United Airlines-Real Time Taxi

UNITED AIRLINES - REAL TIME TAXI

When asked to link an airport to a major city, most people will associate Heathrow with London, CDG with Paris, and JFK with New York.

However, each of these cities of course has a second airport with significant passenger numbers - Gatwick (London), Orly (Paris) and in the case of New York, Newark. The challenge for each has been to change the perception that it’s a second choice for travellers.

This is also a particular concern for United Airlines in New York. Out of the 44 million passengers who use Newark annually, 28 million fly out of United’s hub at the airport. As a result, in July United launched a campaign to show how Newark can be easier to get to than JFK.

The mechanic has been to use 125 New York taxis. Each taxi has a digital billboard on the roof, displaying the realtime travel time to JFK compared to the real time travel time to Newark.

The overall concept was created by United’s advertising agency McGarryBowen New York.

Naturally the agency only came up with the idea after extensive research showed that travel times to Newark were on average 30 minutes shorter to JFK, sometimes more.

United’s taxi top project is believed to be the first time ever that live traffic data has been used to dynamically display massaging on top of a taxi.

At the same time, United has embarked on a $120 million upgrade of its Newark hub, including new concessions and restaurants. This upgrade is intended to address a series of consumer surveys over the years, that show how Newark consistently ranks below JFK when it comes to passenger satisfaction.

Of course, no marketing campaign works in a vacuum and United is still suffering from the after effects of the Dr David Dao incident, where he was physically dragged off a United Express flight in April.

For example, while showcasing the campaign, marketing website Creativity Online also headlined the article, “While Poor Customer Service Continues, United Airlines Debuts an Outdoor Ad Innovation.”

KEY TAKE-AWAY

The question of when to start proactive marketing campaigns again must have been a hot topic of debate within United Airlines HQ.

Clearly, the airline remains a business and it has to get back into trying to fill seats and highlight points of difference to the competition. And the Newark taxi campaign is both innovative as well as tying into a distinct passenger need - the desire to get to the airport fast.

At the same time, any marketing campaign like this has to be accompanied with efforts to rectify the previous customer services mistakes. This is an issue CEO Shashank Nigam addressed in a number of episodes, as part of the SimpliFlying Live Show.