Take A Chance Or Fly Air France

Take A Chance Or Fly Air France by Air France

Air France would like to remind passengers that economy class travel “can be a joy.” This is the basis of their newly launched campaign called ‘Take a chance or fly Air France.’

According to the airline:

The campaign reminds travelers that these amenities are critical to an enjoyable flight, and takes aim at the budget carriers that do not include them in their deceptively low fares. While the cost of a ticket on a discount carrier may seem lower, unanticipated fees for basic services add up.

So far the campaign has been brought to life via an ad, which features two female passengers, separately sitting in a row of office chairs that have been lined up to look like airline seats - a similar backdrop was in fact used for parts of the ‘France is in the Air’ campaign two years ago (for example the safety demonstration video).

One passenger, dressed in a grey raincoat is flying no frills, while the other passenger, in a more colourful dress, is flying Air France.

The ad then switches between the two to show the difference in the experience.

The non Air France passenger is presented with a variety of props to make up for the lack of amenities. For example, a giant Sudoku puzzle in place of in-flight entertainment, an “instant meal patch” instead of a meal, and “champagne gummies” instead of actual champagne.

The ad then pans back to the passenger in the colourful dress, who is being given the real thing.

Fly The Way You Deserve

The execution (if not the backdrop) is in fact almost identical to a campaign by Philippine Airlines, which we covered in the November report, called #FlyTheWayYouDeserve.

In the Philippine Airlines campaign, one passenger takes two flights. One on an unnamed low cost carrier and the other on Philippine Airlines.

On the low cost carrier, he has to endure sitting in the middle seat while passengers climb over him to reach the WC, has no in-flight entertainment to keep him entertained and is charged for a blanket. Meanwhile on Philippine Airlines he has the opposite experience.

But Philippine Airlines is not Air France. The PAL ad works given the fact that no so long ago, it led on price and no frills. As a result, a basic education job still needs to be done to tell passengers about the PAL experience and enhancements such as new aircraft entering the fleet.

By contrast, Air France has always positioned itself as offering a quality service. Which leads to the fact that this ad does little to differentiate Air France from other major European (or indeed Middle Eastern / Asian) carriers.

As SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam pointed out in an edition of the SimpliFlying Live show, “almost every airline has those movie channels across the Atlantic.” Indeed, the only difference between an LCC and a full service carrier is, “some charge for it, most don’t.” Same with the in-flight meal. And where you do have to pay, many passengers will have factored this in, and considered it a worthwhile tradeoff in exchange for a cheap seat.

Other airlines which have taken the ‘our economy class is better’ approach include KLM and Emirates. KLM produced VR headsets called ‘Flight Upgrader’, showing the inside of a KLM economy cabin, which were shown to LCC passengers (or as Fast Company put it - “KLM just launched a VR marketing ploy to make budget flyers feel bad.”)

Emirates however took a different approach.

In a campaign called ‘Upgrade Your Airline’ (which we covered in February), passengers of an unnamed airline are shown at a check-in desk trying everything from tying birthday balloons to themselves to hypnosis to try and get an upgrade.

The ad then ends with a passenger walking to the Emirates desk with the strap-line ‘Upgrade your Airline.’ Nowhere are the individual features of an Emirates economy class cabin (or indeed even the inside of an aircraft) shown. Rather than a list of ‘we offer X, Y and Z’ the overall message is that Emirates is simply better.

Key Take-Away

What makes you stand out?

In the case of Air France and the ‘France is in the Air’ campaigns the answer was clear - the campaign associated Air France with some of the best things commonly associated with its home country such as sophistication and style. At the time, France is in the Air was called ‘the most beautiful airline ad ever.’

Arguably by focusing on ‘we offer movies and the LCC doesn’t’ (partially not true anyway), Air France moves away from a powerful emotional brand message which resonates to one where it simply lists all the in-flight amenities. As Shashank Nigam says in the SimpliLive show, these won’t be memorable because many passengers will expect them anyway.