EASYJET - LOOK & BOOK

At the end of September, tech news website ‘The Verge’ announced that ‘The end of Instagram as we know it is here.

This came as Instagram’s founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced that they were leaving their creation, which they had sold to Facebook in 2012.

As the “crown jewel” of Facebook’s lineup, and the one part of the organisation whose reputation was intact following the election-related ‘fake news’ scandals of 2016 and 2017, the brand has been subject to increased meddling by its parent company.

With Systrom and Krieger gone, that trend will now continue. What that will mean from a user experience remains to be seen, but from a brand point of view it will arguably result in more opportunities, with Facebook looking to increase ways in which Instagram generates advertising revenue.

For airlines, that is particularly relevant given the influence Instagram has on holiday bookings for millenials in particular.

For example, a survey quoted in Forbes says that more than 40% of those under 33 prioritize ‘Instagrammability’ when choosing their next holiday spot.

One airline which is at the forefront of using Instagram in its marketing campaigns is UK LCC easyJet, which in September announced what it called a ‘world first’ when it unveiled its Look & Book feature, which is integrated into the easyJet app.

Essentially, Look & Book allows you to book a flight to somewhere you saw on Instagram.

Anyone browsing Instagram can take a screenshot of somewhere they seen and then upload it to the app. easyjet says that Look & Book then uses advanced image recognition techniques to identify the location to match the photo to easy- Jet’s 1000-strong destinations on offer throughout Europe.

The new app feature not only recognises the destination, but also suggests the nearest airport and pre-populates the booking form with those details.

A short YouTube video guides users through the process, using the example of someone who saw a photo of Portugal and subsequently booked a flight from London Luton to Porto.

Though it only works on Instagram for now, easyJet says it has the potential to plug into other picture-sharing apps such as Snapchat and Pinterest in the future.

Certainly, it’s an innovative idea, and one which has got easyJet a lot of great PR. However we wonder whether - for now at least - users will actually follow through with the process envisaged by easyJet.

After all, even if they are not geotagged, most images on Instagram at least have a clue of where they were taken in the caption and / or hashtags. It would be just as easy to take the location and enter it into the (e.g) Expedia or Skyscanner app.

Our suspicion is that it all comes down to what apps a user has on his or her phone, and on that the easyJet app does rank well in terms of downloads, regularly appearing in the top five travel apps in the UK iOS store according to AppAnnie.

In a sense, easyJet is probably also using this as a trial for future innovations. Current bookings via the app probably won’t be high, but it still gives the airline a useful test-bed for when Instagram rolls out more brand-friendly features for advertisers, especially in light of the departure of Instagram’s two original founders.

easyJet - Electric planes

Separately, easyJet announced that it was partnering with Wright Electric to develop electric aircraft that could potentially serve the short but popular London to Amsterdam route.

According to easyJet, Wright Electric, has already commenced work on an electric engine that will power a nine seater aircraft, which is expected to start flying in 2019.

Industry website Electrek comments that it is ‘hopeful’ despite some major setbacks with other electric aircraft prototypes, given the rapid improvement in battery technology.

Electric planes that have had problems include the Siemens electric plane prototype which caught on fire in the air and an all-electric Pipistrel trainer plane which also crashed recently.