benchmark report
airline marketing
australia day QANTAS Airlines are increasingly using Pop-Up installations and stunts as par t of their marketing arsenal. In this repor t alone we’ve got examples from SWISS and KLM, while Norwegian has in the past made extensive use of popups to promote new routes (for example, the airline’s ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ installation last year to highlight flights to Oakland).
The ‘beach’ was built both to coincide with Australia Day on January 26th as well as to form par t of the airpor t’s on-going 70th birthday celebration campaign . Qantas has been working with Heathrow since last year in the bir thday campaign, with passengers submitting their favourite Heathrow memory for a chance to win one of 35 pairs of return flights to Sydney.
The impor tant thing of course is to make sure that any pop-up installation ties in with the brand, and that as a visual experience it is immediately obvious.
Travellers visiting the beach outside Terminal Three experienced a taste of Australia, including sweet treats and enter tainment by a live acoustic band playing classics from INXS and Kylie Minogue.
So while it made perfect sense for SWISS to create a pop-up snowball-game experience, it’s also natural for Qantas to have built a pop-up beach at London’s Heathrow Airpor t.
Markus Svensson, regional general manager UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Qantas, said, “Australia Day is all about celebrating the best of Australia, no matter where you are in the world. When London to Per th
FEB 2017 ISSUE
flights launch next year, UK travellers will be able to experience Australia firsthand with our non-stop services. But today, Qantas and Heathrow are bringing the Aussie summer to them.” In Australia itself, frequent fliers were able to take advantage of special Australia Day discounts at the airline’s ‘Qantas epiQure online wine store.
‘own’ the concept of Australia as a wineproducing centre of excellence.
An interesting brand extension by Qantas, Qantas epiQure allows members of the airline’s loyalty programme to purchase wines served in first and business class and have them delivered to their homes in Australia. Wine and food purchases on the website count towards frequent flyer points, while at the same time allowing Qantas to
9