benchmark report
airline marketing
instagram endorsement paris hilton
digital
the storytellers SINGAPORE AIRLINES
EMIRATES
3.5 million people looked at photos of Emirates’ First Class in mid-December thanks to Paris Hilton. Paris has made a habit of documenting her travels via Instagram , posing in her First Class seats when she flies commercial or next to the plane when flying private. Jetting through Miami, Dubai, India, and Los Angeles to play DJ gigs and make appearances in suppor t of her fashion and fragrance lines during the first half of December, Hilton alleviated her in-flight boredom by planning her next photo op. Five times over the course of these travels she posted Instagram photos of herself enjoying the comfor t of Emirates’ First Class, and she is quickly becoming a champion for the airline, whether official or not. These images (one , two , three , four ) and one video were immediately JANUARY 2015 ISSUE
shared with her legion of followers, and average over 40,000 “likes” each. Considering a single tweet of hers praising the airline in 2009 (to only 200,000 followers at the time) was valued at USD1.5 million by brand specialists five years ago, we shudder to think of a possible valuation for her recent Instagrams. Following the initial glowing tweet—”this Airline is amazing” with a photo of the Emirates logo—in 2009, Dubai-based publication ArabianBusiness actually contacted Emirates for comment and to see if this was an official endorsement. The response was that the airline was happy Hilton liked their product, but they “did not have a business relationship with Hilton nor had [Emirates] paid her any endorsement fee.”
Content marketing is one of the major trends in digital media these days and an interesting initiative in this domain was launched by Singapore Airlines recently in order to promote destinations that can be reached via its Singapore Changi hub. The airline targeted Australian ‘millennials’ with a combination of travel, the internet and story telling in a tie up with Australian youth publisher Sound Alliance . SIA’s ‘The Storytellers’ star ted in midSeptember by inviting budding writers to submit in 250 words or less on why they should be selected. The competition received 760 entries in two weeks which were narrowed down to f inal four Story tellers who were f lown to respectively Kochi (India), Yangon (Burma), Shanghai and Istanbul after a stop-over in Singapore and briefed with one mission: To f ind and document the most interesting
story they could f ind. With constant social and video updates from the travellers throughout their journey, all content was hosted on a dedicated ‘The Storytellers’ hub within the website of Sound Alliance’s popculture brand Junkee . The Story tellers could use words, video, photos or all of the above, and, once back in Australia, worked with Junkee’s editorial team to produce interesting stories which are beautifully illustrated. Examples here (Kochi), here (Yangon) and here (Shanghai). Junkee readers could also vote for their favourite ‘story teller’ to go into a draw to win a trip to the featured destination. The f inal winner received AUD4,000, and the oppor tunity to become a Junkee contributor.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
