benchmark report
airline marketing
h8te thousand miles
digital
eye of the fan TURKISH ARLINES
Much like the Champions League in football, the Final Four will crown the best basketball team in Europe. As official title sponsor of the Euroleague Final Four, Turkish Airlines in the past three years has launched an innovative digital campaign, called Eye of the Fan . The centerpiece of the campaign is one man with a camera strap ped to his head (‘The Eye of the Fan’) who offers fans a view of the action through the eyes of a basketball follower and who has unparalleled access to behind the scenes and moments that previously were out of reach for the fans. Turkish Airlines followers can dictate the actions of Eye of the Fan through social media channels. At this year’s final in Milan, the Eye of the Fan also got company from four Fan Masters – chosen out of thousands of applicants – who
AUGUST 2014 ISSUE
SPIRIT
represented each team participating in 2014 Final Four (video here ). The entire Final Four ‘adventure’ of Eye of the Fan was broadcasted on the Eye of the Fan microsite and the Turkish Airlines Facebook fan page. Adding an experiential element to the campaign, Turkish Airlines also sent a tram filled entirely with basketballs around the busy city center of Milan, asking passersby to guess how many basketballs were inside the tram, to have a chance to win a trip to Istanbul. Almost 5,000 people submitted their guess online . On the last day of the campaign, the tram stopped at Milan’s popular Cathedral Square and gave away all basketballs to passers-by (video here ).
Ultra low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, routinely referred to as the Most Hated Airline in the U.S, is trying to harness that hate (and generate publicity) with a campaign inviting travelers to vent about any airline, including Spirit. Each “venter” who par ticipates in Spirit’s Hate Thousand Miles Giveaway will receive 8,000 of the airline’s frequent-f lier miles, which is about 2,000 miles shor t of a free f light. They must have or sign up for a Spirit Airlines mileage account. Under a tagline saying “UNLEASH THAT HATE,” Spirit gives visitors a dropdown list of airlines to “hate on.” Visitors just have to keep complaints to a Twitterfriendly 140 characters or less. “Or maybe you’re one of our fans -- feel free to share some love, too,” Spirit adds. For those who submit a gripe, Spirit gives this conf irmation: “We’re glad you got
that out. From now on, we’ll be better about spreading the word on how we f ly - because we want everyone to know about our Bare Fares, how you only pay for what you use, and how Spirit saves you money.” “We want to change the way people think about air travel and educate them about the Spirit way of traveling,” said Ben Baldanza, Spirit’s CEO. “We’re going to Hug The Haters.” The promotion will end once the airline gives away one billion miles. “So far, there’s been a lot of venting about delays, weather and all the problems you’d have on almost any airline,” said a Spirit spokesman. The campaign is accompanied by a somewhat off beat video featuring a guitar player and a singer who sings angry tweets.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
