The contest, announced on Air New Zealand's Flying Social Network blog, looks to select four participants from around the world to complete all nine of New Zealand's 'Great Walks' (550 km of natural treks through the country's hinterland) in nine weeks, accompanied by celebrity guests and staff of Air New Zealand and the NZ DoC. The campaign begins with entrants demonstrating why they deserve the prize by submitting videos to Air New Zealand via YouTube or creating a pinboard on Pinterest using the hashtag #greatwalker. Upon completion of the contest on October 22, Air New Zealand will make a decision based on entrants' “personality, creativity and skills that could be useful for the trip.” An explanatory video of the contest, released by Air New Zealand on YouTube, has got over 2000 views. The campaign received extensive coverage across the social web as one that aligns Air New Zealand with conservation and environmental consciousness while simultaneously highlighting New Zealand’s natural beauty.
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American Airlines ‘Behind The Scenes’ | Since the advent of the social web and its subsequent intersection with brand management, catchphrase topics like transparency, authenticity and information have become cornerstones of airline brand management. In this case they’ve taken center stage through a new campaign by American Airlines. Entitled 'Behind the Scenes', the campaign focuses on providing a human view of the goings-on behind the scenes of the airline’s operations. American created a series of short videos on YouTube in which people who work with American Airlines every day were interviewed. The documentary-style videos feature topics like the logistics of weather delays, the de-icing process to what happens to passengers’ bags after check-in. Airline ofcials say that in an age when a traveler’s gripe can echo loudly across the Internet, American Airlines are launching video programs aimed at giving customers a realistic look at the inner workings of their operations. Says Jonathan Pierce, AA’s director of social communications: “We’re really just trying to be more transparent and more open, and social (media) is about giving the customer an opportunity to connect with American and have a conversation with the brand, and we’re embracing that. We feel as though this is a great way of saying to our customers, ‘Tell us what you want to hear from American. Tell us what you what to know.’” American’s campaign has been well-received, peaking at nearly 11,000 views for the checked-bag video, with numerous blogs and sites taking note of AA’s more open style of communication.
Alaska Airlines ‘Paint the Plane’ | Alaska Airlines has recently launched a 'Paint the Plane' contest to celebrate fve years of serving the far-flung American state. The contest offers a chance for Hawaii students between kindergarten and the 12 th grade to submit a design that “honors Hawaii’s culture” and “captures the spirit of the islands.” In cooperation with the State of Hawaii Department of Education contest forms have been distributed to more than 400 schools and 218,000 students throughout the Islands. Alaska Airlines also provided teachers with promotional materials to spur participation among students. In early December, Alaska Airlines will shortlist the submissions down to three design fnalists, and the fnal ranking will be done from December 11 to 18 by Hawaii residents on the Paint the Plane website. The Grand Prize winner, to be announced in January 2013, will receive a $5000 scholarship and will have his/her design put on an Alaska Airlines 737-800 as a special livery. The ‘Spirit of the Islands’ contest is the third time Alaska Airlines has turned to the public to paint a plane. The Spirit of Alaska Statehood aircraft paint scheme was created by a 16-year-old Sitka student in a similar statewide contest celebrating Alaska’s 50-year anniversary. Last year, two soccer fans designed the MLS Portland ’Timbers Jet’ to celebrate the airline’s jersey sponsorship of the Portland soccer team.
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Lufthansa ‘Future of Hand Luggage’ | Looking for creative and out-of-the-box ideas about designing the optimal hand luggage experience, Lufthansa has launched a ‘Future of Hand Luggage contest’ co-creation contest. From September 24 until November 19, Lufthansa is inviting the general public to join their open community, submit their idea in the following two categories: ‘Improving the Hand Luggage Process’ and ‘Co-Design the Next Cabin Suitcase’, classify in which step of the Lufthansa passenger travel chain their idea fts, and rate and evaluate ideas with community members. In mid-December, a international expert jury of senior Lufthansa product managers will thennarrow the pool down to the top three ideas, taking the ratings and remarks on the website into account. The winners will be announced in January 2013 and will be invited to present their ideas to Lufthansa’s executive leadership, as well as a piece of Lufthansa cabin luggage. The Lufthansa Open Innovation contest has attracted 600 participants and 175 ideas in its frst 3 weeks. Besides the Future of Hand Luggage contest, Lufthansa Cargo has also just launched the second edition of its annual co-creation contest, aimed at improving customer service in the airline cargo industry.
KLM ‘Social Ofer’ | Looking to use social media to drive revenues, KLM last August launched Social Offer, a time-limited price determining tool for fans and followers of the airline. The program allowed social media users to lower the cost of airfare on a KLM flight out of Amsterdam to predetermined destinations through the number of hits of Facebook or Twitter accounts on the campaign page. Each log-in to the KLM Social Offer site via Facebook or Twitter knocks down the price for each destination by a predetermined amount up to a lowest limit set by KLM. Each ‘Social Offer’ campaign lasted for six days, followed by a sales campaign of three days on Facebook and Twitter. During the frst two days of the campaign, participants could vote to select two of fve destinations proposed by KLM in a poll on Facebook. During the next two days of the campaign, people could reduce the price of the selected destinations by logging onto the campaign page. These flights did have a defned minimum price though. If this value is reached prior to the end of the designated duration of the campaign, the promotion ended earlier than announced. The reduced fares then were available for booking during two days. The frst set of ‘Social Offer’ destinations offered by KLM were New York, Chicago and Vancouver, with prices displayed for each destination on a “digital counter.” According to KLM, Social Offer was test-launched in fve markets (Kazakhstan, Brazil, Canada, China and the Netherlands) and resulted in a massive increase in ticket sales.
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Lufthansa ‘Business Class Planking’ | Lufthansa in May 2012 was the frst airline to take delivery of the passenger version of the new Boeing 747-8i, which also featured the airline’s new full-flat Business Class seat.
To promote its new Business Class product, the airline collaborated with German creative frm Kolle Rebbe to create a short campaign putting a humorous spin on the act of lying down. The spot features people in lie-flat positions in various locations around the world such as libraries and diving boards, with copy stating that Lufthansa’s launching a guaranteed lie-flat experience “Because people like lying down.” The idea behind the video, which has generated nearly 200,000 views on YouTube sofar, was that people naturally like to lie down, and that Lufthansa makes it happen with just one touch in the new Business Class cabin. To drum up curiosity, the day before the release of its 'Planking' spot Lufthansa released an 11-second teaser on YouTube showing a man planking and copy stating “One more day.” This video got over 3,300 views. The ‘Planking’ commercial was also featured on television in Germany and at cinema preview screenings in India.
Wideroe ‘Grandpa's Magic Trick’ | Wideroe is a Norwegian regional airline that is part of the SAS Group. The airline’s most recent commercial, created by McCann Oslo, features a young boy mesmerized by his grandfather's magic trick – his ability to rub his hands together and then blow a Wideroe airplane out of his mouth. The spot's excellence lies in its subtle messaging to position Wideroe. The airline's tagline “All of Norway. All the time.” implies extensive coverage as well as frequent flights across the country – an idea alluded to by the fact that boy in the spot asks his grandfather to repeat a trick he just fnished doing. Additionally, the stunning and remote-looking visuals of the setting add to the message of Wideroe being a reliable carrier to even the most isolated corners of the country. The spot runs broadly on TV and in cinemas in Norway, and has generated over 600,000 views sofar on YouTube where it has received rave reviews. According to AdWeek, “The ad, gorgeously shot, is deceptively simple. […] “A quiet spot from McCann Oslo that simply and beautifully recaptures the sense of wonder about flying through a subtle, delightful metaphor that makes the ad itself a minor miracle. Flying is magical, it indelibly claims.”
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Virgin Australia The Romance Is Back | After years of operating as an LCC in the Australian market, Virgin Australia underwent a major metamorphosis last year. It rebranded and repositioned itself as a ‘new world carrier’, adopting a new model that focuses on attracting more business travellers and offering a premium passenger experience. The airline has just launched the latest push of its new ‘no-frills chic’ brand image with its new commercial titled “The Romance is Back.” The video features one of the airline's flagship Airbus A330 aircraft coming together mechanically in a stylized way. The imagery is quickly followed by copy reading “It takes more than an amazing aircraft to make an amazing airline,” and the cameras pan out to show a large group of Virgin Australia staff walking stylishly towards the new plane in their new uniforms. The spot was directed by Australian director Daniel Askil and is set against the 1960s-style song S'Wonderful. The spot, uploaded by the airline to YouTube on September 28, was released the next day as part of the television broadcast of the widely-watched Australian Football League Grand Final, “one of the highest rating broadcasts of the year in Australia.” Within a week, the ad had generated nearly 100,000 views on YouTube, and was followed up by a print and web campaign using images from the video, showcasing people at the forefront of the airline.
Jeju Air x BigBang | South Korea's entertainment industry has been burgeoning since the inception of the Hallyu phenomenon. Brands across Asia have been quick to collaborate in a variety of ways. In Korea, Jeju Air has recently partnered with BigBang, a South Korean boy band that enjoys immense popularity in the country as well as the region, particularly among the younger demographic. As part of the partnership, Jeju Air and Big Bang launched a co-branded website for fans in Korea and the airline prominently features a portrait of the fve-member band on the sides of one of its 737s. Jeju Air is also sponsoring BigBang's tour through Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Japan, while the band has endorsed Jeju Air as their preferred carrier. Through the collaboration with BigBang, Jeju Airlines expects to increase the number of visitors to South Korea from Japan and other Asian countries. For example, to promote its flights to Seoul and Busan from Hong Kong, Jeju Air also handed out an airplane model to those who booked a round-trip ticket from Hong Kong, which created a surge in bookings due to Big Bang’s popularity. British Airways, meanwhile, earlier this year teamed up with British boy band One Direction to tap into One Direction's broad fan base in order to raise money for the Comic Relief charity.
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