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American Airlines 'Change Is In The Air' | After having maintained the same brand identity for 45 years, American Airlines has partnered with FutureBrand to develop a completely new look, including a new logo and livery, as part of its emergence as a “New American” following the airline’s fling for Chapter 11 protection in November 2011. AA’s new look and feel, which replace the airline’s iconic logo and livery, has received mixed reviews.
To promote its rebrand, American worked with McCann Worldgroup to develop a commercial called 'Change Is In The Air', which so far has brought in nearly 32,000 views on YouTube and was also aired on TV on the day of the US Super Bowl. The ad is one of six videos AA has released on its YouTube channel. The videos showcase different aspects of the rebrand and have garnered between 10,000 and 172,000 views each. Besides setting up a dedicated site that provides viewers a comprehensive overview of the airline's rebrand, AA issued the hashtag #newAmerican on Twitter, which was also extended to cover the airline's inaugural B777-300ER flight on January 31 which features AA’s new livery as well as a new interior. On Facebook, American's posts of videos and information about the rebrand brought in between 1,500 and 6,000 'likes' per post, as well as up to 1,700 shares.
Air France 'Hop!' | Europe's latest carrier is Hop!, recently launched by parent company Air France into the continent's LCC-heavy market as part of a reorganisation to help return AF’s short and medium-haul operations to proftability. Hop! will integrate AF’s three exisiting regional airlines, Britair, Regional and Airlinair, and will start operations on March 31. The visual identity of the new airline was developed by AF’s agency of record Brandimage, and the airline says it selected the name Hop! as it is a“simple and efcient name, synonymous with mobility and action. The name “HOP!“ evokes rapidity and the ease with which travellers can get from point A to B. Synonymous with agility, HOP! illustrates its capacity to bounce back and adapt to customers’ needs.” In developing the branding, Brandimage says it took to evoking the brand's characteristics of providing fast and efcient point-to-point services, as well as “flexibility in a creative and playful manner,” through a simple typeface and angled exclamation mark. The agency also created two static ads for Hop! which maintain a playful element through a computer-animated depiction of characters and aircraft. The branding will be applied to all of Hop!'s graphic platforms, including web, print and airport signage.
3 | Airline Marketing Benchmark Report | February 2013
