benchmark report
airline marketing
social
altitude community
gift of home AIR CANADA
Right on the heels of rival carrier WestJet’s video , which shows the airline making the Christmas wishes come true for an entire town in the Dominican Republic, Air Canada has joined the spirit of Christmas giving with a holiday video as well. The touching video (1.7 million views on YouTube so far) captures two pilots going into The Maple Leaf , a popular bar in London (England) where Canadians go for a taste of home. After asking several patrons what they miss most about Canada, the pilots silence the bar with the ring of a loud bell. “We have an announcement,” says one of the pilots. “Because we are in the holiday season, I would like to take this occasion to offer everybody here present this evening a round,” said the other pilot.
DECEMBER 2014 ISSUE
AIR CANADA
With the promise of a free drink, the bar, of course, erupts in cheers. But, it’s not a free drink the pilots are handing out. “There’s more to the story,” says one of the pilots. “When we say ‘a round’ we mean roundtrip tickets for everyone to back to Canada for the holiday season.” In disbelief, Canadians in the bar begin to cheer, shed tears and hug each other. In true Canadian fashion, the crowd then breaks into a sing-along, belting out ‘O Canada.’ Recipients of a free ticket were asked to take their joy online and tweet photos with the hashtag #ACgiftof home
Over the past years, several airlines – including Air France-KLM (Club China and Club Africa) and Qantas (Epiqure ) have launched branded communities around common interests of their frequent flyers. However, these communities have seen mixed results at best and mostly can be characterized by a lack of engagement among community members. Following focus groups that found customers were looking for greater connections with fellow flyers and recognition for their many trips, Air Canada has introduced the Air Canada Altitude Community where frequent flyers can create or read lists outlining the top activities in a destination and they receive points and awards for earning “Likes” on their content.
list) and Shout Out Badge (awarded when members post a list to one of their social networks). Awards will also be accompanied by travel-related and bonus Aeroplan miles. Says Ian Di Tullio, director of loyalty marketing at Air Canada, “While there are numerous travel-related recommendation sites, they tend to have a narrow focus on categories like hotels and restaurants, and typically don’t boast the insider knowledge of frequent travelers. Instead of trying to reinvent a Trip Advisor or a Yelp or anything like that, we wanted to create something really small to start that didn’t box them in to any kind of category…it’s really a “best of” in cities of their choice,” he said. “Our goal is to have 20 percent of the base sign up within the first year.”
‘Gamification’ awards include the Tastemaker Badge (awarded for receiving 1,000 likes on a
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
