benchmark report
airline marketing
traditional
wearable hackathon
traditional
fans to stars
AMERICAN AIRLINES
Recognizing it is better to team up with the creative and technology classes to co-create new applications as technology is evolving at a rapid pace, American Airlines has partnered with innovation platform Wearable World to organize the Wearable Hackaton event , which saw 200 creative techies make their way to San Francisco on June 6 and 7 to work directly with American’s development team, hardware and API partners to create the next app for wearable devices such as smart watches and interactive glasses, for trial on American Airlines. Partners in the Wearable Hackaton include IBM, AT&T, Pebble, Gogo, The Weather Channel, MasterCard, Citibank, Nod Labs, Plantronics, Deloitte, and San Francisco International Airport. In the first round, which took place on June 6th
JULY 2014 ISSUE
TURKISH AIRLINES
and 7th, participating teams spent 24 hours designing, prototyping, coding, and testing their applications. Expert mentors, sponsors, and API providers helped teams fine-tune and code their ideas throughout the event. Judges then rated team pitches and selected five teams to advance to round two. The winners of round one now have 30 days to finish their projects before meeting with American Airlines customers and employees at San Francisco Airport. Two members from each team will also board AA’s new transcontinental A321 service to New York on July 11th to test their app using in-air WiFi while communicating with team members at SFO airport. Upon landing, American’s top customers will participate in deciding the winner.
Soccer’s huge popularity in much of the world has made it a magnet for airlines looking to raise their profile. Over the last few years, airlines from the Gulf Region, in particular, have been using using soccer to build their brand names and reach a broad audience. Emirates has been sponsoring major soccer teams such as Real Madrid, Arsenal, Paris St Germain, AC Milan and HSV, while Etihad has been the main sponsor to Manchester City since 2009 and Qatar Airways shows up on the jerseys of FC Barcelona.
Aiming to visualize the connection with Borussia Dortmund, Turkish Airlines’ new commercial will star a member of the general public. In June, the airline launched a contest, titled “Turkish Airlines is looking for the star of its next commercial!” which invites fans of the soccer team to apply online on a the campaign website and describe why they should be chosen to become their next star. The lucky winner then will become the face of Turkish Airlines and will play alongside a Borussia Dortmund player in the commercial.
Turkish Airlines, meanwhile, is the ‘Premium Airline Partner’ of Borussia Dortmund and for example flies the team to all international tournaments and matches. The airline has also opened a branded lounge at Dortmund’ Signal Iduna Park stadium.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
