benchmark report
airline marketing
MAY 2015 ISSUE
A monthly selection of the most innovative marketing campaigns launched by airlines around the world SimpliFlying | airlinetrends.com May 2OI5 Issue 32
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.
MAY 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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benchmark report
airline marketing
the gift back project
experiential
star wars ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS
DELTA
ANA’s new R2-D2 livery 787-9 Star Wars jet has all the makings of a new hit as the latest airline movie franchise cross promotion as it got the world’s attention and delighted generations of loyal Star Wars fans.
Air New Zealand made a similar connection with a global audience with its Lord of The Rings campaign. Vueling also aligned its brand with the global hit Game of Thrones. These epic stories appeal to audiences of all ages around the world.
R2-D2 is the courageous and faithful companion of the humanoid robot C-3PO, who can always be counted on when he is most needed. Even when he faces set backs, he persists in his mission to serve—a great analogy for ANA’s own commitment to service.
ANA accompanied the reveal of its R2D2 jet star, with a Star Wars landing site on which it promises “a range of novel initiatives to follow.” Like any good story teller, ANA is keeping its global audience in suspense on the details.
The YouTube video has had nearly half a million views, while ANA’s “new jet..star” Tweet-troduction was retweeted over a thousand times and favorited nearly 700 times. On Facebook , it has over 10,000 likes and 20,000 shares, and the story of the charming robot’s new jet was covered by major media outlets around the world. MAY 2015 ISSUE
Following JetBlue’s ‘Fly It Forward’ initiative (covered in the January 2015 edition of this report), Delta has launched ‘The Gift Back Project’ in partnership with American Express. With its theme: “Let’s make good things happen to good people,” the Gift Back Project asks: “Who’s the most selfless person you know?” In partnership with American Express, the Delta SkyMiles Credit card team lets folks gift individuals whose everyday giving nature they most admire with any gift they’d like, up to USD15,000.
Delta’s video documenting Karin’s life as a Red Cross volunteer and mother of four including a small child with Downs syndrome is also shared by the Red Cross on their website. Delta will be receiving nominations for future winners up to June of this year. Successful charitable initiatives help humanize companies. They do more than just appeal to the heartstrings by paying something back to the community and reflect a company’s values with something stronger than words: good deeds. That’s something everyone can get behind.
Delta promoted the initiative on social media with the hashtag #TheGiftBackProject . The first person to receive her gift was Red Cross volunteer Karin Newport, who was nominated by a colleague at the Red Cross and received a trip to visit family in Portland.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
the imagination machine
my kitchen rules
S7 AIRLINES
JETSTAR
Imagine flying a plane by just, well, imagining it. That’s what Russian LCC S7 Airlines helped adventure-seekers in Moscow accomplish with its ‘Imagination Machine’ (video ).
Those whose flights were cut shor t by distractions—one remembered she had to pick up milk—still walked away with a nice consolation prize of 5,000 air miles, bringing them a little closer to that dream journey.
Using special EEG-brainwave headset controllers, which monitor brain activity through a forehead biosensor, contestants could take a flight of fancy. The more par ticipants focused on their dream destination, the truer the flight path of their imaginary plane, projected on a 2-meter mapped globe on display at a mall in Moscow.
This initiative ties-in with S7’s ‘Fly To Anywhere You Can Imagine’ campaign by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, which centres around the power of imagination.
Those who could concentrate on their dream destination for the 45-second vir tual flight, were rewarded with a real-life ticket to go wherever their hear t desired within S7’s network and that of its oneworld alliance par tners. Over 250 people were game to try throughout the day of the promotion, of which 49 won tickets. MAY 2015 ISSUE
“As a par t of the campaign #IWANTTOGOWHERE we used a nontypical promotion instrument,” Tatiana Fileva, S7 Group Marketing Deputy Director, said, “Imagination Machine vividly demonstrates embodiment of ideas and fantasies into real life. It’s enough to be ready to discover something new, to have courage to dream, and S7 Airlines together with other oneworld alliance member airlines will help you to make this dream real.”
Value-based carrier Jetstar featured strongly on an April episode of the popular Australian competitive cooking show My Kitchen Rules, which presents teams of wannabe chefs squaring-off in culinary challenges that test teamwork, creativity and prowess in the kitchen. In the episode airing April 13th, six duelling culinary teams found themselves in a hangar at Sydney Airport, gathered round a 787 Dreamliner in Jetstar’s bold black and orange livery. The day’s challenge? To prepare an inflight meal for a plane full of hungry passengers that looked delicious, tasted great and fit into Jetstar’s signature back meal box… all in just 90 minutes. The prize? Victors would not only dodge elimination by securing passenger votes, but would also have their creation become the celebrity pre-order meal option on all Jetstar flight over 5.5 hours between April 14 and July 14 of this year.
In addition to enjoying significant brand exposure throughout the hour-long primetime reality show, Jetstar received plenty of coverage from other media outlets. The story was picked up and shared through social media by mainstream media such as the Sydney Morning Herald, advertising sources like B&T , and entertainment blogs including Sydney Confidential . Morning talk show Sunrise even had its own correspondent and TV cameras on board to taste the different offerings. The day after the show aired, Jetstar erected pop-up kitchens in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth that let the general public to try out its latest pre-order option. A Jetstar-produced video illustrating how the dish is prepared has been viewed 1,200 times.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
social
brands as newsrooms
thrqu the q
TUI, KLM Real-time marketing (whitepaper here ) is about brands producing and distributing original content in real-time. It combines social and content strategies with the dex terity of a newsroom and allows brands to communicate with an audience by creating relevant content on a continuous basis and ‘earning’ more credible media exposure at the same time. In order to help brands with their realtime marketing effor ts, agencies including DigitasLBi have developed services such as brandLIVE (video) that consist of combined brand and agency teams that constantly search and scour for insights and nuggets of information to connect it to the brand and create content to engage with their audience. One of DigitasLBi customers is Dutch leisure carrier TUI Netherlands which recently held a 3-month BrandLIVE trial which saw members of the airline’s social MAY 2015 ISSUE
AER LINGUS media team set up shop at DigitasLBi’s ‘brand room’, where large screens on the walls provide real time visibility of the status of, and plans for conversations on social media which was conceived, created and distributed in real-time by the team consisting of people from DigitasLBi and TUI (images here ).
AerLingus and ‘advocacy’ agency Testify invited a host of bloggers to take par t in a travel writing competition to raise awareness in Great Britain of the airline’s USA pre-clearance facility at Dublin Airpor t, which allows passengers to arrive in the U.S. as a domestic travellers – cutting out long queus.
On a similar note, KLM took its social media activities to the nex t level at the end of last year with a bold campaign called #HappyToHelp , which saw 30-people teams of specialists from both KLM and its agency Tribal DDB work round-the-clock in shifts to produce content in a customdesigned ‘real-time newsroom’ (video) based at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airpor t.
19 bloggers – who jointly had 80,000 Twitter followers and nearly 40,000 Facebook likes – took par t and during 11 days had to drive their readers to an app on the Aer Lingus website where they had to sent their favorite blogger on a vir tual journey from the UK to the USA via the airpor t with the fastest queuing time. Voters had 3 options: Dublin (fastest queuing time with pre-clearance), Heathrow and Gatwick (both longer queues – no pre-clearance) and could vote for their favourite blogger every day, ranking them on a leaderboard.
When a blogger received a vote to travel via a London airpor t this counted as a ‘negative vote’. Therefore it was in the interest of the blogger to carefully educate their audience as to the fact that Dublin is not only the correct answer, but WHY it is the correct answer. Voters had to Tweet their vote via the app to qualify as an entry. The blogger with the most journeys via Dublin airpor t at the end of the campaign won a trip from the UK to New York, as well as one of his/her par ticipating voters. Overall 5,232 people par ticipated in the competition and there were 582 ‘negative votes’. In total, there were 6,923 twitter mentions of the competition, which reached almost 1 million Twitter users.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
digital
bluey, the movie
seize the moment
KLM In order to appeal to young passengers, KLM at the end of 2014 introduced a new kid’s mascot named Bluey. This month, the carrier brought Bluey to life with the first installment of series of shor t animated films. ‘Bluey and the Flower Parade’ (video) debuted April 10 on KLM’s YouTube channel and Facebook page and was watched more than 181,000 times in just 20 days. The four-minute film introduces some new characters, including Bluey’s father (a 787 jumbo) and a scatter-brained she-plane friend named Windy. The plot follows Bluey from a KLM hangar at Schiphol, to soaring the skies with his father, to helping Windy with a distressing flower problem. Taking a style page from the Disney/Pixar book, Bluey’s first movie features some comedic nuggets aimed at parents and brings to mind popular family films like Planes and Finding Nemo. MAY 2015 ISSUE
BRITISH AIRWAYS ‘Bluey and the Flower Parade’ will be added to the children’s IFE selection onboard all intercontinental flights in June, and more animated adventures are being planned. Bluey will also be integrated into the graphical user interface (GUI) of the children’s IFE menu screens and the play area at Amsterdam Schiphol Airpor t will get a Bluey makeover. KLM’s VP of Inflight Cabin Management Els Polhuijs told the Holland Herald that Bluey’s likeness was originally integrated into the packaging of kid’s meal boxes and other merchandise like key chains, cabin baggage and plush toys – but his immediate popularity inspired KLM’s marketing team to think bigger.
British Airways stepped up its content marketing game by leaving the content to the professionals. The airline challenged two lifestyle magazine editors, Emily Johnston of Fashion Fois Gras and Charlie Thomas of The Gentleman’s Journal, to arrange surprise trips to each other—without ever meeting until it was time to take off. As explained in the YouTube video about the campaign, which was promoted on social media, each editor had to do a bit of investigating, reviewing the other’s online work and social media profiles to determine what destinations and travel itineraries their counterpart might enjoy during a 24 hour getaway. Because their own itinerary wouldn’t be revealed until right before departure, each had to improvise their packing, proving their travel savvy.
Johnston headed for Helsinki and Thomas to Madrid. Their adventures were chronicled on social media and later as articles in their respective publications. While Thomas wrote a short introduction with a link to the video, Johnston was more generous with her reporting , even including helpful travel trips for readers the next time they found themselves in Helsinki. Both Johnston and Thomas captured British Airways’ underlying message of “seize the moment” in an authentic and interesting way. Perhaps, next time, British Airways could consider requiring a minimum word-count from participants, but with the social media posts and the reach of each editor’s platform it was a win-win all the same.
The two editors met at the airport to exchange their surprise trips then set off;
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benchmark report
airline marketing
above & beyond stories
a boy and three gifts
WESTJET Canada’s airspace is largely a duopoly, where WestJet and the country’s flagship carrier Air Canada compete head to head for passengers on nearly every route. WestJet has always positioned itself as the more “in-touch” or caring airline of the two, and its ‘Above and Beyond’ campaign does a great job reinforcing that stance. The ‘Above and Beyond’ project sets out to recognize everyday Canadians who inspire others through good deeds or by overcoming life’s challenges. Late last year, WestJet set up a micro-site for the initiative and put out a general call for compelling stories. So far, eight of these real-life stories have been made into shor t videos and posted to the airline’s YouTube channel as well as the ‘Above and Beyond’ web page. All of the videos have been well-watched. One story in particular , about a MAY 2015 ISSUE
AIR CANADA bullied high-school boy who became prom king, went viral. Today it has been viewed 5.5 million times and has amassed overwhelmingly positive commentary from over 700 YouTube watchers. Josh’s story was picked up by Huffington Post in an article that was shared many times on social media. What works so well about this campaign is that it has nothing to do with flight or travel. Refreshingly, there is very little WestJet branding on the micro-site or in the videos (just a logo at the very end of the clips). By keeping self-promotion out of this endeavour, WestJet is showing customers that it cares about people, and not just dollars. More ‘Above and Beyond’ stories are expected this summer.
Through its Air Canada Foundation , established in 2012, Air Canada has done a world of good supporting hundreds of charities. It recently introduced a content marketing initiative to highlight one of these worthy projects, the Breakfast Club of Canada , in collaboration with Montreal-based ad agency Marketel. “We thought the foundation was an under leveraged part of their business,” Marketel creative director Jo-Ann Munro told Marketing Magazine, Canada. “Hopefully it makes [consumers] feel good about the brand. It’s the hidden things it’s doing that it hasn’t been talking about.” To that end, the agency worked with Air Canada develop its ‘A Boy and 3 Gifts’ campaign which tells the story of Trent, a young boy from the First Nations community of Anahim Lake, BC, who gets to meet and spend some time with is
idol, Montreal Canadiens goalie and Breakfast Club Ambassador, Carey Price, who is also one of Anahim Lake’s home-town heroes. This touching campaign documents Trent’s difficulties as a foster child, the challenges of his small community, and at the same time inspires. In this very human drama, we also see the joy of a child when his dreams are realised, and the happiness of his community when they get a chance to share their own gifts. ‘A Boy and 3 Gifts’ (video) has had more than 420,000 views since its March debut. It also features on Air Canada’s in-flight entertainment and is promoted on the airline’s social media channels.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
game of thrones
trip book
VUELING Spanish hybrid LCC Vueling surprised its Game of Thrones (GoT) fans with a witty promotion which launched just as fans awaited the show’s Season 5 debut with bated Dragon’s breath. The airline’s CEO, Alex Cruz, tweeted a long screen shot of the reservation engine with the comment, “Oh no! Someone from #gameofthrones has hacked @ Vueling website & added new destinations! #got #summeriscoming.” The Summer is Coming hashtag is a humorous spin by Cruz on GoT’s ominous ‘Winter Is Coming’ motto. Sunny or Wintry, the GoT destinations options ‘hacked’ onto Vueling’s internet booking engine came complete with all the various travel options true Westeros denizens might expect from their airline of choice. Tickets were available by class of Villager, Lord, or King, and “crossing times” MAY 2015 ISSUE
GOL could be Dawn, Twilight or ‘Time of the Walkers’ - a reference to the epic story’s nightmarish ultimate winter survivors. Those booking their holiday far, far, abroad to this other world were offered complete packages with reservations at castle inns and the option of renting a thoroughbred as ground transpor tation (images) . To find all GoT cities on the airline’s reservation site, visitors had to dig deeper, searching all the city pairs available—a great way to point out the airline’s routes in the real world. “To be honest, it got me by surprise that it had that much impact on social media,” Samuel Lacar ta, Vueling’s Director of IT shared with SimpliFlying, who says the objective of the exercise was to have fun, declare our love for epic stories and be able to tell our friends ‘I was par t of it’.”
E-reader devices such as Amazon Kindle let travellers bring thousands of books with them on their journeys, but what if each of those stories was customised to wherever the reader happened to be at the moment? That’s the idea behind the ‘Trip Book’ campaign from Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol for its ‘Smiles’ loyalty program that uses GPS to automatically change the location and landmarks in a story to wherever the reader is located. Created by ad agency FCB Brazil to help celebrate the loyalty program’s anniversary, the enhanced e-reader features an interactive story written by author Marcelo Rubens Paiva specifically for the device. Rubens Paiva wrote a novel about a 40-something couple, Theo and Maria Manoela, who ditch their run-ofthe-mill lives to travel back to where they honeymooned years earlier.
FCB Brazil developed geolocation technology that locates the e-reader’s position. The story then takes place in the city where the reader is. If the reader travels while reading the story, the setting changes accordingly so the characters also experience the new locations, including New York, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon or Buenos Aires. The story is also available as a free app for both iOS and Android devices, which nearly all include GPS or basic locationtracking functionality. “Reading a book is already a trip. And with Smiles ‘Trip Book’ this trip is even more real. It is an experience that allows the consumer to continue traveling with Smiles even after leaving the plane,” commented Joanna Miller, VP Creation of FCB Brazil.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
experience the emirates a380
tv, print, ooh
business is an adventure VIRGIN ATLANTIC Virgin Atlantic latest U.S. campaign is called ‘Business Is an Adventure’ and is aimed at international business travelers. The most visible elements of the campaign are out-of-home placements like a ‘takeover’ of Manhattan’s Fulton Street station and billboards in Los Angeles and other major U.S. gateway cities of the airline. Headlines for the ads include action-based phrases such as “Business Is an Adventure. Make it Epic,” and “Business Is an Adventure. Pack for Glory.” The campaign also features a digital element, including banner ads in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, The Wall Street Journal and on Flipboard (image) . “This campaign, which builds on our global platform ‘Let it Fly’ takes inspiration from MAY 2015 ISSUE
EMIRATES the excitement and buzz people feel when they are on a business trip and highlights how the Virgin Atlantic experience can enable them to be at their best,” said Simon Bradley, VP Marketing Virgin Atlantic Nor th America. “This campaign is a bit of a depar ture from previous campaigns,” Mr. Bradley said. “It is still targeted at business travelers, but we’re trying to communicate a much bigger thought—the idea of business being an adventure. We attract experience-hungry business travelers, who have a mindset that they want more from their business trip than just a plane ride they have to endure.”
Emirates has gone from Big to Bigger to Biggest on the A380 and is driving that message home by staking its claim on London Heathrow. The airline teamed up with JCDecaux Airpor t to mark its presence at London Heathrow – on the Central Terminal Area Welcome Site – with a 37.2 meter by 3.8 meter illuminated placement , spanning the width of Heathrow’s entrance roundabout and visible from over 500 meters away. It is the first brand message encountered by 100% of vehicular traffic when entering Heathrow from the M4 motorway. The special-build is designed so that the plane’s image flies right off the billboard, and greets passers-by with the strapline: “Your remarkable journey begins here. Experience the Emirates A380.” Alan Sullivan, Managing Director of JCDecaux Airpor t, said: “We
are delighted that Emirates has seized the oppor tunity to ‘own’ Heathrow’s most famous landmark site with a special-build campaign that showcases the unmissable branding potential of this classic out-ofhome location.” The campaign complements the airline’s other long-term locations in the interior and exterior of LHR, including the new Train Transit System which leads passengers towards Terminal 5’s satellite terminals, and the iconic branded A380 plane on the Central Terminal Area roundabout which directs traffic to Terminals 1, 2, and 3. Emirates operates 5 A380s daily at LHR. “Heathrow sees 73 million passengers pass through its doors every year,” said Jonathan Coen, Retail Director at Heathrow. “This site is a perfect spot for Emirates and we’re delighted with the creative.”
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easyjet explained EASYJET
They say that first impressions last a lifetime, yet hybrid LCC EasyJet is working hard to disprove that statement and go upmarket with the help of new services, TV spots and online videos. Already an airline of choice for costconscientious leisure travellers, EasyJet is keen to shed its LCC image and snag – who tend more business travellers to book later (when fares cost more) and will often pay for extra leg room. Allocated seating, mobile boarding passes and the ability to check in online have all been introduced as free utilities to lure more discriminating customers away from full-service competitors. The EasyJet Explained series of YouTube tutorials use simple animation and basic language to clarify things like airpor t special assistance, online check-in, EasyJet MAY 2015 ISSUE
Flexi Fares and other new services aimed at business and premium leisure travellers. While the web videos have helped EasyJet spread the word about its new flier-friendly options, perceptions don’t shift so quickly. In the past several weeks, the airline release a series of smar t new TV spots which build on the ‘EasyJet Explained’ campaign. The 30 second TV adver ts balance gimmick with fact and address common pain points in the low-cost air travel experience, like keeping track of a boarding pass and allocated seating . About half the actors in each spot are dressed in business attire (called ‘dinosaurs’ by the airline), while the other half are dressed more casually – illustrating the airline’s desire to compete as both a leisure carrier and reliable means of corporate travel.
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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.
MAY 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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