benchmark report
airline marketing
AUG 2015 ISSUE
A monthly selection of the most innovative marketing campaigns launched by airlines around the world SimpliFlying | airlinetrends.com Aug 2OI5 Issue 35
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.
AUG 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
experiential
tomorrowland
share a coke with humanity
BRUSSELS AIRLINES For the four th summer running, Brussels Airlines has par tnered with Tomorrowland (the world’s largest electronic music festival), to bring thousands of revellers together for a weekend of music and par tying in the aptly named town of Boom in Belgium. As the official carrier of the par ty, and in line with the airline’s slogan “We Go The Extra Smile”, Brussels Airlines transformed the inflight experience on 80 flights to Brussels, enabling par ty-goers to experience the festival vibe while travelling to the event. All 80 par ty planes to Brussels received a special Tomorrowland makeover with custom headrest covers, disco-style lighting and glow sticks at every seat. Of those 80 flights, 64 enjoyed a pre-taped electronic DJ sets played through the aircraft speakers. Twelve of the par ty flights were fitted with professional sound systems and four flights AUG 2015 ISSUE
JETBLUE (originating form Frankfur t, Munich, Tel Aviv and New York) were treated to live DJ sets onboard. In addition to the effor ts in flight, Brussels Airlines decorated check-in desks at a number of airpor ts and nine gate par ties were held. The hashtag #TMLPartyFlight was used by the airline and passengers to share the experience across Twitter and other social media. One Twitter user said his flight was “off the hook” and another passenger posted a 30 second clip of his flight on YouTube – it was viewed more than 15,000 times in just four days. Brussels Airlines’ CMO Lars Redeligx used LinkedIn to discuss the project in an ar ticle called “Customers Remember Experiences, Not Your Brand Logo” and the airline created a colourful infographic on the par tnership.
A recent campaign by JetBlue and Coca-Cola invited people to overcome their distrust of strangers and share a bottle of Coke with another person in New York City’s bustling Penn Station. The idea was to reward generosity with the gift of travel.
JetBlue’s role came into play when a Coke was successfully gifted to a stranger. In some of those cases, JetBlue staff appeared in the station to hand out a free travel voucher with the tagline “Good Things Come To Those Who Share”.
JetBlue and Coca-Cola rigged a vending machine in the station to dispense an extra bottle of Coke whenever one was ordered. Then, as customers noticed the second bottle come tumbling down, a large message appeared across the machine’s digital display instructing that person to: “share this Coke with anybody”.
Fastcompany.com reported that the vending machine dispensed 300 bottles of Coke through the day of the campaign (that’s 150 unique transactions) and that organizers reported a 70 percent share rate… higher than initially expected.
Hidden cameras were installed in and around the vending machine and at other points in the station to capture people’s reaction to the free Coke bottle, as well as their interactions with anyone they attempted to share it with.
The feel good video produced from this project was viewed on YouTube more than 60,000 times in just ten days.
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airline marketing
the greatest ever seat upgrade
foam marketing
VIRGIN AUSTRALIA On May 1, a major Virgin Australia giveaway helped to make for a special halftime break during a match between Melbourne’s Carlton Football Club (a Virgin Australia par tner) and rival team Collingwood. One entire row of fans attending the Friday night blockbuster had their MCG Arena seats upgraded to a round-trip, premium economy seat on a Virgin Australia flight bound for LA. Fans were made aware of the contest on the Carlton FC homepage, and as they entered the stadium. At halftime, a Virgin Australia plane was displayed on the digital adver tising boards surrounding the playing field and a countdown clock accompanied by the sound of jet engines got the crowd excited and cheering.
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LUFTHANSA The aircraft circled the stadium and landed in front of section M15. All the row numbers from that section were then placed into a bowl and one was selected at random from the centre of the pitch.
Lufthansa will appeal to the hearts and tastebuds of its most loyal flyers when it becomes the first brand to give its customers personalised 3D printed latte art in its firstand business class lounges.
“This is a great way for two great brands to come together to reward loyal fans. Working closely with Carlton and the AFL we will be delivering a truly world class production,” said Michael Scott, Virgin Australia’s General Manager of Marketing.
This new treat is made possible by the Ripple Maker , developed by Israeli company Stream CC, which prints a wide selection of detail-rich pictures on milk froth, using ink made of coffee extract. Baristas can print a preloaded design, corporate logo or image uploaded by the customer over Wi-Fi. A video by Ripple Maker demonstrates the ease of operating the specialised machine.
This fun experiential campaign serves as undeniable proof that a large and enthusiastic group of people can be reached without the use of social media or the web. The YouTube video documenting the halftime festivities has been viewed more than 3,000 times. It also received 1360+ likes and more than 172 shares on Facebook.
beautifully with Lufthansa’s commitment to ‘Nonstop You’.” These little touches surprise and enhance the passenger experience at the lounge. Alaska Airlines delighted foodie passengers when it introduced a pancake printer service to its lounges. The service has grown in popularity with the airline’s loyal customers, and Alaska Airlines extended the service in its network of lounges with the latest pancake printer introduced at the airline’s SeattleTacoma Airport lounge last year.
“We are excited to unveil the Ripple Maker and proud to announce Lufthansa as our first global brand,” said Yossi Meshulam, CEO of Steam CC, parent of Ripples. “Our mission is to add meaning, depth and joy to the coffee experience, cup by cup. And this aligns so
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benchmark report
airline marketing
social
plane product
periscope live flight
KLM To celebrate the introduction of its new World Business Class, KLM has encouraged students from the Design Academy Eindhoven to repurpose the previous Business Class interiors into creative travel solutions. Using at least 70 percent recycled materials including seats, carpeting, seat-belts and tv screens from KLM’s old Business Class interior, the students created a variety of novel travel-related products. KLM selected eight prototypes for a special exhibition at the upscale Bijenkorf Warehouse in Amsterdam. In addition, various elements of KLM’s new World Business Class cabin interior – including tableware designed by Marcel Wanders and cushions and blankets designed by Hella Jongerius – will be on show in the men’s depar tment on the first floor of the warehouse. KLM commented on the initiative: “We wanted to put the KLM World Business AUG 2015 ISSUE
TURKISH AIRLINES Class in a new spotlight and reach a wider audience. We found a perfect match between the Dutch design in letting students from the Design Academy Eindhoven create new designs with the materials originating from the old World Business Class, and the new World Business Class, designed by Design Academy Eindhoven alumnus Hella Jongerius.” KLM documented the “Plane Product” design project on YouTube in a video that shows the creative process of the young designers as they experimented with various product concepts. KLM also promoted its up-cycling campaign and in customer emails on Twitter used to promote the new Business class Business Class . Both Southwest Airlines and JetBlue have run successful up-cycling campaigns for their old interiors, par tnering with local manufacturers to make garments, travel items—even leather footballs.
Resulting in 5,118 new Twitter followers 292,779 Facebook likes, a recent social media project by Turkish Airlines is being called an airline marketing f irst. On June 6th, the airline announced to it’s 760,000+ Twitter followers that it would broadcast an Istanbul to New York f light using Periscope , an increasingly popular new app for streaming video. Periscope allows viewers to send “hear ts” to the broadcaster by tapping on the mobile screen as a form of appreciation. June 10 was Periscope f light day, and it was the f irst time an airline had ever used this new mix of live video and tweeting to share behind-the-scenes details of its operations. The journey began prior to boarding with a glimpse inside the ‘crew garden’. At boarding time, another live video was
broadcast, and several more (including cockpit and galley clips) were shared over inf light Wi-Fi throughout the transAtlantic f light. The fun continued after landing when crew shared some ‘off the clock’ fun time in Times Square. In total, f ive Periscope videos were livestreamed through the course of the day. The number of live viewers at a given time ranged from 834 to over 2,000. To illustrate the creativity of the project and it’s impact, Turkish Airlines created a video case study . A number of digital and technology industry publications picked up this story, including WERSM , Travolution , and DigitalBuzz .
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benchmark report
airline marketing
your face. on a plane
iberia music IBERIA
RYANAIR Ryanair is in the midst of its highly publicised “Always Getting Better” campaign, designed to improve its service and public image. As par t of this effor t, a new easierto-use website was launched in 2014 and the airline has introduced a mobile app. Ryanair has also taken to social media to better connect with its customer base. As par t of its 30th bir thday celebrations and to help drive followers to its newlylaunched Facebook page, Ryanair is giving passengers the chance to have their picture displayed on the side of a plane, which would also be re-named after them. The lucky 30 people who win the competition will actually have their faces, names and signatures seen by tens of thousands of travellers at airpor ts across Europe. They’ll even get a free f light on their jet.
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The entry ballot for the competition is accessible through the Ryanair Facebook page , which has accumulated 156,000 likes since launching in early July. Users can drag and drop a photo of themselves into a specially designed app to see how they would look on the side of a Ryanair plane. They can then explain (in 500 characters or less) why they should be selected. Ryanair is promoting this contest daily on its Facebook page and the #30names30planes Twitter hashtag is generating a lot of activity. News outlets like CNN and the UK’s Daily Mail have repor ted on the contest. Entry closes at midnight on August 31, and winners should see their faces become par t of an aircraft livery by the end of January 2016.
With its power to influence moods and help fix memories of our experiences in the mind for many years to come, several airlines and travel agents are tapping into the oppor tunities that streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer offer to connect with their audience. Music continues to be in the air this summer, as Iberia becomes the latest airline to turn tunes into passenger satisfaction. As included in the June editon of the Airline Marketing Benchmark repor t, travel companies such as First Choice (‘Summer of Music’ ) , Australian LCC Jetstar (custom Deezer playlists ), and Iberia’s IAG sister company British Airways (‘Music Travel Guide’ ) have introduced music mixes which let customers enjoy a curated musical experience as the playlist for their journeys.
Iberia has taken the customer appeal of music one step fur ther with its Iberia Music por tal, matching itineraries to tunes, and offering discounts on tickets purchased. The Iberia Music algorithm works with Spotify to analyse travellers’ personal playlists and then suggests four destinations in tune their musical taste. Booking through the por tal, passengers could earn euro 10 off on a national flight, euro 20 on intraeuropean flights, euro 50 for long range flights. The only glitch, for some, is that the Iberia Music site requires a Spotify login to proceed.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
digital
70 years album
tweet a seat SINGAPORE AIRLINES Singapore Airlines’ campaign promoting the August 9th launch of Premium Economy on flights to Sydney proves it’s never too late to make social media a cornerstone of great marketing. The carrier has traditionally used social media in a conservative way, but began ramping up activity across various platforms in the past twelve months. In a creative tie up with Twitter last month, Singapore Airlines created a customized polling card that its 284,000 followrs could use to vote for their favorite Premium Economy perk, and thus enter to win the seats to Sydney. Ten “tweet a seat” goodie bag consolation prizes were also up for grabs. Followers could simply click a button on the card to select ‘extra space’, ‘free champagne’, ‘enhanced cuisine’ or ‘faster bonus mile collection’ as their favorite thing about Premium Economy. They were then prompted to tweet their reason for choosing AUG 2015 ISSUE
TAP that particular benefit. Once they did that, they were offically entered. Between July 18 and July 28, the polling card was retweeted 150 times and favorited over 300 times on Twitter, plus thousands of people entered the contest. “The best campaigns on Twitter often have a multi-prong approach to customer engagement,” said Steve Kalifowitz, head of brand strategy, APAC and MENA at Twitter. “Partnering with Singapore Airlines to develop a Twitter-exclusive campaign that speaks to tech-savvy customers through emojis and customised poll cards, is a great way to elevate the customer experience.”
TAP Airlines has put a modern high-tech spin on a retro childhood pastime by celebrating its 70th anniversary with the release of digital version of Panini —the classic fan albums for which you collected stickers. Now TAP has come up with a digital twist as par t of the celebrations of its 70th bir thday, Instead of the traditional paper stickers, which filled the pages of our childhood Panini albums, TAP uses digital images which can later be printed in a real album sent to the collector’s home as memorabilia.
TAP will also issue special and rare stickers, available only with a specific code to be published on the airline’s communications outlets, like UP Magazine and Facebook . In the tradition of the classic picture game, collectors can swap with others to complete their collections. Airline fans can order a physical version of their completed album from Colara at a premium of 500 Victoria Miles, or 300 Miles for members of its STEP program (for passengers 12-25 years of age).
Every day through 31 December 2015, the airline will release five new vir tual stickers though its Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as on other content channels, which collectors can gather and paste onto their 70th anniversary commemorative album on the platform of the airline’s album par tner Colara .
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benchmark report
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hamilton island in 360 degrees
#YourOpenMoment WESTJET WestJet, like fellow North American budget carriers JetBlue and Southwest, prides itself on a caring team and a corporate culture that promotes camaraderie and goodwill. The airline often uses video to help reinforce this message – with excellent results. By creating a steady stream of short, sweet, and heart-warming clips that focus on bringing joy to unsuspecting individuals, the airline has collected more than 49,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel and has seen much of this content go viral. The #YourOpenMoment video posted to WestJet’s YouTube channel and blog on July 5, is a perfect example of just how effective this “feel-good” strategy can be. The #OpenYourMoment video shows a foursome of golfers getting the surprise of their lives when they check in for an early morning tee time at an Ottawa golf club. Before AUG 2015 ISSUE
they could take a single swing, the four men were surprised by a WestJet employee who whisked them away in a limousine. The four friends were then flown to Oakville, Ontario, and taken to Glen Abbey Golf Club – home of the upcoming RBC Canadian Open (which WestJet sponsors) – to play their round while being cheered by a large number of WestJet employees. The men were also given all-new, top-of-the-line gear to play with and golf tops from the club pro. The raw emotion, stunned surprise and pure happiness that this day resulted in were all caught on camera. In less than 30 days, the YouTube video created from this effort was watched more than 1 million times.
QANTAS Qantas has taken destination marketing fur ther in a par tnership with Hamilton Island and Samsung to produce a 360 degree virtual reality video of one of Australia’s scenic holiday destinations. Qantas, Hamilton Island and RapidVR produced the 3D VR video of the Great Barrier Reef and the island resor t with the aim to give viewers a ‘vir tual tourism’ experience: flying alongside the pilots in the cockpit of a Qantas jet as it lands at Hamilton Island airpor t, relaxing at the resor t, swimming with sea tur tles and tropical marine life in the Great Barrier Reef, playing golf at the island’s golf course, enjoying aerial views from a helicopter tour over the reef, and sailing to Whitehaven Beach on a yacht.
Android users, however, running the latest YouTube app, can switch the video into vir tual reality mode and take the vir tual tour with their Google Cardboard headsets. Qantas also added the video to its Oculus Rift content offered at select international lounges and flights. The tour is also available for download for Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift. “It’s a fantastic way for us to give our customers a unique experience of the Great Barrier Reef and Hamilton Island, which we expect will translate into more people choosing to visit the Whitsundays for the next holiday destination,” said Qantas Group Executive for Brand, Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Olivia Wir th.
Desktop and iPhone users will only be able to see the video itself, swiping or using the mouse to look in different directions.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
tv, print, ooh
creative safety videos
sounds Of the city
PEGASUS, TAP Creative safety videos that aim to capture the attention of passengers with the potential to become viral Internet hits, have now become mainstream. But airlines continue to come up with ways to draw special attention to their own productions by putting a fresh spin on this developing genre. Pegasus | Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines par tnered with Disney Turkey – and with Disney brand Marvel in par ticular - to engage with children of all ages by making a child’s imagination the focus of its new safety video with a superhero theme. The video – which has been watched over 4 million times – follow’s the unique perspective of one young traveller who sees fellow travellers and crew transform into Marvel’s best-known characters, including Thor, Black Widow, Captain America, Iron Man, Loki, Hawkeye, and Odin, as the flight
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THALYS safety rules are explained. The overriding message of the safety demo video is: ‘Even if you’re a superhero, flight safety rules are impor tant for you’. TAP | To celebrate their 70th anniversary, TAP invited 10 people to take their first flight ever, and made these new travellers the stars of a special edition safety video (200,000 views so far). The airline also produced an accompanying making-of video which describes the process of selecting untrained actors to communicate the impor tant safety message and choosing landmark venues for destination marketing. The safety video won an award at FilmAT, a festival that aims to select the best films in tourism all over the world.
In a world where we put a lot of stock into how things look, French train company Thalys has executed an innovative promotion reminding us all to take a moment and listen. To encourage people to travel by train and explore new cities, Thalys created a series of audio street billboards, which enable three major destination cities to “speak for themselves”. The billboards feature a simple map of Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels, plus thousands of tiny headset jacks. People passing by can then use their own personal headphones (which, ironically, are often used to down out city noise) to plug into the sounds of another city. Each billboard plays host to more than 1000 unique sounds from nearby European
metropolis. From pigeons to traffic to lively debates in street-side cafes, no city sound was overlooked. In an interview creative director JamieEdward Standen of Thalys’ ad agency Rosa Parks said: “You’d think that it would be easy to inspire people to visit Brussels or Paris or Amsterdam, but in fact people get blasé about the cities that are just a few hundred kilometres away. They’re perceived as less exotic. So the task is always to present those cities in a new light.” Thalys posted a video documenting the billboard creation process and user interaction on its YouTube channel, where it has been viewed over 20,000 times. This innovative audio technique could work just as well for airlines looking to promote destinations in a novel way.
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soar with reading JETBLUE JetBlue has extended its social awareness initiatives with a pilot program aimed to close the literacy gap in a low-income town by providing vending machines that give out thousands of free books to underprivileged children. The airline teamed-up with publishing company Random House to place three of the machines around the lowliteracy neighbourhood of Anacostia, in Washington, D.C. which was chosen to launch this program after a study commissioned by JetBlue found that the Anacostia section of D.C. is a large book deser t, leaving residents little or no access to purchase age-appropriate children’s books. According to city school data, sees less than 25 per cent of its middle schools (for children aged between 11-15) able to ready at grade level. To help their children enjoy their books, parents can opt-in to an SMS campaign AUG 2015 ISSUE
that offers reading tips and updates when the vending machines are re-stocked with fresh selections. “Innovative solutions that involve and engage the community is necessary to combat the current summer slump that happens especially in underserved communities,” said Icema Gibbs, JetBlue’s director of corporate social responsibility. This initiative is par t of the airline’s ongoing ‘Soar with Reading’ program, now in its fifth year. Since 2011, Soar with Reading has donated over USD 1,250,000 wor th of books to kids in need. The program is promoted on a dedicated website and mobile app and on social media with the hashtag #BookBattle . On the site and the app, followers can find event updates, new activities and games, resources for families, reading recommendations and more promotions designed to inspire a love of books.
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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.
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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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