benchmark report
airline marketing
FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE
A monthly selection of the most innovative marketing campaigns launched by airlines around the world SimpliFlying | airlinetrends.com Feb 2OI5 Issue 30
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.
FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE
EXPERIENTIAL
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. 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:
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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hekla aurora
taxi rechargers
In the past year, Icelandair has been very active in promoting its Stopover offer, which allows passengers to stop in Iceland for up to seven nights at no additional airfare on their journey across the Atlantic.
With the increasing availability of inflight connectivity and wireless inflight entertainment, providing passengers with inseat power in both Business and Economy is also rapidly becoming a requirement.
experiential ICELANDAIR
Following earlier initiatives such as the Surprise Stopover and promoting its Stopover Experience at travel shows via Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets , Icelandair has unveiled the ‘Hekla Aurora’ , its new Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)themed B757 aircraft. Hekla is a traditional Icelandic girl’s name and the name of a volcano, while Aurora references the northern lights, the airline explained in a release. The aircraft has been given a strikingly colorful Aurora Borealis-like livery, which has earned a large amount of coverage in the press and on social media. A ‘making of’ video shows airbrush artists transforming the plane.
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DELTA x UBER
Furthermore, the plane’s cabin has been fitted with LED mood lighting that resembles the Northern Lights, emitting shades of blue and green that dance through the cabin (video here ). This is a world’s first and shows how mood lighting can be used to support an airline’s brand. The launch of the Hekla Aurora was celebrated in Reykjavik with an Aurorainspired light illumination of the city’s Hallgrímskirkja Church, with the aircraft flying over the city as a prelude to the city’s annual Winter Lights Festival. The Hekla Aurora 757 will be deployed on various routes throughout Icelandair’s network.
To promote the fact that Delta now offers inseat power onboard all its long-haul flights in and out of New York (the airline is also in the process of outfitting its narrowbody fleet with in-seat power), Delta has teamed with Uber taxi’s in New York City to install Deltabranded battery-powered chargers that are attached to the back of the front seat. Each charger allows for up to two devices to be recharged via USB and the text on the chargers reads “A USB port at every seat, starting with this car – USB ports on all international long-haul flights.”
heavily in renovating it airport terminals and expanding its network in New York in an initiative called ‘Keep Climbing NY’. By teaming up with Uber to offer consumers a thoughtful ‘branded service’, Delta communicates its new amenity in a clever way. Says a Delta spokesperson: “We partnered with Uber to target tech-savvy business travelers and let them experience the product benefit before even boarding their flights.” Delta’s ‘branded service’ has been shared many times on Twitter using the hashtag #KeepclimbingNY and users on Instagram and Twitter called it “clever,” “genius,” “positively brilliant,” “The Most Useful Ad Ever,” “crazy smart,” and “AWWWEEESOMMMMEEE.”
New York is a very strategic market for Delta and in the past years the airline has invested
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virtual reality
priceless surprises
QANTAS x SAMSUNG
In previous repor ts we have featured initiatives from the likes of Marriott, Thomas Cook and Virgin Holidays that saw these brands experiment with the latest generation of vir tual reality (VR) headsets to engage consumers. The f irst airline to actually bring VR headsets onboard is Qantas. In a marketing tactic that we have dubbed ‘The Innovation Is The Marketing’ , Qantas has par tnered with Samsung to launch a futuristic enter tainment trial that uses Samsung’s new Gear VR headsets. Four devices will be made available to passengers in Sydney and Melbourne International First Lounges by midFebruary and in the First Class cabins on select A380 services from mid-March. The trial will run for three months to assess customer feedback on how this kind of VR offering might add to their overall travel experience on long-haul f lights. FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE
AA x MASTERCARD
The Samsung Gear VR headsets will completely envelop customers in an immersive vir tual world with each headset par tnered to a Samsung Galaxy smar tphone loaded with a library of vir tual reality clips. VR enter tainment features include the sights and panoramic vistas of Qantas’ destinations, new product and a selection of the latest inf light blockbuster movies. Several content items have been shot exclusively for Qantas and the airline intends to built a library of VR clips for key destinations. Video of the Qantas VR experience here Qantas Group Executive, Brand, Marketing & Corporate Affairs Olivia Wir th tells Australian Business Traveller that the airline is also keen to see how Hollywoodproduced VR movies could transform inf light enter tainment.
Mastercard’s ‘Priceless Surprises’ initiative is a further evolution of its wellknown ‘Priceless Moments’ campaign. Says Maripi Jalandoni, U.S. head of marketing, MasterCard “Over time, our Priceless campaign has transitioned from showing ‘priceless’ moments on television commercials to enabling priceless experiences in our cardholders’ lives to now inspiring priceless surprises among MasterCard cardholders.” Leveraging its co-branded credit card partnership with American Airlines, MasterCard surprised more than 100 AA passengers during a flight from LA to New York with a sneak preview of the new ‘Annie’ movie and a meet-and-greet with its star and director. Unsuspecting passengers on AA Flight 4 from LAX to JFK who showed the gate agent their ticket were handed a faux movie ticket and told that a ‘Priceless Surprise’ would be taking place during the flight.
Onboard, the MasterCard team handed out branded earbuds, and those who showed their MasterCard received an upgraded set of earbuds. Passengers could then be the first to watch the new Annie movie on the IFE system. Staff also handed out movie vouchers to allow passengers to see Annie on the big screen, and flight attendants passed out popcorn and movie candy. Upon the movie’s conclusion, Quvenzhane Wallis – who starred as Annie in the movie – emerged from the Business cabin outfitted in the dress from the movie, to answer questions from the passengers. Upon exiting the plane, passengers walked the red carpet from the jet way to the gate, while being ‘interviewed’ by a mock red carpet correspondent. Images of the event here
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social
#lifewelltravelled
instagram puzzle SINGAPORE AIRLINES
CATHAY PACIFIC Cathay Pacific has unveiled one of its biggest social/digital marketing initiatives yet, under a new concept called ‘Life Well Travelled’ . The campaign aims to introduce a new positioning, focusing on the imperfections of travel, and how Cathay Pacific tries to improve them. The campaign is centered around the hashtag #lifewelltraveled. In the first phase of the rollout, Cathay Pacific selected social media influencers that had already spoken positively of the brand. Fashion blogger Jessica Stein and photographer Tyson Wheatley were two of the Instagrammers involved and were told to simply share their version of what #lifewelltraveled meant to them. The airline also invites the public to share their own photos as ‘#lifewelltravelled moments’ on a live gallery on Instagram and on the campaign microsite , which FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE
also includes quotes from frequent flyers and airline staff . Working across different platforms, the campaign’s microsite is suppor ted by a series of videos, and printed adver tising. The three videos delve into different Cathay customer profiles including ‘The Family’ , ‘Road Warrior’ and ‘Miss Adventure’ . Commenting on the campaign, Brandon Cheung, managing par tner at McCann Hong Kong Cathay Pacific says, “Our strategy for the launch was to ensure the hashtag had authenticity and momentum before we star ted to align it with the global adver tising campaign. We see #lifewelltravelled as a state of mind that resonates with many different types of travellers, so it was impor tant that it was co-defined by the audience, and not just OUR brand idea.”
Singapore Airlines – which has become a lot more playful in social media in recent months – has turned to image-sharing social network Instagram to tease consumers about its new Premium Economy product launch. The airline hinted at a big announcement when it encouraged fans on Facebook and Twitter to click a link to its Instagram account. Shortly before unveiling the puzzle, the airline also posted a 15-second video on its social channels teasing fans that “something’s bubbling at #SingaporeAirlines.” Those who visited SIA’s Instagram page were invited to solve an Instagram puzzle by guessing which picture could be made out of a number of scrambled image tiles.
ahead of the offical announcement the next day. Those who didn’t were taken back to the main grid. As far as we know, Instagram has never been used to launch a product this way before, and the puzzle is a smart way to tap into the public’s sense of curiosity. While neither the hunt nor the picture were particularly difficult to solve, it was a clever way to highlight the airline’s social media presence and engage customers on the various channels. The Instagram puzzle is the first phase of a multi-month campaign that will see a digitally led product rollout.
Those who arranged the image tiles correctly were shown the full picture of the new seat
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#deltacupcontest
photobomb
DELTA
Delta is one of the most active airlines when it come to teaming up with well-known consumer brands in order to improve the passenger experience. In the past years, Delta has par tnered with Westin Hotels (branded pillows and blankets in Business Class) and Porsche (aircraft transfers at US hubs) and has been serving Starbucks coffee on cross-country flights in the U.S. and on its LA – SFO shuttle. Delta has now extended its par tnership with Starbucks to all flights worldwide, saying that “Seeing how well-received the Starbucks coffee was on transcontinental flights in par ticular, we wanted to extend that to the rest of the network.’’ To promote the new Starbucks service, Delta from Feb. 4 through Feb. 8 ran a social media-based contest on Instagram and Twitter asking travelers “If you could fly anywhere Delta flies and FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE
AER LINGUS VS RYANAIR
enjoy Starbucks coffee along the way, where would you go?” Entrants were asked to write their desired destination on a coffee cup and upload a photo to Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #DeltaCupContest to enter. A winner was selected at random and received a ticket to anywhere Delta flies. Additionally, Delta has commissioned ar tists from around the world to create three larger-than-life ar t installations made solely out of Starbucks cups. The pieces feature famous landmarks and sites of global destinations where Delta and Starbucks “fly together”: London’s Big Ben , Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple and a carnival float in São Paulo . The cup sculptures are on display at Delta‘s New York JFK’s Terminal 4.
Ryanair and fellow Irish airline Ryanair have been engaged in a social media spat after Aer Lingus ‘photobombed’ one of Ryanair ads, which led Aer Lingus to take to Twitter to gloat over its unintended inclusion.
: “Even @AerLingus is talking about @ Ryanair” and, referring to the smiling man in the ad, wrote: “FYI, he’s smiling cos he saved a for tune & avoided another late @ AerLingus arrival!” (which received a mere 83 retweets and 83 favorites).
The argument commenced on the evening of 15 January after Aer Lingus clevery spotted one its aircraft in the background of a Ryanair ad, albeit with the Aer Lingus branding only apparent to the eagle-eyed.
The contretemps escalated after a Twitter user asked if the airlines hated one another. Aer Lingus graciously described the relationship as a “healthy rivalry” and asked its competitor to agree, but Ryanair was quick to set the record straight.
Aer Lingus tweeted : “Epic #photobomb… on Ryanair’s website! Even they know we’re Best for Business.” The tweet earned nearly 700 retweets and around 600 favorites.
Far less graciously, it tweeted : “We stopped being rival in the 90s @ AerLingus… We’d have to treble our fares & lose 81m customers to be your rival” (440 retweets and 375 favorites).
But Ryanair – the budget airline fronted by f iery chief executive Michael O’Leary – which has recently promised to take a less combative approach to business, retorted
Aer Lingus did not rise to Ryanair’s levels of invective, and responded: “Okay, nevermind.”
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digital
upgrade challenge
love is in the air JETSTAR
AIR FRANCE
To raise awareness in the Asia Pacific region of the new cabins on its B777s, Air France has developed a mobile game called Cloud Slicer , which allows travellers to compete for an instant upgrade on their flights. This game was first launched at Singapore Changi and Osaka Kansai airpor t in late 2014 when passengers were handed tablets and encouraged to play Cloud Slicer, where they had to swipe the screen to cut up clouds and compete for high scores. More than 400 passengers in the boarding gates par ticipated in the 15-minute game. Scores were displayed in real-time on three larger screens located at the boarding gates. 15 lucky top scorers in Singapore and six in Osaka were instantly upgraded to Business Class on their flight and received their new boarding passed from the pilot himself. Video of the event here .
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From January 19 2015, the competition has been extended to a regional level. All Air France passengers flying from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia or Japan can download the game (iOS or Android ) and compete against each other. The best scorers of the month in each country will have the chance to be upgraded on their next flight to Paris.
In early 2013, Jetstar Asia – the Singaporebased low-cost subsidiary of Qantas – has par tnered with well-known fengin a ‘tongue shui master David Tong in cheek’ campaign in the run up to Valentine’s Day and Chinese Lunar New Year, saying it wants to offer singles “an escape and a chance to f ind love at the same time.”
on Three top scorers were picked January 31st and another three w ill be selected on February 27th to win free upgrades on their upcoming flights. The contest is only open to ticket holders who will travel between February 15 and December 31, 2015 and is based on seat availability on the travel date.
Called ‘Love is in the Zodiac Pair’ , the airline invites singles to log onto the campaign website and complete a simple form that asks for their relationship status and bir thday. A personalized feng shui repor t is then generated, indicating compatible zodiac signs, best inf light seats, travel destination and activities. For those born in the year of horse, for example, the best match is someone born in the year of the goat. These people should sit in row nine, 19 or 29 and travel to Jakar ta from Singapore.
Single f liers can also enter a contest to win a blind date overseas. Jetstar and Tong will pick two lucky singles who have the best matching feng shui, as well as personality traits and descriptions of their ideal date overseas. At the end of each day of the trip, the winners will be asked to decide whether to continue the date or go home. The trip can last for up to three days and will be recorded and screened on Jetstar’s Youtube channel on March 3. In the f irst seven hours after the campaign’s launch, the site had already received more than 5,000 applications.
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paint the plane
destination kuala lumpur
AEROFLOT
We have repor ted several times how airlines such as Emirates, Etihad and Turkish Airlines are aligning themselves with the world’s most popular spor t – soccer/football – in order to build their brand names globally. On a similar note, Russia’s Aeroflot in 2013 signed a 5-year sponsorship agreement with Manchester United that gave the airline an extensive set of rights to use the team’s logos and players in its marketing initiatives. The team will also use the Aeroflot fleet to travel to matches around Europe and worldwide. Says Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Saveliev, ‘It’s a significant step for our first global par tnership to be with one of the most successful and well-loved football clubs in the world. We believe that such a great club as Manchester United will help us to promote our brand worldwide.”
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MALAYSIA AIRLINES
In an activation of the par tnership, Aeroflot recently challenged nine Manchester United stars to paint an Aeroflot plane on canvas. The Man Utd ‘ar tists’ involved were David De Gea, Angel Di Maria, Ander Herrera, Ben Amos, James Wilson, Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young and Michael Carrick. The campaign is led by an online video revolving around the three-minute challenge at Old Trafford where the players’ ar tistic flair was judged by vice captain Darren Fletcher – who selected the top three works, with eventually Herrera and Carrick being the only Man Utd players to show some kind of ar tistic talent. An online competition offered fans a chance to win one of the nine signed paintings and two Business Class return flights with Aeroflot from Europe to Asia.
To raise awareness about Kuala Lumpur as destination amongst Australians and New Zealanders, Malaysia Airlines has launched a content marketing initiative called ‘Destination Kuala Lumpur’ on YouTube and social media.
shopping malls (’Shopping and Luxury’ ). Poh also goes behind the scenes to witness how Malaysia Airlines produces 26,000 satay sticks a day by hand in a tour of their local catering headquarters.
The five-part mini-documentary series is shot in the style of a travel television show, following former popular MasterChef Australia contestant Poh Ling Yeow through a trip to Kuala Lumpur. Poh said each episode of the series covers a different part of the journey to bustling Kuala Lumpur – the city where she was born and raised for the first nine years of her life.
Unsurprisingly, the videos also include plenty of details about the airport and in-flight experience when flying with Malaysia Airlines. Poh has also created a signature dish will is served on Malaysia Airlines flights departing Australia during the month of February, called ‘Nyonya chicken curry with a roti style croissant’.
The series begin with Poh taking to the skies onboard Malaysia Airlines’ A330300 (‘Departing Home’ and ‘In the Air’ ), before heading to the city to explore the hawker stalls in the heart of Bukit Bintang (‘Food Capital’ ) and visit some of the cities’
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tv, print, ooh
the FCB holiday
billboard plane
QATAR AIRWAYS
As par t of its new 3-year par tnership with FC Barcelona, Qatar Airways has launched a new commercial that features FC Barcelona stars Messi, Neymar, Piqué, Iniesta and Suárez. The spot has the players visiting a number of destinations to highlight the airline’s network. The video spot (nearly 600,000 views on YouTube so far, which is not very much compared to the Turkish Airlines’ spots that starred Messi) is aired in English, Arabic and Catalan and takes a humourous look at the players par ticipating in a number of different activities at each destination. Accompanied to the Beach Boys hit ‘I get around’, the video begins with Iniesta reading a magazine as a voice comes over the PA system stating: ‘Qatar Airways are proud to welcome on board FC Barcelona and wish you a wonderful holiday.’
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TRANSAVIA
The next scene cuts to Neymar and Pique lounging on a beach in matching Hawaian shir ts - akin to the traditional colours of Barcelona’s home strip. The adver t then cuts to Iniesta and Pique enjoying in the Parisian performance ar t of mime before moving over to Japan where Messi – depicted as a black belt in karate – waltzes his way through the opposition’s challenges, who are dressed as ninjas. The film ends with the quintet returning from their holidays to Barcelona. The campaign follows Qatar Airways earlier The Land of FCB video , which was launched 1.5 years ago and earned 5 million views in its first week on YouTube.
Dutch low-cost carrier Transavia – a subsidiary of Air France-KLM – has used interactive billboards located at several subway stations in the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam to promote its flights to winter destinations. To let the public at these high-traffic locations experience themselves how quick and convenients it is to fly from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to one of Europe’s popular ski areas – as compared to driving a full day by car – Transavia invited people at several metro stations to virtually fly a plane from Transavia to a European ski region themselves.
“It’s a funny and cute way to playfully travelers flying experience how quickly it is to go by plane skiing,” commented Transavia on the campaign. The interactive campaign was part of a broader winter sports campaign by Transavia, which also included a large number of regular billboards placed at subway stations in both cities that advertised its low-cost fares.
Transavia flight attendants were present on location to explain how the interactive billboards – which were equipped with motionsensoring technology – worked. During the campaign, one could see people stretching their arms and turning from left to right, just like kids do when they imagine they are flying. Video here
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the flags of flags NORWEGIAN
Gizmos, YouTube content and stunts are what’s hot. So M&C Saatchi Stockholm did something entirely different for Norwegian Airlines: A print ad. The agency came up with a clever ad illustrating some of Norwegian Airlines’ popular routes, via the framework of the country’s flag. The agency noticed that within Norway’s flag, one could find those of other countries to which Norwegian Airlines flies as red, white and blue are probably some of the most common colors to find in national flags: France, Thailand, Finland, The Netherlands and Poland. Printed on the flag are the costs to fly to various destinations, like Amsterdam, Helsinki, Krakow, Bangkok and Paris.
but “In these days of predominantly digital media, we can’t remember the last time we got so much positive feedback on a print ad:),” Mar tin Cedergren, executive creative director & par tner noted. “Norwegian people are extremely proud of their flag. So M&C Saatchi Stockholm used ’The Flag of Flags’ to create an ad that’s unmistakably Norwegian.” Large version of the print ad here . Last year, Norwegian launched a similar creative print ad when it ran a full-page print ad in Finland’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Christmas Eve, which could be turned into a last minute gift-wrapping piece of paper, while also wishing its customers a Merry Christmas.
The ad can be viewed as either an incredibly simple or incredibly lazy attempt,
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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.
FEBRUARY 2015 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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