benchmark report
airline marketing
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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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
