benchmark report
airline marketing
experiential
stopover buddy
TED talks
ICELANDAIR International tourism has become one of Iceland’s main sources of revenue. That’s probably why Icelandair has often set the bar for best-practice marketing relations between a flagship carrier and national tourism authorities. The airline’s latest effor t to bolster tourism and passenger loads, the ‘Stopover Buddy’ campaign, has proven especially successful. The campaign promotes Icelandair’s policy of letting passengers stop and tour the island nation (for up to seven days) without restrictions, by offering stopover passengers a personal guide for one day. A Stopover Buddy could be a stewardess, bag handler, pilot, check-in desk worker or even the CEO himself, who takes passengers on a day out in Iceland for free. About 50 ‘Buddies’ have been recruited to provide authentic, guided experiences for travellers, who increasingly seek one-of-a-kind local MAR 2016 ISSUE
QANTAS AND DELTA experiences over big, busy attractions that appeal to the mass market. According to , Chief Executive Birkir Hólm Guðnason, the campaign will “remove” the stress of planning a stopover and show passengers a “truly unique experience”, which might include fishing, cooking, hiking, checking out the music scene and more. Marketing website thedrum.com repor ts that two agencies, The Brooklyn Brothers and Islenska, devised the campaign and will run it together across 11 markets. A series of videos have been produced to introduce the public to some of the ‘Buddies’. These videos have done exceptionally well on the airline’s Facebook page , where they have amassed more than two million views.
TED Talks (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design) are a series of engaging conference lectures by inspirational people. In recent years these talks have become wildly popular across the world; especially amongst inquisitive, educated and entrepreneurial people who seek to change the world through professional and personal development.
from Sydney to San Francisco with four TED speakers onboard. The speakers were a group of innovators who gave live presentations on the future of technology, science and design in the First Class cabin. The presentations were shared with passengers in other classes via the aircraft’s audio system, and the talks were also made available online after the flight.
Recent inflight events by both Qantas and Delta demonstrate that airlines have caught onto the power of TED Talks, and TEDx Talks (independently-organised under the TED brand). Now they are using creative partnerships with the conference brand to position their own brands as ones that support progress and innovation in design and technology.
Also on February 17, as part of a larger “Ideas in Flight”, a Delta flight departed Los Angeles and headed for Vancouver – with an esteemed group of TED-talkers in tow – for a sky-high brainstorming and networking session .
On February 17, in a project called “Ideas that Travel” a Qantas B747 took flight
Delta has been a partner of TED for several years now, and also participates in the conference on the ground by collaborating with the organizers on unique, interactive projects in the US each year.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
