benchmark report
airline marketing
zero gravity video
big metal bird UNITED United’s new web series called Big Metal Bird is the centrepiece of a well-rounded digital campaign. The show itself is designed to be fun, smart and entertaining, while giving viewers an inside perspective on different areas of United’s massive global operations. Examples include how United chooses new routes, and a look at the airline’s catering operations. “Plane and Simple!” is the motto of Big Metall Bird, which is hosted by likeable American sports presenter Katie Nolan. Each episode is kept short and sweet while animations,, simple language, and comedy are used to keep the fun-button pressed at all times. When an episode is released, it is promoted across all United’s social channels with the hashtag #bigmetalbird. A microsite showcases the episodes. It is visually appealing, user friendly and literally crawling with opportunities for social media MAR 2016 ISSUE
S7 sharing. In addition to being a home for the show’s episodes, the site features other, shorter bits of video and online editorial content that support the main content of each show. The hashtag has done very well on Twitter , and though brand content can turn some consumers off, this show seems to be winning praise from the public. One skeptical Twitter user even commented on the quality of the show, despite his typical dislike of branded content. Even the seasoned airline critics on FlyerTalk. com seem to approve of the show, as evidenced by this thread. Each of the four current episodes have been viewed more than 100,000 times on Youtube, with episode two having been viewed over 600,000 times
Chicago-based band “OK Go” has built a reputation for quirky music videos which involve complicated stunts promoted online through YouTube. Their latest video “Upside Down and Inside Out” was far more complicated . The band teamed up with the Russian airline S7 to f ilm the video onboard one of their aircraft in a zero-gravity environment -- accompanied by S7 stewardesses, both trained acrobats. The video helped raise awareness of the S7 brand, with over 48 million viewers around the world watching the videos (at the time of this repor t). S7 was also mentioned ex tensively in press ar ticles about OK Go’s new video, for example in Dezeen , The Wall Street Journal , Rolling Stone , The Telegraph and Wired .
S7 included a full interview with the OK Go band in its in-f light magazine , and promoted the collaboration on social media on Facebook , Instagram and on its YouTube channel . Though OK Go launched their careers on YouTube, this latest video was released on Facebook f irst (as well as on the Russian social network vKontakte). This project was ideally suited to the S7 brand. The airline has a track record of unique campaigns. For example, S7 followed up its 2015 travel-inspiration ad “Imagine” by developing an “Imagination Machine” , which let par ticipants guide vir tual f lights around the globe with their mind.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
