benchmark report
airline marketing
business by easyjet
traditional
cloud ads AIR FRANCE UK
To celebrate its 80th anniversary and promote a new range of low fares for 2014, Air France opted to break away from traditional advertising and turned its eye to the sky. In the UK, the airline gained approval from the Civil Aviation Authority to create its very own laser light show that was beamed onto the clouds over some of London’s (and other major city’s) most iconic locations. Working with agencies Curb and CMT Events, Air France outfitted a traditional ‘black cab’ with powerful projectors that could project images of an airplane, the brand’s logo, and the promotion’s hashtag (#AirFranceSky) directly onto the sky. The first of the overhead projections took place on January 7th at London’s Waterloo station, with others following over a 3 week period at Air France’s regional destinations Birmingham,
FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE
EASYJET
Manchester and Edinburgh –with each laser projection lasting around two and a half hours (video here ). Air France also ran a Twitter-based competition that gave one lucky UK winner two long-haul tickets on any Air France destination, and the opportunity to see their suggested message in the sky. Participants had to follow @AirFranceUK on Twitter and tweet the airline what they would like to write in the sky, accompanied with the hashtag #AirFranceSky.
In the past years, easyJet – European second largest LCC – has stepped up efforts to target business travellers, rolling out a series of new products and services aimed at this lucrative segment. According to the airline, 18 percent of easyJet’s passengers were flying on business during 2013. As part of this focus, easyJet has been running its ‘Business by easyJet’ campaign for some time, and the latest latest development for the campaign sees the airline using gently provocative slogans to target today’s “new wave of business travellers,” as the airline puts it. The new posters, which can be found inside UK hub London Gatwick airport, promotes the airline as a savvy choice of airline when travelling for work, and is aimed at the self-titled ‘smart traveller’. The tone of
voice attacks the old-fashioned notion of exclusivity that surrounds business travel. For example, one of the posters uses the phrase ‘The Old Boys Club is closed until further notice ’ and the other ‘Bye Invitation only ’ and sits alongside the broader further reaching multi-platform ‘Generation easyJet’ campaign launched in September last year. This isn’t easyJet’s first advertising campaign slogan aimed at attacking the legacy carrier travel experience. In previous campaigns, the airline has been setting itself apart from their main UK competitor BA, using phrases such as ‘A Free flight if you’re late, or sweet B.A?’ and ‘To Fly. To Save’, which was a direct comparison against British Airways’ ‘To Fly. To Serve.’ slogan.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
