benchmark report
airline marketing
FEB 2016 ISSUE
A monthly selection of the most innovative marketing campaigns launched by airlines around the world SimpliFlying Feb 2OI6
Issue 41
benchmark report
airline marketing
welcome. Published by 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.
FEB 2016 ISSUE
EXPERIENTIAL
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:
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.
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
air france last 747 flight
royal dutch 787 VR experience
AIR FRANCE
KLM
The iconic Boeing 747 Queen of the Skies is loved by many around the world. Air France connected with the aircraft’s loyal fanbase to give the last of its 747s a majestic send-off.
Anyone who couldn’t make it onboard could enjoy the experience online. Air France created a special microsite documenting 40 years of the 747 in Air France service through videos, photo stories.
When Air France announced it would retire its 747s, its switchboard was jammed with people trying to get onto the last flights, In fact, more than 30,000 tried to get tickets.
On YouTube, Air France created a 747 Playlist featuring interviews with Air France staff, crew, and passengers who shared their memories of the 747 over the years. Included in the playlist was a summary “747 Forever” video which covered the 40 years of history in under two minutes.
Air France responded to this wave of enthusiasm by laying on a series of extra farewell flights with a dedicated tour flight number AF747, to and from Paris Charles De Gaulle. On board the flight you were able to experience a unique package with Business class lunch and champagne service, inflight commentary of France’s history and legendary landmarks, and a tour of the 747 maintenance hangar - all for a set fare of 220 euros.
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Finally, on 27 January, an Air France 747 was accompanied by the ‘Patrouille de France’, the French Air Force Aerobatic Flight Display Team in a special flight, billed as ‘Two Jewels of French Aviation flying side by side over France. The video notched up over 70,000 views on YouTube and almost 100,000 on Facebook in the first week alone.
An increasing number of brands are incorporating virtual reality into marketing campaigns, and airlines are no exception. SAS was the first airline to give passengers a virtual tour of its new cabins using Google Street View on a dedicated microsite , while last year. Lufthansa offered passengers a virtual tour of its 747 cabins . KLM however is first to produce a virtual tour on the more accessible Google Cardboard viewer, reaching potentially a far wider audience. KLM did this by creating a VR video tour of its new 787 Dreamliner aircraft viewable on Android and iOS using Google Cardboard . According to KLM ‘Flight Innovator’ Jacob Post “The arrival of KLM’s first Boeing 787 Dreamliner presents an ideal opportunity to experiment with virtual reality. This plane has
so many innovative features, so we went in search of a great way to put this across to the public. This led to the ‘Royal Dutch 787 VR Experience” KLM incorporated a gaming element to the virtual tour by challenging viewers to find various cabin features marked with tags. When the viewer hits the mark, the feature animates and the features found score updates. The Royal Dutch 787 VR experience got the thumbs up from airline rating site SeatGuru, among others: “We are not going to lie… virtual reality seat maps for a plane would be awesome! KLM looks like they have the right idea!” (For those without Google Cardboard, this KLM YouTube video illustrates the VR tour.)
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benchmark report
airline marketing
the 20th birthday plane
social
bring me sunshine
EASYJET
JET2 January can be a very depressing month in the Nor thern hemisphere. Christmas is over, the days are shor t, the weather is bad, and everyone is back to work. In the UK, news media chooses a Monday in January each year to be #BlueMonday, the day when Brits’ spirits are supposedly at their lowest. While #BlueMonday is very much an ar tificial event, many travel brands have capitalized on it – suggesting that the best way to beat post-holiday depression is to plan a holiday in the sun. Finding a slightly different way to piggyback on the publicity of #BlueMonday, low fare UK airline Jet2 launched its ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ package holiday promotion on social media at the star t of the month. Jet2’s Facebook fans were asked for ways in which they would like to cheer themselves up. FEB 2016 ISSUE
Responses included favorite films , ways to get cozy and feel-good songs to listen to. By answering these questions, Jet2’s Facebook fans actually determined what went into twenty ‘Bring me Sunshine’ packs that were then sent out to competition winners later that month.
As part of a £10 million multi-platform marketing campaign across Europe, easyJet recently gave us its 20th anniversary plane . Much more than a simple ‘faces on a plane’ type tactic, easyJet has found ways to keep this campaign running for almost six months.
“For two-thirds of people, having a beach holiday to look forward to will help them feel motivated,” commented Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays. “This is reflected in the fact that January is our busiest time of the year ( for holiday bookings.”)
In September and October, social media fans were invited to send in photos of their European holidays from the past twenty years by uploading them to the 20th anniversary micro-site, or by posting them with the hashtag #timeflies on twitter or Instagram. The winning snapshots were incorporated into a kaleidoscope of images for the special plane livery: a plane to be indelibly etched with two decades of memories .
Jet2 also celebrated #BlueMonday on Facebook with its January Feelings Forecast , a sor t of mock weather map highlighting the different low moods around the UK, and proclaiming Newcastle to be the sunniest feeling British city.
Over 108,000 people shared their photos, with 5000 people submitting pictures on the first day of the campaign alone. EasyJet is now promoting the finished 20th birthday
plane, asking people on social media to ‘spot the plane’ by uploading a photo of it a for a chance to win a return pair of flights. The aircraft is flying all around the carrier’s European network and was recently tagged in Salzburg, London Gatwick, Lanzarote and Hamburg. The birthday campaign (for which the official tagline is ‘how 20 years has flown’) continued with the re-running of the first ever easyJet TV ad from 1995, which advertised flights as “costing the same as a pair of jeans”. The nostalgic ad was viewed more than 50,000 times on Facebook . Another 20th birthday TV ad debuted during 2015 Rugby World Cup. It used a Ferris wheel to demonstrate the passing of time while telling the story of a couple who meet and fell in love on an easyJet flight.
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nordic bloggers experience
WOW air on SnapChat WOW AIR WOW Air has gone Snap-happy with daily updates to followers on SnapChat. It recently used the social media app’s story feature to promote its new San Francisco flights, with a three day competition . An Instant messaging platform, SnapChat lets friends share images of their daily experiences and is popular with Millennials and GenZ. Snapchat’s Story feature allows brands to combine snapshots and videos of special events. The advantage for brands is that it fosters spontaneity and intimacy , making them more approachable. To launch its new San Francisco / Iceland routes (with onward connections to Europe), WOW Air ran a three day campaign with the tagline #wowincali , each day featuring a different story starring WOW Air flight attendants. Following the stories, gave fans the chance to win flights. FEB 2016 ISSUE
FINNAIR WOW Air saved each day’s story, sharing the videos on Facebook and YouTube . Fans loved the campaign, “thoroughly loving WOW Air on Snapchat. Even if I don’t win a flight to Iceland, I consider myself winning,” said one follower on Twitter. Travel writer Cynthia Drescher commented , “I think WOW Air’s trio of [Flight Attendants] are my favorite Snapchat personalities. Their antics in [San Francisco] are supremely endearing.” Despite its popularity, some airlines have been slow to establish a Snapchat strategy. Aer Lingus was the first airline to join network in 2014 and used the platform last year to celebrate the launch of its Dublin-San Francisco service. Other airlines which have joined Snapchat include Air New Zealand, American Airlines, Southwest, SWISS, and Virgin America.
Finnair is an airline brand that both understands the power of social media in driving travel recommendations and is also looking to promote the country’s role as a gateway between Europe and the Far East. As a result, in January Finnair again became the official airline of the 3rd annual “Nordic Blogger experience” (NBE ), which saw 66 top travel bloggers from around the world come to Helsinki. Not only did Finnair bring a record twelve bloggers from China, South Korea and Japan to Finland, it also asked par ticipating bloggers to develop a content programme and campaign for “Stopover Finland”, a product specifically aimed at transit passengers. Five bloggers were shor t-listed, with the winning blogger being able to experience a Stopover Finland product for themselves. According to Manti Väätäinen-Pereira, Finnair’s social media producer , “For
Finnair it is a natural form of cooperation to fly travel bloggers from Asia to Helsinki also this year. It is great that we can promote bloggers’ networking with each other as well as with travel companies and different communities in the travel trade. “For us it is an exclusive oppor tunity to meet dozens of bloggers from all over the world and discuss potential future cooperation possibilities face to face.” This is an excellent example of how effective social media marketing doesn’t need to be complicated. Finnair did what it does best, flying bloggers from one par t of the world to the other, and as a result directly showcased its in-flight product, as well as building lasting relationships with key online influencers. The idea of getting bloggers themselves to pitch ideas to Finnair meant that the airline got marketing and content suggestions direct from social media influencers, who know what will and won’t resonate with their own readers.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
digital
southwest and super-mario
holidays on demand
SOUTHWEST In January, Southwest Airlines went ‘oldschool’ digital with a campaign involving Nintendo’s Super Mario. In this campaign , Southwest worked with Nintendo to create a custom level for Super Mario Maker, a new Wii U game that lets players re-live the early days of console gaming and create their own levels. The Southwest level is designed to be easy and accessible, serving as an oppor tunity to collect lots of coins and a bonus life. While the Airline branding is minimal, the Southwest level does include nods to the airline, with a plane for Mario to zoom around in, blocks that (slightly) resemble a 737 and a few hear ts made of coins. The best thing about it – from a gamer’s perspective – is that the Southwest level contains a hidden magical mushroom
FEB 2016 ISSUE
TRANSAVIA not found anywhere else in the game. If discovered, this mushroom unlocks a classic “SkyPop” costume (ca. 1989) that Mario can wear. Talk about geeky gold! Needless to say the initiative has been extensively covered in the gaming media, via gamer/tech publications like Gamespot. com and Digitaltrends.com . Nintendo and Southwest began their marketing par tnership in 2013, when the famed gaming company became the official video game par tner of Southwest. The par tnership kicked off in grand style , just before the holidays, when each lucky passenger on flight 1883 from New Orleans was given a free Wii U game console by none other than Super Mario himself.
In January, Transavia, a Dutch low-cost carrier and wholly-owned subsidiary of Air France/KLM, par tnered with French language online video service Canalplay (par t of Canal+), allowing people to discover and instantly book travel to destinations related to movies they watch. Between January 11 and 26, customers visiting a special Canalplay/Transavia cobranded site , were prompted to select their ‘craving’ (this could be a par ty, an adventure, romance, etc.). Then, based on the answer, a movie genre was selected with several relevant film choices offered. Once the user had selected his or her film, a flight destination was suggested and the price displayed.
The first 500 people who continued and booked the recommended flight, were given a special promotional code. The code could then be redeemed by the passenger for two months of free video-on-demand streaming from Canalplay. Aimed at passengers in the French-speaking market, this partnership is notable as it recognises that watching a film often elicits an emotional response of “I want to go there” or “I want to experience that.” This is especially since there is a clear link between film releases and tourism, just two examples are New Zealand benefitting from the Lord of the Rings / Hobbit films, and Nor thern Ireland capitalising on the HBO TV Series Game of Thrones .
For example, a person craving culture could select a film about Hercules and be offered a Transavia flight to Athens.
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qantas new destination safety video
view from above
QANTAS Qantas Airlines has released a new cabin filmed in various locations safety video across Australia with everyday Australians as the actors communicating the safety instructions. The video features a life-jacket demonstration at Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club and a soothing demonstration of the brace position during a yoga class on Hamilton Island. The video is being introduced across Qantas’ domestic and international fleet this month, and will also feature on the airline’s online channels. Though the primary focus of the video is on safety, it also marks the launch of a new joint tourism campaign between Qantas and Tourism Australia. Throughout the year, the two organizations will collaborate to promote the tourism locations featured in the video. Tourism Australia will further promote Qantas’ safety video on its social media channels, reaching millions of people around the world. FEB 2016 ISSUE
EMIRATES/BOEING “We’ve experimented with different settings for our safety videos over the years, but this time we saw an opportunity to celebrate Australia itself,” said Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. “With the headwind of a lower dollar we have the potential to create a new tourism boom in this country,” he added. Qantas’ new safety video has already been viewed over 200,000 times at the time of this report. Other airlines have also successfully combined destination marketing with their cabin safety videos. Air New Zealand’s Safety Safari video , featured renowned surfers on beaches in New Zealand and Australia, and Icelandair used the striking landscapes of Iceland as a backdrop for its video last year.
Emirates and Boeing have collaborated to produce View from Above a series of videos f ilmed with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) at 18 Emirates destinations on f ive continents, including the Emirates’ hub in Dubai and Boeing’s home, Seattle. Because the aerial vehicles could navigate through tight spaces and in other areas where normal aircraft could not enter, the project team produced never-beforeseen aerial images and perspectives. The drones f lew over lily pads, in deep caves, and beneath jungle foliage. In Japan, the drones were used to f ilm between the branches of cherry blossom trees and closely hover over steep waterfalls. In Vietnam, drones grazed rice f ields. In Norway, they travelled between mountain crevices. “Our aim is to always connect with our audiences around the world, and we hope
that people are inspired by these unique f ilms,” said Boutros Boutros, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Marketing and Brand of the project. The airline also released a dedicated View from Above microsite which lets visitors spin the globe to view the videos at various locations. The site was expressly designed for optimum performance on mobile devices. Its intuitive touch user interface allows users to spin the globe and tap on the location they want to view. The design of the microsite was the creative product of Unit9 Digital . The unique nature of the View from Above f ilm project, including the use of UAVs and the mobile interface viewer caught the attention of a range of tech, travel and news publications worldwide .
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tv, print, ooh
#thankyoudeer
the home we share
VIRGIN ATLANTIC In December, in cooperation with Microsoft, Virgin Atlantic created the world’s “f irst connected gaming experience at 35,000 feet” between two aircraft, using in-f light WiFi. The premise of the game was to help Santa out to f ind his reindeer, and get him back for Christmas. Passengers on two separate Virgin Atlantic f lights connected online to crack the clues. One of the f lights took off from Shanghai, the other from London. Passengers collaborated with others in the air and on the ground on electronic devices. If they had Lumia devices, customers also received hologram-type messages, which projected some of the clues to help get Santa’s sleigh back on course in time for the holidays. Santa duly appeared on both f lights, handing out presents to passengers. A of the sky-high reindeer games video FEB 2016 ISSUE
ETIHAD ran on both Virgin Atlantic’s and Microsoft UK’s YouTube channels. Making the game feel natural and seamless while in-f light required complex coordination. Virgin Atlantic used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to keep up with active gamers as par ticipation volume varied through the campaign and the duration of the f lights. In addition to the in-f light game, Virgin Atlantic ran a contest on Social Media in December, giving passengers a chance to win f lights for loved ones to give as a Thank You and Christmas gift. Par ticipants could post a selfie on , Twitter or Instagram with Facebook the hashtag #thankyoudeer and share who they would give the f lights to if they won.
Middle Eastern airlines Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways strongly promote their international networks and their Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha hubs. However Emiratis themselves are both affluent and fond of travel , with 1/7 travelling at least once every few months. Etihad recently targeted its home demographic with a patriotic marketing campaign timed alongside the UAE’s National Day celebrations on December 1. The cornerstone and namesake of the multimedia campaign was an original Arabic song called ‘Hayyakum Fi Darkum’ (Welcome to the Home We Share), with an accompanying music video. The video highlights the best aspects of Emirati life. Powerful images include sweeping skyline panoramas, traditional musical instruments, recreational activities, Arabic calligraphy, children playing, business people travelling in Etihad’s premium
classes, and more. The video features only brief shots of Etihad aircraft. Instead of being over tly promotional, the ad draws on national pride and celebrates the experience of being an Emirati. The music video aired on television, in movie theaters and was also posted on the Etihad YouTube channel, where it has received more than 250,000 views. A number of secondary “making of” videos were also produced to give people a glimpse into how the video was created and introduce the characters in it. Finally, “Welcome to the Home We Share” was made available for download on iTunes, with sale proceeds going to the Red Crescent. Billboards for the campaign were erected in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai. Hayyakum Fi Darkum also played on national radio, and hashtag #HAYYAKUM suppor ted the social media push. The whole campaign is hosted on a micro-site with suitably high production values.
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gronk is my co-pilot
batman vs superman
JETBLUE For millions in the USA, NFL Football is a way of life. Especially as the season reaches its climax in the annual Super Bowl, excitement builds among the spor t’s hundreds of millions of fans. As a result, JetBlue’s recent announcement that it is the new official airline of the New England Patriots football team – with an accompanying TV ad campaign suppor ting the par tnership – is making big waves In November, the first of a series of five hilarious television commercials jointly promoting JetBlue and the New England Patriots aired on network television and across the web in the USA. is the longest The first commercial and features Patriots star player Rob Gronkowski (“Gronk”) sitting on a JetBlue plane, asking his uncle (a real JetBlue pilot) FEB 2016 ISSUE
TURKISH AIRLINES if the new sponsorship deal means that he can fly the plane. Thankfully the answer to that question is no, but Gronk’s uncle has a few other ideas for how to put him to work onboard the aircraft. The rest of the commercials are follow-ons to the first. They depict the athlete as he attempts to do various things on the plane – such as dancing, operating the flight attendant touch-screen control and fitting into a lavatory in his full gear. The spor ting community has gone mad for this campaign, with publications like Patsfans.com, Beacherrepor t.com, and NESN.com repor ting on it. This is great for JetBlue’s reach and reputation within the large American spor ting community. The hashtag #gronkismycopilot , itself a play on a 1945 WW2 film (God is my Co-Pilot ) about fighter pilots, has lit up on twitter.
Airlines have long enjoyed a close relationship with the studios which supply their In-Flight Enter tainment, but there are plenty of brand building oppor tunities beyond securing the rights to play Hollywood’s top blockbusters on seatback screens. One example of that is Turkish Airlines, which recently entered into a marketing par tnership with Warner Bros timed with the premiere of the new ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’, which stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman and Jesse Eisenberg as Superman’s rival Lex Luthor. The deal between the airline and the studio includes in film “product placement” for the airline . “The image of the Turkish Airlines airplane will be shown in the movie with our logo. What is more, one of the biggest knots of the movie will be untied in flight on our Business Class,” said M. Ilker Aycı, Turkish
Airlines’ Board Chairman. Turkish Airlines first announced the par tnership with a special trailer video on YouTube, which it shared with fans on Facebook and Twitter . Turkish Airlines also revealed a speciallythemed Boeing 777 aircraft with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice livery, separate movie-themed in-flight amenities, menu items, a special Time Out travel guide featuring content on Gotham City and Metropolis, as well as a special edition frequent flyer Miles & Smiles card. The hashtags #flytogotham and #flytometropolis are being used in suppor t on social media . Other airlines that have enjoyed high-profile Hollywood par tnerships include ANA and Disney Studios for the launch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and American Airlines and Disney for Planes .
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eurowings and tom selleck EUROWINGS Who says low-cost carriers don’t have the big budgets to attract big name stars? In a play on other celebrity-led airline marketing campaigns, Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings contracted Tom Selleck as the star of its newest ad campaign. The theme of the campaign is how everything is “big” at Eurowings, but through it the airline pushes the message of the big things passengers care about: big service, big savings, big smiles. The spot relies on a number of visual gags, with big close up takes of aircraft, a symphony orchestra playing on the tarmac and aircraft stairs, and an oversized “big” pepper-mill being used on-board. The voice over in turn gives a tongue in cheek commentary of how a big new airline like Eurowings should advertise: “As a new major airline we ought to advertise big-time, with great shoots of great airplanes accompanied by great music. Along with that, our flight crew, in slow motion. Yes, FEB 2016 ISSUE
that will make an impression! And on board: service, smiles, tomato juice, and a movie star like Tom Selleck,who--of course--flies with us exclusively.” Former Magnum PI Star Tom Selleck then gives the big thumbs-up to the new Eurowings--having his champagne served from a ‘Magnum’ bottle, naturally. Eurowings’ Head of Marketing, Sandra Schieck, explained the impor tance of satire for this campaign (link in German ) “The campaign’s goal is to..build an image to differentiate ourselves from the competition, and to connect with the relevant demographic. The story focuses on our product--set in an new, likeable and fun way. “Eurowings is different from other lowcost airlines. Our adver tising should be as different as our product. [With this ad] our brand is positioned as innovative and charmingly cheeky. This is reflected in the tone.”.
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FEB 2016 ISSUE
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