Lufthansa-Lufthansa Crew Stories

LUFTHANSA - LUFTHANSA CREW STORIES

A number of different airlines are now using Snapchat, including Qantas, Qatar Airways and Delta. As with any (relatively) new social network, the question is of course what you do with it?

In particular, what kind of content can you upload that a) Is appropriate for the audience using the network in question b) Tells your story and c) Isn’t just a rehash of material you’ve posted elsewhere.

Lufthansa’s solution has been to use the network for ‘Crew Stories.’

Essentially stories are posted on flights where cabin crew give a behind the scenes view on what is going on. Previous stories have included a look at the ‘hidden’ crew quarters on an A380 from Frankfurt to Los Angeles and a tour of Cape Town by a South African Lufthansa employee.

More recently on 17 May, two off duty staff members flying from Frankfurt to San Jose took over the Lufthansa Snapchat account and put together a story of their flight including chats with the cabin crew, a look at what goes on in the galley, a view of San Francisco en route to San Jose, and the arrival.

The San Jose story was then extended into a ‘Crew Connections’ event on Snapchat in San Jose on 18 and 19 May and New York on 24 and 25 May, including a competition element where people in each city could win tickets by going to meet the cabin crew.

Lufthansa has claimed that the tactic of personalising their Snapchat account through ‘Crew Stories’ has resulted in an 800% increase in snap views of each story, and that the airline receives a lot of job enquiries this way.

The fact that staff post the content means that no agency is involved and likewise, Lufthansa doesn’t filter what is posted.

The popularity of Snapchat has of course caused Facebook to react, with the result that photo network Instagram has started cloning different Snapchat features.

According to The Verge Instagram Stories now have 200 million users a day compared to just over 150 million for Snapchat.

In addition, as we’ve already mentioned in a previous article, Instagram as a whole could be on course to read a billion users overall this year.

That in turn leads to another question, how should an airline’s story on Snapchat differ from its Instagram story?

The key is to look at the different audiences of each. Though both social networks are popular among teens and 20-somethings, Instagram has a broader demographic, with 33% of 30-49 year olds in the US using the network.

As a result, one division of Lufthansa which uses Instagram Stories but not Snapchat is the aircraft maintenance arm, Lufthansa Technik which regularly sends out content from trade shows.

While Lufthansa has given control of its Snapchat channel to cabin crew, Icelandic airline WOW Air tried a different approach last year in its “Snap Traveler” competition where Snapchat super-users were recruited to post stories of different WOW Air destinations.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Millennials are a core part of Snapchat’s demographic and so it makes sense for Lufthansa to use young, 20-something staff to become the voice of the airline on this social network. It has given Lufthansa’s Snapchat channel a feel of authenticity and users are responding, as evidenced in the huge increase in views.

The fact that Lufthansa is receiving job enquiries for cabin crew positions via Snapchat is interesting, and there could be scope to take this idea further.

Meanwhile, the cost of the Crew Stories initiative for Lufthansa is of course minimal, making this a very cost effective campaign to run.

Instagram stories are likewise interesting for their potential to reach a broader audience. For example, creating a Snapchat channel for your airline’s cargo division might not make much sense, but you could see how it would work on Instagram.