Lufthansa-Stellar Tour

LUFTHANSA - STELLAR TOUR

In early December, Lufthansa joined a select group of airlines - those awarded five stars by Skytrax. Others currently include Etihad, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. Indeed, not only is Lufthansa the only European airline on the list, it is the only non-Middle East or Asian carrier.

Not all aviation bloggers agreed with the decision. For example, ‘One Mile at a Time’ wrote a piece claiming that “Skytrax has lost all credibility with their Lufthansa 5-Star ranking”, taking issue with Lufthansa being (partially) given the accolade because it revealed it’s 2020 business class product early - i.e. something that passengers couldn’t actually experience yet.

However, beyond aviation trade bloggers, the business media (i.e. the media most business class passengers actually read) by and large covered it positively.

For example, a Reuters piece, which would have informed wider media coverage, talked about Lufthansa “investing billions in renewing its fleet and improving its cabins as it seeks to win customers in a fiercely competitive market.”

To mark the occasion, Lufthansa first of all changed ‘Lufthansa’ to ‘5 Star Hansa’ on some of its aircraft.

Linking in with ‘Five Stars’ it then ran a content-led social media campaign called the ‘Stellar Tour.’

This involved a video, where the Lufthansa ‘bird’ was formed in the sky by linking up stars. The airline then announced that it was celebrating five stars by visiting the best star-gazing places on the planet.

A series of posts, took Lufthansa’s social media fans to a series of locations, including the Swiss Alps, Tenerife and Japan.

The photography for the posts was beautiful, and the subject-matter made perfect sense.

However at the same time we wondered if more couldn’t have been done around the ‘stellar’ theme. For example, the posts could have easily been extended to a photo competition involving Lufthansa’s wider fan base, a series of social videos touring great stargazing locations, and work with an astronomer and / or a famous star gazer.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Some trade bloggers may have been less than impressed, but wider coverage about Lufthansa’s new five star status was almost completely positive, touching upon two points in particular - the fact that it is the only European airline with five stars, and the investment Lufthansa had been making in its fleet and different products.

Even in your average business class cabin, most passengers may have a vague awareness of who or what Skytrax is, but little awareness of how the stars are awarded. However, saying “one star”, “three star” or “five star” will automatically say something to them.

As a result, this accolade is more than just a fancy plaque and logo, Lufthansa will get mileage from actively marketing it.

The ‘Stellar’ campaign was good, but as we’ve mentioned if anything it didn’t go nearly far enough. A lot more elements could have been added, in particular social photography and social video.