Delta-LSTN Headsets

DELTA - LSTN HEADSETS

‘Last month we talked about Delta’s partnership with Alessi, where the design giant is providing the table-ware for Delta’s Premium Cabins.

The Alessi partnership is part of an on-going programme to enhance the Delta experience for business and first class passengers, which also includes changing the in-flight headphones through a new partnership with LSTN. Initially the headphones will be making an appearance on transcontinental flights from the Summer.

LSTN is a socially responsible headphone company. It makes very distinctive and well crafted wood panelled headphones, that have received rave reviews in the music and technology press with Complex Magazine calling the sound “mind blowing.”

However, it also has a wider mission - to “change lives through the power of music”, with profits going to support the Starkey Hearing Foundation, which aims to provide one million hearing aids to hearing-impaired people worldwide.

So far, LSTN claims to have helped 22,000 people in nine countries with staff going on so-called hearing missions.

These hearing missions are central to the Delta partnership as well. Last month, Delta and LSTN jointly sponsored a mission with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to Peru, featuring employees from both brands. This mission is in turn

being turned into an in-fight video to be shown on Delta’s IFE system from the Summer.

In addition to appearing in-flight, Delta is also showcasing the headphones in key Delta Sky Clubs over the coming months, while the actual product is being given to passengers out in bags containing the LSTN motto “We believe that what is good for business should be good for the world.”

The initiative has already been picked up by several travel and technology titles with Engadget saying that Delta has removed “the guilt from keeping in-flight headphones.”

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Delta could have teamed up with any number of headphone manufacturers, instead it chose one with a compelling story attached to it. As a result, this is a great partnership because it works on lots of different levels for the airline.

It will get Delta more attention than had they partnered with (say) a company like Bose.

Though they would have appreciated being given a pair of headphones from a well known name and would have liked the sound quality, passengers wouldn’t have otherwise given it much thought.

By contrast, the LSTN headphones are unexpected. They make you want to know more. This benefits Delta’s CSR programme and gives it wider exposure. There is also a wealth of content that can be created around this partnership.

The in-flight video being made in Peru is only the start, in terms of content this partnership has longevity.