AIRLINE MARKETING BENCHMARK REPORT September 2017 and Issue 60
BY ANA OFFICE SOUVENIRS BY JETBLUE
NEW SAFETY VIDEO BY SINGAPORE AIRLINES
WELCOME Published by aviation marketing strategy consulting firm SimpliFlying, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report 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 next 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 field of marketing and corporate communications. The monthly reports also help agencies that work with airlines stay on top of the latest innovative airline marketing initiatives. For any questions about the report, please contact Dirk Singer at dirk@simpliflying.com.
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INSIDE This issue features: 1. Air New Zealand A better way to fly 2. All Nippon Airways Is Japan Cool? 3. Cathay Pacific - The Sounds of Travelling Well 4. Delta - New TV Campaign 5. easyJet - For the love of flying 6. Emirates - Emirates Ace 7. eurowings - #FlyWithEd 8. Lufthansa #inspiredby HEIMWEH 9. JetBlue - Office Souvenirs 10. Singapore Airlines New safety video
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AIR NEW ZEALAND - A BETTER WAY TO FLY
How far is New Zealand from the USA? For many US travellers, too far to fly with research showing they imagine it to be 20+ hours away. The reality is of course that a twelve hour flight connects the West Coast of the USA (LA) with Auckland. Air New Zealand’s new “A better way to fly” campaign seeks to cover off two very different marketing messages. First of all it aims to show that New Zealand is more accessible than people imagine.
passengers that whatever the distance, Air New Zealand makes flying a pleasure. The person who seeks to get those two messages across is actor Sam Neill, or more accurately a Kiwi bird called “Pete” for which Sam Neill provides the voiceover.
The ad starts with “Pete” going to the Doctor, who gravely breaks the news that flying is not an option as Kiwi birds of course don’t actually have that ability. Never mind says Pete, he’ll just take Air Secondly, it wants to show prospective New Zealand.
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He then takes his row opposite an American couple who he talks to for the duration of the LA / Auckland flight, while walking around the cabins and showing off the Air New Zealand experience. This includes a cameo from the real Sam Neill in the business class cabin. ‘A better way to fly’ is a global campaign. Though Pete’s first outing is aimed at the US market, the campaign looks to expand into Asia and Europe over the coming year.
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According to Jodi Williams, the airline’s head of brand and content marketing, “This is just the start of a three-year campaign, so you’ll be seeing a lot more of Pete in the coming months. “We’ve also created a number of shorter videos which talk more about our products, such as the innovative Economy Skycouch and Business Premier, or how easy it is to transit through Auckland on your way to Australia. This is where you’ll
really start to see Pete’s lovable character develop.” The new global campaign has built on an earlier campaign aimed at Australians, also called ‘A Better Way to Fly’, featuring “Dave the Duck”. ‘Dave the Duck’ tried to persuade Australians to fly to the US via New Zealand, adopting a similar style to ‘Pete the Kiwi’ by chatting to passengers on a flight and walking up and down the cabins to showcase Air New Zealand.
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KEY TAKE-AWAY Both Pete the Kiwi and (his predecessor) Dave the Duck work in terms of getting the Air New Zealand product across in a fun, informative way. The use of an A-List actor in Sam Neill was a nice touch, and got the campaign added press exposure, but our feeling is it may have worked well in marketing terms regardless.
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS - IS JAPAN COOL?
Ever since Tokyo was announced as the venue for the 2020 Summer Olympics, Japan’s largest carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) has been running a campaign called ‘Is Japan Cool?’ The idea is to take different elements of Japanese culture from Ramen to Cosplay, and to highlight them for global audiences, encouraging them to travel to the country itself - naturally on ANA.
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The campaign is fronted by an impressive (Japanese traditional martial arts) and website stacked full of different topics gei-dou (Japanese tradional arts).” and themes. If you then head over to the website, For example, the “Japan Dreams” section you are presented with nine different includes items as diverse as Japanese ‘Dou’ characters, covering everything 3D latte art, to a camera app that turns from Judo to ‘Noh’ (a form of dramatic anyone into a Manga character. Website theatre). visitors can then vote various items up on which they think is the most cool. Clicking on a character allows you to play around with 3D demos, where you can The latest incarnation of the ‘Is Japan see every movement. Each sub-section Cool’ campaign is ‘Is Japan Cool - Dou.’ also includes interviews with the artist / As the airline explains, “Dou refers to performer, and a ‘demo’ section, where the way of life and we focused on nine the performer stands on top of a “tron” Japanese masters who perform bu-dou style digital landscape.
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As a website, “is Japan Cool” is really well designed and built. Judged purely on the content, it’s one of the best destination websites from an airline that we’ve seen. It’s slick, filled with great graphics, it brings different elements of Japan to life, and (most importantly) - it genuinely leaves you with the feeling of “I want to go there and see it for myself.” Despite being packed full of multimedia and 3D animations, it is also very mobile responsive. We tried out the ‘Kendo’ sword fighting sequence on an iPhone (albeit with WiFi and not via mobile data) and it worked perfectly. At the same time as adding a new section to “Is Japan Cool?” the airline also announced that it had refreshed its ‘Explore Japan’ webpages, which are a more standard tourist guide to the country covering cuisine, crafts, customs and history.
KEY TAKE-AWAY First of all ANA deserves full marks for consistency. This campaign has been running for five years, and the airline has stuck with it, periodically updating the site and regularly launching new content ‘modules’, such as the most recent one looking at martial arts and performing arts. The result is that ANA has a rich content base that it can draw upon to promote its home country. Production values are also very high, and it works on mobile devices. It’s the type of website that makes you want to stick around and discover the different elements. Well done ANA in producing an excellent destination marketing website and campaign, which has made it onto our cover this month.
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CATHAY PACIFIC - THE SOUNDS OF TRAVELLING WELL
Travel is a sensory experience, with what you see forming a key part of it. This in part explains the emphasis most airlines now place on the photo-sharing network Instagram. But so do other senses, such as sound. What sound do you associate with a destination, or with the journey of getting there? That thought forms the basis of Cathay Pacific’s latest campaign, “The Sounds of Travelling Well.”
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Developed by advertising agency McCann Worldwide, the “Sounds of Travelling Well” is a track put together from thousands of individual sounds, ranging from a seat-belt fastening, to busy roads in Asian cities. Why a song? According to the airline, “through sound, memories and feelings can be just as strongly invoked (as in sight). This is why we crafted a song unlike any other. A song made from the many sounds we experience on a journey.”
The campaign website then encourages passengers to share (in words, not audio) the sounds they most associate with travel, potentially giving Cathay Pacific a wider bank of content they can draw on to extend the campaign. Entering gives passengers the chance to win flight tickets.
released an innovative app called ‘music in the sky’. Pointing your phone at the clouds while having the app open would ‘locate’ different Air France aircraft flying to various destinations, each with its own song to download.
While a creative idea, this writer found the hassle factor of actually using it in The whole campaign is fronted by Isabella waving his phone in the air too much. Wong, who is also known as Bella Kuan, a Hong Kong based travel writer and Arguably however what Cathay Pacific blogger with a significant social media has done is look at sound in a more following. Bella appears in a number of generic way, rather than just at music. videos featuring the soundtrack. This initial track is of course very Asian Other airlines have experimented with focused, so we imagine that the brand music before, chiefly through working team has already been thinking of how with Spotify in releasing playlists. to extend the campaign into capturing sounds associated with other parts of the Several years ago Air France also world.
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KEY TAKE-AWAY Most airline marketing campaigns now use striking imagery as a matter of course, so Cathay Pacific has looked at a different and sometimes overlooked sense, sound. However, one thing that stuck us was how much more effective the Cathay Pacific campaign was when watching the Bella Kuan videos, which goes to show that in any ‘sensory’ campaign like this, things work best if the senses work together.
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DELTA - NEW TV CAMPAIGN
How do you get across different features you believe make your airline unique in an ad? If you are Delta’s Ad agency Moxie, the answer is make your ad less like an ad and more like the TV shows it is interrupting.
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A new US TV ad campaign seeks to spoof popular television shows ranging from Veep to Scandal, while highlighting different Delta product features and areas.
modelled on the TV show Veep has lost her luggage, at which point her aides tell her that had she flown Delta, RFID technology would have meant she’d be reunited with her belongings by now.
For example, last year the airline launched At the same time as releasing its TVan app for pilots with the aim of helping drama themed campaign, Delta has run them identify turbulence faster. another street advertising project in New York. The airline worked with artist Celyn This forms the basis of the ‘Turbulence’ Brazier in creating illustrations for the ad, where two political fixers try to get to 133 airport codes that represent all the Washington DC. One explains she won’t destinations Delta serves from NYC. fly because of Turbulence, at which point the other character starts explaining how To promote Brazier’s artwork, Delta’s Delta pilots are able to give passengers social channels featured a geo-targeted prior warning of what lies ahead. Flipagram, a Snapchat filter and scavenger hunt, a Facebook shoppable post, as well Other ads include “biometric boarding” as an online store. and “co-pilot” where a female politician
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In June, Delta ran a joint-promotion with dating app Tinder, in creating a Tinder Wall in New York. Following research that showed that people are more likely to ‘swipe right’ if the potential date is a world traveller, New Yorkers were able to turn up at the wall and have their profiles remade with a background photo of one of Delta’s international destinations.
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KEY TAKE-AWAY Copying much loved TV shows for an ad campaign is risky, as it could so easily fall flat if the acting and production values aren’t up to scratch. Delta has avoided that by developing a campaign that recognisably spoofs the different TV shows while also recognisably staying true to what made the programme popular in the first place.
EASYJET - FOR THE LOVE OF FLYING
According to trade industry reports, the aviation industry is facing a global pilot shortage, as the supply of trained candidates can’t keep up with the demand of more and more people wanting to fly.
will become even more commonplace.
One airline which is trying to head off any recruitment bottle-neck is British LCC easyJet. Over the Summer, the airline has been engaging in a marketing push, Pilot training organisation CAE estimates headlined “For the Love of Flying” that that the world will need 255,000 new promotes the benefits of working for the airline pilots by 2027 to offset both the airline. effect of retirement and industry growth. A major part of that is a collaboration If those vacancies can’t be filled then with broadcaster ITV, which is currently instances such as US regional airline showcasing easyJet in a series called Horizon Air cancelling hundreds of flights “Inside the Cockpit”. due to a lack of people to fly the planes
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According to the synopsis provided by the broadcaster, “Britain’s biggest lowcost airline is getting ready for its busiest year ever more planes, more routes, more flights and more passengers. Rookie Pilots will follow the ups and downs of easyJet’s new recruits as they take to the air for the very first time.” The show is of course a massive coup for easyJet. It does something no recruitment video could ever do, it humanises and dramatises the experience of working for easyJet.
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Instead of thousands of people seeing new pilot Ryan Clyde landing his plane in Paris in a recruitment video, millions tuned in to see it on their TV screens. The different characters profiled in the show are then featured across the airline’s social media channels. For example, anyone wanting to find out more about Ryan and what led him to working for easyJet need only go to the Instagram page where there’s a video explaining more.
At the same time, easyJet is trying to increase the number of female pilot candidates joining, via its “Amy Johnson” programme. With only 5% of pilots globally currently being women, easyJet has an ambitious target to quadruple the number of female pilots in its ranks.
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KEY TAKE-AWAY Not every airline will be fortunate enough to have its trainee pilots profiled on prime-time TV, but easyJet’s approach is nevertheless the right one. In particular the airline is being proactive, it can see the problem ahead and it is doing everything it can to try and head it off. The emphasis on female pilots is also a welcome one, and one that other airlines are following.
EMIRATES - EMIRATES ACE
The three main Gulf Carriers (Qatar Airways, Etihad and Emirates), as well as near-regional rival Turkish Airlines, make a huge amount of investment in sports sponsorship.
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All four have been involved in major football / soccer tie-ups. Turkish Airlines has even extended this to sponsoring the pre-Superbowl TV show last year, a badging exercise that resulted in a minor controversy.
However, arguably the airline with the most extensive sports sponsorship programme is Emirates. Emirates sponsors major European football teams (e.g. Arsenal and Paris St Germain), the Rugby World Cup, horse racing, cricket, golf - and also tennis.
sponsorship called #EmiratesAce, where tennis fans could nominate their own ‘Ace.’
An ace could be anyone (not necessarily a tennis player), who has helped you in your life. It could be for example be a mentor or a guide, and prizes include Most recently Emirates’ sports flights to Dubai as well as tickets to the sponsorship programme came to life finals. during the US Open Tennis tournament, one of the four major ‘Grand Slam’ The hashtag had at time of writing tournaments during the year. received a fairly wide exposure, reaching 124k accounts with 150k impressions This August, Emirates created an ‘Emirates (source - Union Metrics). Suite’, which the New York Observer said “might be the most glamorous way KEY TAKE-AWAY to see the US Open.” According to the publication, “The suite is designed to look With EmiratesAce, the airline has done and feel like one of the Emirates’ famously two things we always emphasise when luxurious plane cabins, complete with discussing sponsorships. It’s made sure uniformed flight attendants from the a far wider audience than (in this case) airline greeting those entering the suite. hard-core tennis fans know about it. “This extends to the food and drink aspect of the suite, which is also the only suite to have a private sushi chef at the entire tennis tournament.” At the same time, Emirates kicked off a social media campaign to support the
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And it has done something to bring the sponsorship to life so it is more than just a badging exercise. For another effective example of sports sponsorship exploitation, see Etihad’s City2City campaign, which we covered in the May issue.
EUROWINGS - #FLYWITHED
Over the past few years a number of airline to offer VR headsets to passengers. airlines have experimented with Virtual In fact the rush to embrace VR in the Reality. airline industry led Quartz to cynically claim that airlines were doing this to “hide For example, last year United Airlines the dismal reality of flying.� enlisted actor Matt Damon to show off new (yet to be unveiled) business cabins. That might be somewhat unfair, given that many airlines are in fact using virtual KLM used Google Cardboard to show off reality on passengers before they get on its new Dreamliner / 787 aircraft, while as the aircraft, rather than as a way to make far back as 2015 Qantas became the first them forget about whatever perceived
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discomforts they encounter when in Württemberg and amusement park long-haul economy. Europa-Park to target UK leisure travellers. The promotion took the form One airline which recently experimented of a virtual reality stunt / experiment with VR as a destination marketing at London’s Westfield Stratford City tool is Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings. Shopping Mall. Eurowings’ parent company Lufthansa had already run a VR campaign as a way “Ed Erasmus”, the mascot of the Europa to sell Premium Economy upgrades at Park, took mall visitors on a flight to the gate. Stuttgart, a trip to the Black Forest and from there to the Europa Park itself. Over the Summer, Eurowings partnered with the German state of Baden- The campaign was seeded on social
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KEY TAKE-AWAY While virtual reality still has a certain novelty factor among consumers, we can’t help think that for the (likely) expense, the campaign was actually quite limited in reach. It’s true that tens of thousands of people pass through Westfield every day, but these events are often missed.
media, with the reactions videoed and shared across the campaign channels via the hashtag #FlyWithEd in order to drive social amplification. Additional Out Of Home activity consisting of digital OOH throughout Westfield Stratford City and print OOH throughout Stratford International Train Station. Visitors going on the journey with “Ed” had the chance to win flights to Stuttgart and entry tickets to the Europa Park.
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For example, this writer walks through that particular shopping mall on a more or less daily basis and can’t recall ever having seen the Eurowings stunt. As a result when doing experiential activity, it is worth thinking about how can it be given a much wider reach. A good example of an airline that did that was easyJet, who we featured in June for its “Feel Cote d’Azur” campaign. Though experiential did form a big part of the project, there were also daily competitions for the airline’s hundreds of thousands of social media fans so they could take part too, even though they weren’t physically there.
JETBLUE - OFFICE SOUVENIRS
Last year British airline Virgin Atlantic created a holiday video around a brand new destination - the office - featuring elements such as the microwave (the local cuisine) and the parking lot out the back window (the view) The idea was to convey the fact that 1/3 of British workers don’t take their full holiday entitlement, which according to Virgin, made the office the UK’s most popular holiday destination.
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Average US holiday / vacation allowances are of course much limited than is the case in Europe, meaning the average office worker spends even more time in front of her or his desks. As a result, JetBlue has taken the theme of office workers who never get away, but provided a different twist on it. A collection of “Office Souvenirs” available to buy on the JetBlue website highlight different aspects of office culture in a uniquely kitschy way.
For example, there is a “spreadsheet towel”, a “printer snow globe” and “Circle Back mug”. The items are funny, but they are intended to get across a serious point. What kind of memories do we want to have? Memories of us sitting late at night in the office, or memories of us going on vacation somewhere different? Or as Amy Ferguson from ad agency MullenLowe explains: “We came across the fact that 91 percent of people agree that some of their best memories are from vacation. “And yet, as a country, we’ve stopped going on vacation. That begged the question: What kind of memories are we making? The answer must be boring work memories. That’s when Office Souvenirs was born.” The ‘souvenirs’ have been promoted via a series of Instagram ads, and through a partnership with Reddit where they were promoted on travel and office subReddits. There was also a pop-up shop in NYC for a day, where the items were on sale. Meanwhile, different items ranging from a “water cooler” water bottle to a “Nice dongle” baseball cap are on sale at the JetBlue online store.
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KEY TAKE-AWAY This is a smart and funny campaign that ties into a truism that most office workers can relate to. We spend a lot of our waking lives in the office, white collar work has a very distinct office culture and a lot of memories are formed at our desks. But are they the kind of memories we want to be left with? Like the Virgin Atlantic campaign in the UK, JetBlue’s US campaign seeks to grab office workers’ attention in a light hearted way and actually get them to see something different for a week or two every year naturally with JetBlue.
LUFTHANSA - #INSPIREDBY HEIMWEH
According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, “this mesmerising film will make you want to quit your job and move to Siberia.” Is the Telegraph talking about a new movie? A historical TV series? No - it’s describing promotional videos produced by Lufthansa
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Over the past year, Lufthansa has been producing so-called “Heimweh” (translated as missing or longing for home) films for social media. For example, last year the airline profiled two Danish designers with Japanese ancestry who rediscovered their roots in Japan.
Unknown”, saw German actress Emila Schüle return to where she was born Blagoveshchensk, at Russia’s border with China.
To get there, she boarded the TransSiberian Railway. The different stops on the trip and the people she met formed the The July instalment of Heimweh, “A Home backdrop to Lufthansa’s film. As with the
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other ‘Heimweh’ films, Lufthansa’s aim is to The topic is different, the narrative and get across the emotional pull places have treatment pull you in, the films have a on us. “cinematic quality” to them and finally these films have longevity and can be built As Benita Struve, Senior Director of upon to make for bigger campaign. Marketing Communications explained, “with the new episode of Heimweh, we’re At the same time as Lufthansa released again conveying the idea of identity and its latest Heimweh video, the airline the ties that a physical place has on us.” announced a push to create greater “in-flight networking opportunities” . Destination videos are produced all the time by airlines, what makes Lufthansa’s Lufthansa is teaming up with six different “Heimweh” series stand out? events, starting with the annual dmexco digital marketing trade fair in Cologne, Marketing blogger Valentina Gianella has in bringing over a “pre conference flight” a good summary, listing four reasons in from JFK. This will then be extended to particular why it works: other events, such as SXSW in Austin in March 2018.
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KEY TAKE-AWAY Destination videos aren’t new, but Lufthansa’s treatment of the genre in its ‘Heimweh’ series has turned a lot of heads in the travel and marketing press. It goes to show, you don’t necessarily have to have a new idea, if the execution and the way you produce it is different, it will still work.
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SINGAPORE AIRLINES - NEW SAFETY VIDEO
Almost every issue now features a different safety video from an airline. For example, in August we talked about the British Airways video, where big names from TV and film were enlisted to take part.
Why does Mumbrella think Singapore Airlines deserves that accolade? Because it showcases different panoramic locations in Singapore. In the video, cabin crew member Elizabeth Quek takes a tour of Boat Quay, Haji Lane, Capitol Theatre This month it’s the turn of Singapore and the iconic Gardens by the Bay - to Airlines, which in the words of Australian name a few. marketing magazine Mumbrella, may have produced “the most epic in-flight Meanwhile tech industry publication safety video of all time.” Mashable gushes that the Singapore
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Airlines video is “the most beautiful we’ve seen yet”, predicting that “lots more tourists” will be flocking to the spots in the video once it’s aired more widely . Here at SimpliFlying we’ll take a more nuanced view on it. Is it beautiful? Without a doubt. Is it original? No, a number of other airlines have used stunning imagery of their home country as the backdrop to their safety video. For example, in May we featured Qantas who produced a follow-up to their 2016 video where “ordinary” Australians (as opposed to celebrities or cabin crew) demonstrated different safety features
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while iconic locations such as Sydney Harbour were in the background. Similarly, Lebanese airline MEA has a safety video that sees cabin crew and dancers, in different areas of the country from Pigeon Rock to the Temple of Baalbeck. Aviation blogger One Mile at a Time takes a similar view, calling the video “classy but unoriginal” - “Singapore Airlines is recycling a concept that many other airlines have used, where the video doesn’t take place on the plane, but rather highlights the local features of a destination.”
Does it matter? Not really, as it meets three main objectives. First of all as a marketing tactic, it has already generated Singapore Airlines a stack of positive press coverage. Secondly, the fact that it has high production values means that people will watch it. Thirdly, it encourages people to think about SIN as much more than a stopover point. It gets across the idea that the city state has a lot to see and do in its own right and that it is worth breaking up your journey there.
KEY TAKE-AWAY Creative” safety videos are now becoming the norm rather than the exception. Indeed, it’s now almost unusual to see a major carrier using an ‘old school’ video that concentrates on the safety features and nothing else. This is why at the recent SimpliFlying Awards, we introduced a safety video category (won by British Airways) for the first time ever. When making a marketing-led safety video, it is worth considering what you want to convey. Do you want to showcase your hone country, which is what Singapore Airlines, Qantas and MEA did? Do you want to do something quirky and creative, as was the case with Turkish Airlines and their ‘magic on board’ video. Or indeed do you want to do something movies related, which Air New Zealand did last year when it recruited Anna Faris and Rhys Darby. Or - perhaps there is an execution that hasn’t been thought of before!
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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 airpor ts on customer engagement strategy, achieving aviation business goals by harnessing the latest innovations in the social media space.
The firm also conducts MasterClasses to train and develop airline and airport teams to become self-sufficient in executing measurable and rewarding social campaigns. SimpliFlying’s growing list of clients includes Lufthansa, Emirates, Toronto Pearson Airport, Halifax International, KLIA, Jet Airways, LAN Airlines, airBaltic, Airbus and Bombardier. Get in touch at engage@simpliflying. com or visit simplifying.com.
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