benchmark report
airline marketing
social
local measure
vueling ambassadors
QANTAS
According to social metrics company Social Bakers, the airline industry is the most ‘socially devoted ’ industry on Facebook and Twitter, with carriers such as KLM and Delta being the most advanced in monitoring social media for passenger inquiries and feedback. However, to allow airlines to pick up an online conversation about their brand, the messages have to feature the airline’s name/hashtag or a strong reference to it. Qantas is currently trialling technology from Australian star t-up Local Measure at 10 airpor ts (domestically and at SIN, LA, JFK, LHR, DXB) to monitor social media conversations by those passengers inside its airpor t lounges – who have shared their location by turning on geo-location in Twitter or checking into a service such as Foursquare or Facebook Places –
APRIL 2014 ISSUE
VUELING
regardless of whether the user mentions Qantas by name. Besides allowing Qantas to amplify positive feedback, the biggest benefit of the trial sofar for Qantas has been in customer service and group insights. Says Qantas Head of Digital Communications, Jo Boundy, “Passengers don’t necessarily go and tell the lounge manager ‘I liked my Neil Perry’ pie’, but they do take photos and tweet about it in real-time with hashtags and suddenly they’ve given you a very clear indication of what they think of the product inside the lounges. They also might say there’s something wrong with the barista coffee machine or there’s a leaky toilet, stuff we’d never normally see, and now we’re getting it in real time and are able to fix.”
In a bid to put a human face to the cities in its network and promote the airline, Vueling has launched an online contest to find ‘ambassadors ’ for a select number of its destination cities. Participants who wanted to become a local Vueling ambassador were asked to subscribe to the Vueling Ambassadors microsite , upload a profile shot and then generate enough votes online through friends and social networking – as well as answering a few key questions – to secure their place as a local Vueling ambassador.
To help promote the campaign, Vueling’s German city ambassadors were filmed when they were taken to Barcelona, where they participated in a photoshoot to be featured in the airline’s printed campaigns, as well as being given a tour of the city, courtesy of Vueling.
The final four candidates from each city were then put up to the vote to win the title of ‘Ambassador’ of their chosen city. As a reward the winning par ticipants are entitled to as many as 50 flights with the Spanish carrier.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
