benchmark report
airline marketing
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
A monthly selection of the most innovative marketing campaigns launched by airlines around the world SimpliFlying | airlinetrends.com September 2OI4
Issue 25
benchmark report
airline marketing
welcome. Published by market research agency airlinetrends.com and aviation marketing strategy consulting firm SimpliFlying, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Repor t contains a wide range of airline marketing case studies each month, providing you with the latest and most innovative social, digital, experiential and traditional airline marketing campaigns recently launched by airlines around the world. Whether you’re looking for inspiration or are eager to help your airline move into the nex t stage of engagement, while also understanding how your airline marketing initiatives compare to campaigns from competitors in general, these repor ts are indispensable for airline professionals working in the f ield of marketing and corporate communications. The monthly repor ts also help agencies that work with airlines stay on top of the latest innovative airline marketing initiatives.
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
experiential
For any questions about the repor t, please contact Shubhodeep Pal at shubhodeep@simplif lying.com. As innovative campaigns come in all shapes and sizes, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Repor t is categorized into the following four themes:
Faced with ever more experienced consumers, who routinely ignore the commercials and ads thrown at them, airline brands are finding new ways to break through the adver tising clutter to connect with consumers.
social
Besides engaging their online audience via Facebook and Twitter-based campaigns, the airline industry is also busy experimenting with new social media platforms.
digital
With the huge popularity of smar tphones and tablets, airlines are tapping into these digital platforms to engage consumers, as well as releasing videos online which they hope will go viral.
tv, print, ooh
Despite the current focus on social, digital and experiential campaigns, airlines continue to serve up creative, traditional media-based, initiatives in order to reach a mass audience.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
experiential
cross-media
run2fly
virtual reality holidays THOMAS COOK
British tour operator Thomas Cook has opened a concept store that is leveraging the latest digital advancements to let store visitors immerse themselves in digital content. Promoted as ‘virtual reality holiday’, store visistors store can try on Oculus Rift headsets – a head mounted virtual reality 3D display, which features an ultra-wide field of view and low latency head tracking – that have been programmed to present a 3D, 360-degree vision of tropical paradise, in an effort to help build excitement around the holidays the company offers. The headset – combined with a newly developed application – translates head and motion movements to the virtual world allowing customers to explore Thomas Cook’s Sentido resort and the interior of an Thomas Cook aircraft, while bespoke audio and fragrance complete the immersive experience.
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
MIAMI AD SCHOOL
Says a Thomas Cook spokesperson, the technology advancements in virtual reality over the last 18 months have made it a real contender for playing a key role in changing the way we can showcase experience-based products to our customers, especially in the high street environment.”
As running marathons attract an international field of amateur participants, they are interesting events for airlines to align themselves with. For example, Air France KLM’s loyalty program has set up a Flying Blue Running community which aims to bring like-minder flyers together.
Future plans include offering customers the chance to experience New York City with Oculus later this year, which ties in with the company’s strategic partnership with BrandUSA promoting America’s ‘Great Outdoors’ as well as Thomas Cook’s new flights and holidays to the Big Apple.
AirBaltic’s loyalty program BalticMiles last year launched an innovative ‘Burn The Miles’ app that gave rewards to frequent fliers who jog enough to burn off the same number of calories as miles they have flown.
If the virtual reality trial is a success at the concept shop located in the Bluewater shopping mall (just southeast of London), the Oculus devices will be introduced to the other Thomas Cook stores in Leeds, Stockton on Tees, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Essex.
Those downloading the app were challenged to match every mile they fly with a calorie burned in the space of 24 hours after they land, tracked using the smartphone’s built-in accelerometer. This case study and video explain more about the scheme.
A similar idea is behind an interesting concept dreamed up by students from the Miami Ad School . Run2Fly is an app that rewards marathon enthusiasts by converting their training miles into Virgin Atlantic air miles. Proposed as a new feature on the Nike Plus app , the Run2Fly concept would work the following way: Users have to download the Nike Plus app, choose the Run2Fly mode and the marathon they want to compete in. The app then calculates the the distance from the marathon locaton to the user’s place of residence, and the number of frequent flyer miles needed to convert into a Virgin Atlantic ticket. Video of how the concept works here . As Run2Fly is ‘just’ an idea, it can serve as inspiration for airlines to come up with concepts that ‘gamify the running experience’, or any other shared interest among passengers.
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airline marketing
free wifi access
wifi taxi AMERICAN AIRLINES
JAPAN AIRLINES
To raise awareness among business travellers in London that American Airlines (AA) offers full-f lat seats in First and Business on all f lights between London and New York – and is also the only airline to offer wi-f i across the Atlantic – the airline this spring wrapped 40 cabs in AA livery and provided passengers with free 4G wi-f i.
AA’s ‘wif i taxi’ was par t of a massive out-of-home campaign by the airline in London which appeared across the London Underground, rail and bus networks, on large-format roadside sites , at Heathrow Airport , Heathrow Express, Canary Wharf and on ECNlive, a digital signage network inside off ice buildings.
On entry to the taxi, passengers were met by a welcome message on the interior digital screen prompting them to connect to free 4G wi-f i. Upon doing so, they were taken to a campaign landing page on aa.com, which provided access to a vir tual tour of our new planes. In addition, a 30-second ad played on the taxi screen, providing customers with more information on American’s transatlantic f lying experience.
According to Rappor t, which was responsible for the media planning, 41 percent of AB business travellers in London recalled seeing the campaign (rising to 60 percent for those who travel for business at least once a month). Of its competitors, AA saw the biggest increases in both top-of-mind brand and adver tising awareness despite no TV activity and spending signif icantly less than these rival airlines. More stats and a case video here and here .
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Various surveys show that travellers today regard free or low-cost access to wif i when abroad as an essential need, while many travellers have run into unexpected high roaming charges when returning home. When Japan Airlines (JAL) found that around half of international leisure visitors to Japan had a strong desire for free internet access, the airline decided to par tner with Japanese telco NTT East. NTT East operates a network of so-called ‘Hikari Station’ hotspots that are located at more than 46,000 shops and facilities across eastern Japan and which allow tourists to use free WiFi service during shor t visits to Japan.
passengers can enjoy free Wi-Fi service for 14 days at a wide range of NTT East’s Wi-Fi hotspots covering 17 cities. JAL’s provision of free wi-f i for passengers in Japan is a good example of the ‘marketing as a service’ trend, which is decribed by trendwatching.com as: “With pragmatic, convenience-loving consumers enjoying instant access to an evergrowing number of suppor ting services and tools (both off line and online), brands urgently need to hone their ‘butlering skills’, focusing on assisting consumers to make the most of their daily live.”
Foreign visitors purchasing a JAL ticket to Japan will be eligible to apply for a free ID and password on JAL’s international website . With the ID and password,
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social
ice bucket challenge
ilega más rápido
MULTIPLE AIRLINES
VOLARIS
In Mexico, where cross-country bus trips can be as long as 12 or 15 hours, Volaris one of the countries low-cost carriers repeatedly launches innovative campaigns to demonstrate that air travel is no longer out of reach for Mexico’s emerging middle class, and that the airline is essentially competing with the busses for passengers, instead of competing with other airlines. Following an earlier initiative that saw Volaris offer a free flight to Mexicans with a passion for flying but who had never taken a flight before, the carrier recently used its sponsorship of the Toyota Nascar Mexico Series to come up with an exhilarating way to show the general public the benefits of travelling with Volaris instead of by bus.
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
Volaris enlisted Nascar driver Rogelio Lopes to approach unsuspecting passengers waiting at a long-distance bus station and ask them where they are going. The driver then offered the person a ride in his race car, delivering him/her to the airport, where to their surprise they continued their journey trip on a Volaris plane. The video of one of the lucky persons was posted by Volaris on YouTube and the video ended with the tagline “Con Volaris llega mucho más rápido” (“With Volaris it goes much faster”) and viewers could click on the video to be directed to Volaris website.
Business leaders around the world have been joining the thousands of people taking par t in the ice bucket challenge in which par ticipants are doused in freezing water before nominating another person to do the same - all in aid of the ALS Association. Virgin Atlantic-founder Richard Branson was among the first airline leaders to take on the challenge (video here ; 40,000+ views so far) and made a wide-ranging nomination by asking all 60,000 Virgin employees – “from the cabin crew to the pilots, the train drivers to the directors” – to do the same. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary even subjected himself to 14 buckets of ice water, raising GBP 10,000 as he took the challenge outside the company offices. The Ryanair CEO was his usual self, saying: “You can’t match our fares. You can’t even freeze your
fares. The least you can do is freeze your nuts!” (video here ; 66,000 views so far). O’Leary challenged the CEOs of Europe’s three largest full-service network carriers – Willie Walsh (IAG), Alexandre de Juniac (AFKL) and Garston Spohr (LH), with Willie Walsh being the only one to respond to the challenge (video ). Other airline CEO’s that have also responded to Ice Bucket Challenge nominations include Doug Parker (AA), Jeff Smisek (UA), Brad Tilden (Alaska), Ben Baldanza (Spirit), Camiel Eurlings (KLM) and Azran Osman Rani (AirAsia X), while staff at Finnair did the icebucket challenge on the stairs of a Finnair aircraft (video here ) and even onboard a Finnair flight. For a full overview see the SimpliFlying website .
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airline marketing
last call
#loveatfirstflight
BRITISH AIRWAYS
British Airways and Ogilvy PR experimented with eight-inch ‘mini’ replicas of several bloggers to build awareness for its lastminute Last Call fares, which are aimed at travelers who book flights without much lead time. The airline collaborated with seven bloggers in the field of travel, fashion, culture and craft, as well as Quod - a 3-D printing company based in London - to print replicas of the bloggers for their mini-adventures. The creation of the very identical-looking ‘minime’s’ was documented in a video (available here ). The four women and three men with Instagram followers that ranged from 300 to 3,250 saw their alter egos visiting the likes of Amsterdam, Istanbul and North Carolina, where they were photographed at different
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
locations. The photos where then published on the Instagram account of the respective blogger. Examples here , here and here .
Last year, China Airlines used the power of social media to return a lost camera to the rightful owner, generated some earned media in the process.
The airline selected bloggers known for spontaneity and who would appeal to a wide-range of people. According to Ogilvy, each blogger was carefully selected as it was important they have a mix of interests, and have the affinity for trying something new in order to connect with consumers who would consider this type of booking.
The following ‘love at f irst f light’ story recently made headlines in both Canada and the UK and saw companies such as a limo service and a ‘hen par ty’ service – but no airline – jump at the oppor tunity to generate free PR.
The campaign ran from June 2 to July 31. According to social media tracking service SkiftIQ, the number of British Airways’ Instagram followers jumped after the airline launched the ‘Last Call’ advertising campaign in early June.
Irishman Jamie Kelly sought the help of social media users this summer to identify a mystery woman he met on a f light. Kelly’s friends launched the #loveatf irstf light campaign on Twitter after he made a connection with 27-yearold Katie Moreau from Riverpor t, Nova Scotia (Canada) as they sat together on a Ryanair f light from Barcelona to Dublin
in mid-July. The duo got separated when they went through customs and were unable to f ind each other on the other side. It turns out Katie had been looking for him at the airpor t too. Following the ‘online reunion’, Kelly and Moreau went on their f irst date in Water ford and were picked up in a Chrysler thanks to TLC Limos for a romantic dinner and had champagne thanks to HenPar tyCentral.ie, and even appeared on a radio show to relieve how it went. Katie had to f ly home to Canada the following day but said she had a great time on their date. The couple admitted there was a “chemistry”, conf irming that “there was a good night kiss.”
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digital
qantas points quest
igital
#fromto
QANTAS
Qantas has launched a Sim City-like vir tual town in which members of its frequent f lyer program can earn prizes. The Quest for Qantas Points online game is intended to promote the airline’s ever-broadening ‘Frequent Flyer’ rewards program, which in early August opened its new QantasPoints.com online shopping mall with 16 new retail par tners including Apple, eBay, Macy’s and Neiman Marcus. The entirety of the Qantas Loyalty program par tners – including banks, hotels, cruise holidays, restaurants and golf – is showcased in this vir tual world, where the aim of the game is for members to explore the town and answer questions about ways to earn Qantas frequent f lyer points.
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
AUSTRIAN
“Some members will know the answers to the questions off the top of their head, other members will have to explore the website to f ind the answers” says Qantas Loyalty’s Chief Marketing Off icer Stephanie Tully, “and by completing f ive questions you’ll be entered into the competition.”
Following an EUR 90 million investment in its long-haul product, Austrian Airlines this spring launched a campaign called FROM/ TO that aims to re-establish trust and a stronger identif ication with the brand.
Par ticipants must be a member of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program to earn points. The promotion runs between 18 August and 14 September 2014 and the draw of three prizes of AUD 15,000 Qantas Holiday Vouchers takes place on 22 September 2014. Tully added that the game will also be used in future promotional campaigns with additional prizes up for grabs.
According to Austrian the campaign was about “Being a par t of Austria and the feeling that with Austrian, passengers don’t just f ly from A to B, but that the f light is par t of the travel experience as well.” The FROM/TO campaign was suppor ted by a wide range of media formats, from TV spots through to print ads, online banners, and online videos featuring Austrian opera singer Anna Netrebko and Olympic downhill ski champion Matthias Mayer .
The game was developed by digital media agency RazorFish and can be played through the web browser on any device.
At the hear t of the campaign was the myaustrian.com microsite which – in an effor t to create authentic messages
around the brand – invited fans and followers of the airline to share their personal experiences with the community and battle in a contest for the best submissions. Each week a new theme, inspired by the new adver tising campaign, was presented with an open-end: Par ticipants from the Austrian community then could complete the thought, add a photo via an application on the microsite or via Facebook, which would then be turned into a similar format as the adver tising campaign. The most inspiring moments ended up on a daily basis on myaustrian.com #star t and on the Austrian Airlines Facebook page . During the campaign, each week the ten best entries were awarded with a EUR 50 voucher and the overall winner of the contest saw his/her image featured on a large poster at Vienna Airpor t.
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tv, print, ooh
all you need is love
slow tv BRITISH AIRWAYS
British Airways continues to make headlines with (pseudo) scientific-backed product and service innovations that double as PR. Following initiatives such as umamibased catering (Heston Blumenthal), ‘Hapiness Blankets’ (see the August edition of this repor t) and carrying out a ‘social experiment’ in the sky to test what toys kids prefer to play with inflight , BA last month launched a new IFE channel called ‘Slow TV’. Inspired by a trend popular in Scandinavia for its relaxing, undemanding qualities, the programmes feature gentle, everyday events such as knitting, walking and bird feeding. BA’s ‘slow range’ includes a seven-hour Norwegian train journey (video ) which shows tranquil images along a seven-hour
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
SOUTHWEST
Norwegian train journey from Oslo to Bergen. BA will also be showing relaxing footage of kittens and puppies on a channel called ‘Paws and Relax’ . Shows on the channel include animated car toon ‘Simon’s Cat’, ‘America’s Cutest Dog’, the BBC’s ‘Secret Life of Cats’ and animals from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, which are available for adoption. Says Richard D’Cruze, IFE manager at BA: “We discovered some scientific research that proves watching images of cute animals can actually lower your hear t rate and reduces stress levels. The programming initiative is aimed to sooth and enter tain children who can become disruptive from the strain of long distance travelling, but the programmes could be just as enjoyable for adults.”
Southwest Airlines is celebrating its ability to fly unfettered out of its hometown airport with a multifaceted campaign featuring an iconic song. The Wright Amendment, which imposed restrictions on flying out of Dallas’ Love Field Airport for 35 years - to protect business at the competing Dallas/Fort Worth International - expires this October. As a result, Southwest will add 15 new nonstop destinations in October and November from Love Field. The campaign features the Beatles classic “All You Need is Love” (as in Love Field) performed by indie pop band Echosmith. It includes four TV spots, hundreds of billboards , print and digital. Each 30-second ad informs viewers of the new non-stop flights resulting from the repeal of the Wright Amendment, while offering
up a different take on celebration. All spots end with the words: “Goodbye Wright Amendment. Hello America. 10.13.14.” ‘Water Cannon’ launched July 8 and features a colorful water cannon salute from out on the tarmac. ’Seventh Inning Stretch’ was filmed during a Texas Rangers preseason game. ’Love Moment’ , the most offbeat commercial of the bunch, captures a few seconds of Love Field activity in super slow-motion—which is exactly how time seems to pass when your flight’s been delayed. ’Fireworks’ shows airline passengers watching pyrotechnics from a plane. Each week Southwest is also featuring one of the new cities on its blog, written by a Southwest employee who is affiliated with the city and can give an insider’s view of what to see and do while visiting.
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traditional
the big reward
champions never rest
AVIOS
ALASKA AIRLIINES
Travel rewards currency Avios (previously known as Airmiles) – which is the frequent flyer currency of the British Airways and Iberia loyalty programs – in June launched its ‘Big Reward’ campaign which offered the UK public the chance to win 50 pairs of BA flights by nominating someone to say thank you.
Friends and family could then submit nominations for people who have done something special for them. Over 2,500 thank you nominations were submitted in total. Among the winners were carers, inspirators and Rosemary - an elderly lady who saved the lives of 30 soldiers from the D-Day landing.
The objective of the campaign was to increase awareness and understanding of Avios as a travel rewards currency. The Big Reward campaign kicked off with a nominate call on Channel 4 TV. In the spot, comedian Chris Ramsay devotes a day to spending GBP250,000 on a host of items which are then donated to Avios’ charity partners. The reward points earned from the shopping spree are then converted into flight tickets for fifty deserving winners.
Avios then took over an entire Channel 4 commercial break on July 25th with a 3-minute spot that showed the heartwarming quest to turn travel rewards points into gifts for those who need them most.
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
The finale film will continue to run in a shorter edited 90”, 60” and two 20” spots on social media, including a competition to win further travel-related prizes. The 3-minutespot which will also be shown onboard BA flights.
As part of an ongoing sponsorship with American Football team Seattle Seahawks, Seattle-based Alaska Airlines earlier this year named Seahawks’ Quarterback Russell Wilson as its Chief Football Officer’ (video here ). As Chief Football Officer, Russel Wilson will appear at company events and take part in airline marketing, while Alaska will help sponsor his community support and charitable endeavors. For example, earlier this year, fans flying Alaska and wearing a Russell Wilson Seahawks shirt were allowed to board the aircraft before all other passengers during the full American Football season. Alaska Airlines has just released the first two of three comical TV commercials that Wilson shot with 40 production crew members and 13 actual employees on a Seattle middle
school field “one hot summer day not long ago,” in the airline’s words. In the first TV spot, called Training Camp (15,000 views so far), Wilson runs Alaska employees through drills that combine football and airline skills: high knees with suitcases, around cones with a stroller, lost teddy bear drill, snack delivery accuracy (#snackuracy) training, where flight attendants hurl bags of snacks at “passengers” painted on boards attached to golf carts. In a classroom, the employees identify routes: Albuquerque, New Orleans, Atlanta, Cancun. The second spot, Wisdom Wars (3,500 views so far), sees Wilson trading cliché inspirational sayings with an Alaska Airlines pilot in an effort to help the cabin crew “get game ready.”
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from ad to bag EMIRATES
Following Air France’s initiative last year to work together with French social enterprise Bilum to upcycle old advertising posters into stylish bags, Emirates recently turned a 208 square meter poster into over 300 quirky and reusable shopping bags. In a project which aims to highlight Emirates’ fashion forward credentials and commitment to sustainable practices, the PVC material of a giant Emirates Cabin Crew poster originally displayed outside Zurich Airport, was repurposed into a limited edition line of upcycled shopping bags with the help of Feinschliff, a socially integrative company in Switzerland which supports long-term unemployed people in returning to the labour market.
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First, two industrial climbers worked for two days to carefully remove the mega poster from its display wall. The poster was then packed and sent to Feinschliff, where it took 10 workers 16 days to repurpose the enormous poster into bags. The handcraft production of a single bag took about 27 minutes, involving 13 different steps, including cutting and washing the poster, sewing on straps and assembling the material (video ). Each bag has been imprinted with the airline’s ‘Where will you be tomorrow’ tagline. Lightweight, with an inside pocket and made of durable textile. The bags were gifted to visitors of an open air cinema screening in Zurich.
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about us.
Pricing SimpliFlying is a global consultancy that believes in thinking differently about aviation marketing. Having worked with over 50 airlines and airports around the world, it has presences in Singapore, UK, Spain, Canada and India. Today, SimpliFlying advises airlines and airports on customer engagement strategy, achieving aviation business goals by harnessing the latest innovations in the social media space. The firm also conducts MasterClasses to train and develop airline and airport teams to become self-sufficient in executing measurable and rewarding social campaigns.
SEPTEMBER 2014 ISSUE
SimpliFlying’s growing list of clients includes Lufthansa, Emirates, Toronto Pearson Airpor t, Halifax International, KLIA, Jet Airways, LAN Airlines, airBaltic, Airbus and Bombardier. Get in touch at engage@simpliflying. com or visit www.simpliflying.com.
Airlinetrends.com is an independent industry and consumer trends research agency that monitors the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing consumer behavior. Airlinetrends.com repor ts its f indings in a free monthly email newsletter as well as in paid trend repor ts and corporate trend sessions. Get in touch at info@airlinetrends.com or visit www.airlinetrends.com.
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