benchmark report
airline marketing
NOV 2016 ISSUE
A monthly selection of the most innovative marketing campaigns launched by airlines around the world SimpliFlying Nov 2OI6
Issue 50
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.
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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
paint the plane
qantas airbnb
ANA To launch its new A380 service to Hawaii, ANA has launched a ‘Paint the Plane’ campaign which invites professional and amateur ar tists alike to submit unique livery designs which would inspire travellers to visit the tropical island paradise. The livery would be painted on one of three new A380 aircraft which the airline is scheduled to receive from Airbus and which will enter service on flights from Tokyo to Honolulu in the Spring of 2019. The Grand Prize winner will receive two round trip tickets to fly in business class between Tokyo and Honolulu, and runners up will receive original ANA souvenirs. Crowdsourcing marketing and brand materials and cabin products is an interesting way to engage with the loyal flying public while encouraging local talent.
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QANTAS Other airline crowdsourcing campaigns have included: KLM’s ‘Bright Ideas’ which encouraged Facebook followers to suggest improvements to cabin products and services; Air France’s call to young designers and fine ar tists to design new meal service items; and British Airways’ enlisting of multiple disciplines—a chef, a film-maker, and an ar tist—to introduce new in-flight meal menus, a new in-flight film, and new livery as par t of its ‘Great Britons’ campaign timed to coincide with the 2012 Olympics.
Qantas and Airbnb forged a marketing deal which lets travelers to earn a point in the airline’s frequent flier program for every Australian dollar spent on total guest fees for shor t-term rentals on Airbnb proper ties. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has described the par tnership as a natural par t of the airline’s new “digital revolution.” “We know our many of our customers are just as likely to arrange an Airbnb as they are to book a hotel, and we wanted to recognise and reward them for that,” Joyce said. To qualify for rewards, the Airbnb rentals must be booked through qantas.com/ stay, which redirects customers to the Australian Airbnb website to complete their reservations, where airline has long sold accommodation and car rentals as ancillaries to flight bookings. Other airlines have adapted to this disruption through
deals with Airbnb structured differently. Late last year, Virgin America launched a similar partnership with Airbnb. Lufthansa ran a marketing campaign which offered seats on its premium economy cabin on Airbnb. This campaign made the point that being onboard Lufthansa is very much like a home away from home. KLM also used Airbnb in a novel way to reflect its brand by listing a sleepover aircraft on the service. But par tnering with Airbnb is not without risk. While the lure of disruptors is strong, traditional hotel par tners were angered by Qantas’ decision. Large chains which feel threatened by the unregulated Airbnb model filed complaints in correspondence with Tourism Accommodation Australia.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
london calling
moana
CATHAY PACIFIC To launch its new Hong Kong International Airpor t-London Gatwick route, Cathay Pacific coordinated a unique quiz contest around the ‘London Calling’ theme. The airline set up red London phone boxes in various locations in Hong Kong and those who answered the phone when it rang were asked questions related to the UK. Small souvenirs located inside the phone booth provided hints to the answers. Those who gave the right answers to the questions, were told to open a safe inside the phone booth, where they found free tickets. The airline posted a video of the contest on YouTube and on Facebook . While the YouTube video had just over 3,000 views, the Facebook post had over 120,000 views, 1,600 likes and 200 shares. NOV 2016 ISSUE
HAWAIIAN AIRLINES Though it has a unique approach with a quiz element, the destination marketing and the use of an installation for this campaign is somewhat reminiscent of SNCF Railways’ interactive Doors to Europe , which encouraged passers-by to open the door to other European cities. Engaging the public at large in a momentary escape from their surroundings, aimed to inspire a journey, is an oppor tunity to surprise and delight both par ticipants and those who later view the promotion. Some of the comments posted to Cathay’s Facebook post illustrate this. More than one person expressed a combination of surprise and disappointment that they had walked past the booth and not thought to go inside. Others commended the airline for its clever marketing. “We’ll pay attention on everything around you,” one commenter promised.
Hawaiian Airlines has launched a new campaign in collaboration with Disney around the new animated film “Moana” and unveiled a custom “Moana”-themed aircraft at Honolulu International Airpor t. The design of the A330’s livery features four characters from the movie, the demigod Maui (voiced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho), and her two friends Heihei the rooster and Pua the pig. It is one of three A330 planes which will be decorated with images from the film which will be released in theatres in the U.S. on November 23, the eve of the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend. Moana tells the adventures of a Hawaiian teenage girl who embarks on a quest to restore her people’s ancient role as master voyagers and runs into a fallen Hawaiian demi-god Maui who joins her in the pursuit. Accompanied by what will likely prove a popular soundtrack,
this film could become the big hit of holiday season. Hawaiian has made the most of the film’s charm by promoting its collaboration on social media. This included a fun exchange on Twitter with Dwayne Johnson. In a candid Tweet, Johnson remarks on the curious twists in life: “Grew up in Hawaii. As a young teen I’d fly @HawaiianAir and steal cologne from the duty free car t. Yrs later who would’ve ever thought...” To this, Hawaiian Airlines replied, “Mahalo for the aloha @TheRock! We totally forgot about that missing item from our Duty Free Shopping car t ;-)” Hawaiian has also launched a dedicated Moana flight tracker page, for the special aircraft, and recently released a time-lapse video which shows how the aircraft was decorated with the Moanatheme inside and out.
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social
delta runway reveal
#InspiredBy
DELTA Delta Airlines has debuted new uniforms for its cabin crew, ticketing and agents, guests services, and ground staff designed by American couturier Zac Posen . The airline launched the new uniforms with a fashion show transmitted to the world by live Facebook video-feed on the 18th of October. Delta Air Lines announced the Facebook video-cast in advance, to generate interest and ensure greater engagement. It also concurrently shared clips and images from the catwalk on its Twitter account. At peak times, the video had over 60,000 viewers interacting with the brand by marking the video with hear ts and likes, and commenting live. One feature which made this uniform launch special was that the models were NOV 2016 ISSUE
LUFTHANSA real Delta Air Lines staff. They displayed genuine pride in their new look and had fun with modelling—balancing between a traditional catwalk strut and a bit of lively showing off. After the event, the airline posted the full video to its Facebook page where it has since received over 140,000 views. Delta has continued to use the popularity of its new uniforms to the brand’s advantage by sharing a video of the process, from design to debut, also posted on Facebook. The hashtag #DeltaRunwayReveal was used throughout to tie-in shares and comments of the event on Facebook, Twitter , and Instagram . Zac Posen also shared a video of the runway show as well as images of the new uniforms on his social media channels.
This October, Lufthansa launched a new storytelling campaign designed exclusively for social media which tells the story of how travel influences our personality through the experiences of two Danish designers of Japanese heritage: Satoru and Kiyoshi Inoue. The theme of the story is Heimweh. Heimweh is something akin to homesickness. As Lufthnasa defines it: “Heimweh [ˈhaɪ̯mˌveː] (German) = longing to travel to a place where you feel at home and where you can be completely yourself.” The campaign was launched with a video on YouTube (1.2 million views) which shows the two brothers on a personal journey returning to the place they call home. Lufthansa explains that though the Inoue brothers grew up in Denmark, they have always felt more connected to the country of their parents. Their fascination with the relationship between humans and nature leads them on a journey back to Japan, where they explore their identities. The
story follows their progress to Yakushima and Kagoshima. There, they visit Sakurijama, the mystical volcano of their father’s bedtime stories. This inspires them to launch an ar tisan ceramics line, using volcanic ashes. By exploring their family’s origins the two reconnect with their heritage and revive the memories of their late father. “The story of the Inoue brothers shows how impor tant it is for some to discover their own roots – regardless of their country or nationality. We as an airline can thus inspire people and would be delighted if the campaign encouraged people across all social media platforms to reflect on their own sense of home,” says Alexander Schlaubitz, Head of Marketing at Lufthansa. As par t of the storytelling campaign Lufthansa also set up a dedicated microsite to collect images and shor t video snippets of the two brothers’ journey marked with the #inspiredby and #Heimweh hashtags which help complete the story.
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benchmark report
airline marketing
digital
the sixt roadtrip
best of the planets
BMI REGIONAL In September, European regional airline bmi regional signed a par tnership agreement with Sixt Car-rental, allowing passengers to book car hire at bmi regional airpor ts at the same time as they booked their flights. Airline / Car rental par tnerships are of course nothing new, so bmi regional looked for a way to bring this to life. The mechanic that was chosen was that of a ‘road-trip’ where leading Instagramers in cities around Europe stage a social media take-over and take a Sixt car on a tour from their native city, posting images on the bmi regional Instagram account as they go. The idea is to show how a flight combined with a car hire from Sixt can enhance a city break by giving visitors the freedom to drive to both well known tourist destinations as well as some that are off the beaten track. On 12 October, the first Sixt road trip took NOV 2016 ISSUE
S7 place in and around Brussels, when the team of urban culture magazine We Love Brussels took a drive around Wallonia, posting on the bmi regional Instagram and Facebook accounts as they went along . This was followed by four leading Frankfur t Instagramers taking a drive in the Taunus hills outside Frankfur t on 5 November , with more planned for December. bmi regional’s social media followers were given an incentive to follow each road-trip by being asked to spot one of the locations where they saw the Sixt car, for the chance to win flights. The influencers themselves also cross-promoted the Sixt Roadtrip on their own social media feeds, reaching tens of thousands of fans. For example, the four Frankfur t Instagramers who took par t, together have a local fan base of over 150k fans.
One of the coolest notions to come out of the manned-mission-to-Mars-mania grabbing headlines these days is the idea that these proposed missions aren’t just sponsored by individual countries or government bodies, but are being thought of as global missions to another planet. Seizing that idea of thinking globally, Russia’s largest domestic carrier S7 Airlines has launched a truly beautiful digital marketing campaign entitled “Best of the Planets” . Celebrating the epic, natural beauty and rich, multi-cultural majesty of the planet Ear th, the digital spot encourages travelers to explore the every corner of the globe by visiting a dedicated website where users are invited to map out a unique “mood journey” to dozens of S7 destinations by taking a brief online test. Depending on which breathtakingly-beautiful visuals you click on, the site determines where you should set off to next.
Accompanied by a chills-inducing clip, the spot is narrated from above (literally!) by celebrated Russian cosmonaut Andrei “The Hero of Russia” Borisenko. Already viewed more than 4.5 million times on YouTube alone the spot was directed by Barcelonaborn helmer AG Rojas who cut his teeth directing boldly original, story-driven music videos for the likes of Jack White and the English “Space Rock” band Spiritualized, S7’s dazzling Best of the Planets clip was also one of the first projects ever allowed to shoot on location inside Saint Petersburg’s legendary Hermitage Museum. Generating major buzz online everywhere from StartUper.com to SHOOTonline. com S7’s daring, innovative spot is already destined to be a classic with globe-trotting flyers everywhere.
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tv, print, ooh
KLM media app
toronto stopover
KLM KLM has launched a new KLM Media App for iOS and Android which lets passengers access a broad range of international newspapers on their smar tphone or tablet to download 24 hours prior to depar ture. Initially, KLM is offering a choice of thir teen newspapers: Le Monde, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Die Welt, El Pais, De Telegraaf, China News Weekly, International New York Times, Financial Times, China Times, Financieele Dagblad, Volkskrant and Trouw; as well as KLM’s own inflight magazine, Holland Herald. The airline will add more papers and magazines in future.KLM tiered the publications travellers can access in keeping with their travel class and Flying Blue level. Offering passengers access to exclusive digital media is not entirely new. SAS has offered passengers a wide range of digitial publications through the SAS Newstand in the SAS app since the Summer of 2014. NOV 2016 ISSUE
AIR CANADA But there is a trend towards digital news offerings developing in the industry. The Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) recently repor ted during the APEX EXPO on the slow transition away from the distribution of paper-based news on aircraft. A survey of APEX members’ inflight media offerings conducted by PressReader, a digital platform featuring more than 5,000 publications, found that 70 percent of respondents had either stopped offering print media on board or planned to do so within the next five years. The main benefit is weight savings. Boeing equates removing the weight of print newspapers with “an annual savings of over $4.5 million for a fleet of wide-body aircraft operating 1,000 flights per day,” APEX repor ts. But this trend is not absolute. A separate study by Dawson Media Direct found that premium passengers— including Millennials—still have a strong preference for print.
Working with Tourism Toronto (and quite possibly inspired by Icelandair’s “Stopover Buddy” campaign designed to draw connecting international passengers out of Reykjavik airpor t to explore Iceland), Air Canada promoted a newly-launched free Toronto stopover policy by surprising passengers on flight AC857 (LHR-YYZ) with the offer of a 48-hour, all-expenses paid Toronto stopover. Five Air Canada passengers from the lucky flight who had ongoing connections said “yes” to the offer and stayed a bit longer in Canada’s largest city. The five passengers who opted in had their accommodations covered and were treated to fun local activities like the CN Tower EdgeWalk , a visit to the Ar t Gallery of Ontario and even a Segway tour of Toronto’s historic distillery district. Air Canada and adver tising agency J. Walter Thomson Toronto filmed the resulting experience for a television advert that
ran on U.S. Television and was also posted on YouTube. In a story at Marketingmag.ca , Air Canada’s Marketing and Communications Manager for Nor th America, Mark Sniderman is quoted as saying that the campaign – which also included digital displays, promoted social media posts on Twitter and Facebook , and online search ads – was aimed at dispelling some commonly held perceptions in the U.S. market specifically. “Americans primarily think of Air Canada as the airline to Canada,” he said, “They’re not aware we can take them to the corners of the Ear th.” This campaign was covered by some Canadian travel media like Canoe.ca, and on independent blogs , but the overall promotion could benefit from a more intuitive dedicated booking page .
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benchmark report
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vacation is calling
brad is single
AIR TRANSAT
NORWEGIAN
In a bid to sell positive emotions and the joy of holiday anticipation, rather than mere destinations and tickets, Canadian holiday carrier Air Transat’s first campaign with new agency par tner Sid Lee attempts to create a more holistic view of the vacation experience by tapping into how people feel from the minute planning begins to the memory of warm, sunny places.
suddenly floating, and for a young boy a suburban street puddle becomes a lagoon encircled by sand and palm trees.
The campaign centers around a twominute, cinematic video , which is suppor ted more broadly by radio adver ts, out of home adver tising (billboards, etc.), digital and social components.
“Everyone is selling beaches and hotels, but since we’re dedicated to selling holidays, the whole experience is what we have to build on,” Geneviève LeBrun, VP of marketing at Transat Tours Canada told Stragegyonline. ca .
High production quality is apparent in this video and ethereal music tells us quickly something magical is likely to happen. As we watch on, a business man discovers a lush, tropical jungle in a busy downtown street. A woman’s bed transforms into a turquoise blue ocean upon which she is NOV 2016 ISSUE
At the end of the video we see top down shot of an Air Transat plane flying over the boy and hear a voice say “When you book with Air Transat, you’re already on vacation. Air Transat – vacation is calling.”
The video has been viewed more than 125,000 times on YouTube since October 7th. Sid Lee and Air Transat have also reworked the airline’s logo, making the iconic blue star really pop.
Proving that no publicity is ever really bad publicity, Norwegian Airlines launched a cheeky, real-time marketing campaign recently entitled “Brad is Single” . Centered around the much-publicized break-up of Oscar-winning Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, a series of new Norwegian ads offered cheap flights from a number of prime European locales to Los Angeles for passengers hoping they might have a shot with the newly-single Hollywood hunk. And though some humorless fans online thought the campaign was maybe a tad “too much too soon,” the fun, playful tone of the campaign definitely struck a chord with legions of social media users around the world, generating Norwegian loads of free publicity for their discounted fares to the City of Angels. Pictures and screencaps of the simple, minimalist ad set against a
red background lit up the blogosphere and sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram overnight with some fans even suggesting that Norwegian offer passengers named Jennifer (as in Anniston, Pitt’s ex-wife) be given an additional 50% off the carrier’s already deeply discounted fare. And though the carrier has assured the public that simply flying them to Tinseltown at a discount does not guarantee an audience with Mr. Pitt, the inspired hilarity of Norwegian’s campaign has already gone viral and been covered everywhere from the Telegraph UK and the New York Daily News to USWeekly and even Time magazine . No word yet on whether or not the ad has amounted to any new romantic prospects for Pitt, but Norwegian is definitely feeling the love from this one.
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jennifer aniston
anthem SOUTHWEST AIRLINES Anyone who’s ever flown on Dallas, Texasbased LLC Southwest Airlines knows that they’re in for a rare treat in the air. Famous for their rock bottom fares, no-frills flights and cheeky, spirited flight crews, the carrier has long been known for doing things differently. Now, with the release of a very funny series of spots entitled “Anthem” , Southwest has even star ted making their own minimusicals. Using real-life Southwest employees, the four new spots highlight the carrier’s goal of offering passengers total “Transfarency” by having the employees break into glorious song when questioned by passengers at check-in about thing like checked baggage fees and rapid reward miles usage. Promising passengers they will strive to be a rare airline “yes” in a world of airline “no,” NOV 2016 ISSUE
EMIRATES the spots were directed by award-winning commercial helmer Jun Diaz who infuses the ads with the same big-hear ted humor and off beat sensibility that has been the hallmark of his work for other major clients like Twix, Converse and Yahoo!, and which also meshes perfectly with Southwest’s fun and funky vibe. And though the Southwest employees in the spots are usually lip syncing, the airline’s fans that have been sharing the clips on social media are very real indeed. Two of the most popular spots – one which features a truly inspired, retro-fueled take on Journey’s classic “Any Way You Want it” – have already generated more than 7.5M views a piece on YouTube and been written up everywhere from AdWeek. com to the Chicago Business Journal .
Critics who thought Jennifer Aniston’s previous, love-it-or-hate-it online and TV spots for Emirates were a little pretentious and annoying had better buckle up, because “America’s Sweethear t” is back for another round of plucky, perfectly-coiffed marketing messages. Picking up where a previous spot left off, the ad opens with Aniston stepping out of a luxurious inflight shower, fixing her iconic hair in the mirror and then running into an adorable little boy playing in her private, first class cabin. If Aniston’s star power doesn’t win you over, the kid surely will. The cute, charming clip ends with Aniston finding the boy’s family in the economy cabin and then swapping seats with his grateful mother so the Emmy-winning actress can hang out with her new little friend for just a wee bit longer. Beautifully showcasing all of the class levels the carrier flies, as well as the wonders of Emirates award-winning
I.C.E. inflight enter tainment offerings, the spot also humanizes the luxury carrier by showing that even Emirates’ economy seats are posh enough for a Hollywood celebrity. Already proving to be something of a viral hit online – the clip has been viewed over 3.2 million times on YouTube since premiering less than a month ago – the new spots were directed by Oscar-nominated director Bryan Buckley aka the “King of Super Bowl ads.” Written up everywhere from GulfBusiness. com the DailyMailUK the ad’s sunny, social-media-shareable humor, coupled with the recent uptick of interest in all things Aniston (in wake of the Brangelina breakup), should keep Emirates’ new campaign flying high for weeks and months to come.
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#BetterWayToFly AIR NEW ZEALAND Not unlike Air Canada’s “Toronto Stopover” promotions (featured in this month’s repor t), Air New Zealand’s new #BetterWayToFly campaign aims to educate a large neighboring market – in this case Australia – that flying through their Auckland hub is an comfor table and convenient way to reach long haul destination in Nor th and South America. Utilizing the humour that Air New are Zealand’s ads and safety videos famous for, the #BetterWayToFy campaign features four videos and a microsite aimed at encouraging Aussie travellers headed for the Americas (especially those who’d have a domestic transfer anyway) to ‘break from the flock’ and transfer in Auckland instead. is attractive, interactive The microsite and informative with regard to route and travel class options , easy to navigate and makes booking breezy. The four videos feature a migratory bird (voiced NOV 2016 ISSUE
by well-known Aussie actor Bryan Brown ) who decides to fly Air New Zealand to Los Angeles rather than flap there himself. In the first and longest of the videos (563,000 YouTube views), “Dave” the Aussie bird arrives at Melbourne airpor t for his flight to Auckland for onward passage to LA. He encounters some great Kiwi hospitality onboard, gently annoys other passengers (a nod to the hot/cold relationship between Aussies and Kiwis), enjoys the inflight catering and IFE selection, and stretches out on the Economy Sky Couch. The next three half-minute spots focus more on specific perks of the experience, like the Sky Couch , and Auckland Airpor t as a transfer hub. This campaign has been written up by Campaignbrief.com , Australian media and analysis site Mumbrella.com.au several others.
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about us.
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.
NOV 2016 ISSUE
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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