AIRLINE MARKETING MONTHLY July 2018
The Delta Summer Wall Airline Safety Video round-up
Airlines and migrant deportations
AIRLINE MARKETING MONTHLY - JULY 2018 Contents: Introduction - 03 News from SimpliFlying - 04 Airline Marketing Innovations Lab SOAR The SimpliFlying Awards The SimpliLive Show The Delta Summer Wall - 07 Airlines and art - other campaigns Airlines and the forced removals of migrants - 12 Volaris offers to fly separated kids home for free Virgin Atlantic stops cooperat ing with UK Home Office Airline World Cup Campaigns - 16 Red Devils Safety Video S7 Airlines baggage reclaim belt Airline content around World Cup matches Airline Safety Video Round-up - 22 Air Transat British Airways - Flying Start EL AL “Supernatural” Hawaiian Airlines Thai Airways Corendon Airlines Goals of safety videos
The launch of Swoop - 31 “Keep it in your pants” Airport round-up - 33 Changi Airport, Singapore Munich Airport London Heathrow Airport Athens Airport Calgary Airport Cairns Airport The World’s Highest Pop Up Restaurant for Etihad - 39 Air New Zealand - The Impossible Burger - 41 Politicians accuse the airline of hurting local farmers Aviation News Round-Up - 45 Oman Air 787-9 Delivery flight Pilot recruitment campaigns Boeing Hypersonic vehicle concept Jet2 and Love Island Alaska Airlines fights plastic pollution Airlines In This Issue - 50 Who is Behind This Magazine? - 51
AIRLINE MARKETING MONTHLY Published by SimpliFlying, 152 Haig Road, #13-04, 438791, Singapore, www.simpliflying.com CEO: Shashank Nigam, shashank@simpliflying.com Editor: Dirk Singer, dirk@simpliflying.com To subscribe, please register here.
INTRODUCTION Welcome to the July edition of Airline Marketing Monthly, and welcome again to our many new subscribers. This month you’ll notice a few changes. We’ve first of all given the design the first refresh in a year and a half. In particular, as the only trade publication dedicated specifically to aviation marketing, we’ve evolved the look and feel to make it more user-friendly and more like a magazine. We are also evolving the editorial content. We’ll continue to showcase individual marketing campaigns as before. However, we’ll also carry on something we started last month with our special World Cup edition, where we’ll topically theme these. At the same time, we will start looking at specific subjects, for example in future issues we’re planning articles on airline online newsrooms, use of influencers and how some airlines use real time marketing. Finally, in addition to this monthly magazine, you can get a daily dose of commentary and analysis from Shashank Nigam, the CEO of SimpliFlying and author of SOAR. Tune into his SimpliLive show every day on Facebook. If you have any comments, or indeed if there are marketing campaigns you are running that you’d like us to know about, please send me an email - dirk@simpliflying.com Dirk Singer
NEWS FROM SIMPLIFLYING Airline Marketing Innovations Lab We’re getting ready for our upcoming marketing innovation lab in London on September 4th. The London Lab follows the ones in Miami and Singapore earlier this year and represents a unique chance for a select group of airline marketers to share insights and challenges with their peers through round-tables and workshops. Take a look at the highlights video from the 2017 London lab for a taste of what’s on offer. Please note places are limited, so if you are interested in attending please register here.
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SOAR SOAR is the first book to chart the journey of eight exceptional airline brands through eyes of the very people who made it happen – the employees. In writing this book, SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam has drawn on his experience of helping 70+ brands in aviation to become remarkable. For more information on how to order it for yourself and your team, click here.
The SimpliFlying Awards Coinciding with the London Lab, we’ll also be staging the eighth annual SimpliFlying Awards. We’ve had an exceptionally high standard of entries, and we’re currently on the first round of judging. Categories in 2018 include best airline in driving revenue, best airline in social care, best launch, best mobile innovation, best use of influencers, best small airline, best overall airline and a special award for the best airline in crisis handling. For more information visit our awards page.
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The SimpliLive show SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam has so far broadcast 350+ daily shows around aviation and airline issues. This includes over 50 interviews with senior aviation executives. Here are some recent highlights:
airline in Canada - see our specific article on the launch.
Why timing is (almost) everything in airline marketing - lessons from wizzair.com
Recently Singapore hosted the landmark summit between US President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim of North Korea. It may come as a surprise - but there’s a lesson for airlines in how Singapore host-
and Virgin Atlantic’s swift response to
ed this summit and came out a winner.
British Airways’ mistake fare.
The lesson stems from a birthday cake and a selfie!
What’s it like to fly from Halifax to Toronto (Hamilton) for $49 all in? Shashank Nigam tried out Swoop, the latest ultra low-cost
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Check out more SimpliLive shows on our Facebook page.
THE DELTA SUMMER WALL
Last year we profiled the Delta Dating
This has now been followed up by an
Wall. This was a campaign launched in cooperation with dating social network
Instagram-worthy “selfie wall”, which is once again situated in the Williamsburg,
Tinder, where people could take their photos in front of Delta destinations such
Brooklyn area of New York.
as London, Paris, Los Angeles or Moscow.
In a campaign developed by ad agency W&K, the wall features the “pilot
The thinking (backed up by a survey) was that showing you are a world traveller will make you more attractive to a potential partner.
alphabet” - e.g “Mike”, “India”, “Golf”, “Hotel”, “Tango” etc. - in a mural created by Amsterdam-based Australian artist Karan Singh.
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According to Delta, “the eye-catching execution is designed to remind passersby that Delta flies to more places out of New York City than any other carrier.” The 2018 Brooklyn, NYC mural is tied to a contest encouraging customers to spell out their dream destinations using the alphabet, posting images of the letters one-by-one to an Instagram carousel with the hashtag #PilotTalkSweepstakes for a chance to win two roundtrip tickets to that destination.
been 323 tagged photos on Instagram. Of course, the number of people who can take part in the competition are limited as you physically have to be there. But with Williamsburg / Brooklyn being a millennial and social media friendly district, we spotted a few “influencers” taking part. At first we wondered whether the competition might be too complicated. After all, you have to do more than just take a photo in front of the wall, you have to spell out the destination letters in a carousel post.
Meanwhile a launch party was held on
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the 30th at local hipster hangout Kinfolk, where custom beer mugs and cof-
However, a lot of people seem to have got the idea, spelling out KEF (for Kefla-
fee cups with the Karan Singh designed letters were distributed.
vik, Iceland), CPT (Cape Town) and CPH (Copenhagen) among others.
In the five days (at time of writing) since
The campaign runs until 22 July, after
the mural was launched, there have
which Delta will choose five winners.
Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
Airlines and art - other campaigns In addition to last year’s “Tinder Wall”, Delta has in fact been involved in a number of other street art projects. Last August, artist Celyn Brazier created another Brooklyn wall project for Delta where 133 airport codes (e.g. ZRH, EDI) were drawn out. Though not street art, in 2017 Delta cooperated with Coca-Cola to work with a group of artists in customising the seat back tray tables on a 767. The campaign (which we featured on our
In fact the first airline to claim to have an “art gallery in the sky” was Virgin Atlantic, which in 2013 displayed art from London-based artist Ben Eine on the Upper Class Cabin of a New York bound flight, with passengers being given the chance to buy the pieces. The artwork was also put on display at
front cover at the time), also involved the works of art being displayed at
Virgin airport lounges.
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Last September, Lufthansa-owned regional airline Air Dolomiti worked with artist Agostino Iacurci and #WeAreInPuglia to create a huge mural in Munich
At the same time as Delta staged its tray table art campaign, French business-class only airline La Compagnie, was working with artist Kevin Lyons for a “flying art” gallery. 09 |
Forty doodle-based characters were created and added via decals onto the windows of a NYC bound flight.
Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
on the side of the Meinninger Hotel.
The idea was to get Munich residents to “dream of Puglia” and warmer climates as the weather turned colder. Air Dolomiti is currently working on another Munich-based street art project. This time the airline is working with art collective SBAGLIATO, to create “Italian Gateways”. Five giant doorways, windows and gates representing Bari, Venice, Florence, Bologna and Verona, are being painted on Munich walls and in public squares. Key takeaway: We’ll make two observations about the Delta campaign and one about street art in general. Just like the tray table art, the silent disco in the sky and other campaigns we’ve featured, Delta has again come up with an idea that is new. Sure, the airline has followed up its very successful Tinder project with another wall, but the idea of writing out the pilot alphabet is creative, gets people talking and
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thinking and (to the best of our knowledge) hasn’t been done before. There’s a clear and obvious link with air travel, which allows Delta to get across its key message of the number of destinations it serves from New York. Then we’ll move onto the execution: We’ve in the past been sceptical about some on-street and experiential campaigns. Sometimes we wonder if these benefit the agency (they look great on showreels) more than the client, as the actual reach can be limited given the cost of creating these. But just like the Tinder Wall, this is a concept that will be shared and talked about far beyond Brooklyn. Which finally brings us onto street art. Delta isn’t the only airline to work with street artists. As we talk about above, Air Dolomiti is running a street art project in Munich right now. It works though. If you work with a well known street art name, you access his or her own community, as well as the wider community of street art fans. The pieces are generally colourful and eye-catching, they make for good content for your social media feeds, and they are the kind of thing people will want to photograph and share. Congratulations Delta, for being our cover campaign of the month.
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AIRLINES AND MIGRANT DEPORTATIONS One of the biggest news stories of the past few months, on both sides of the Atlantic in the USA and UK, was the forced removal of migrants. In the UK there was a political scandal, when it was revealed that elderly members of the “Windrush generation” (people who migrated from former British colonies in the Caribbean in the 1950s), were being deported for not meeting the onerous paperwork requirements introduced by the Home Office as part of its “hostile environment” policy to try and lower net migration. Meanwhile in the USA, a similar hostile environment resulted in US immigration
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authorities separating migrants crossing the US / Mexican border with their children, who are in some cases infants. The reason for this was that unauthorised border crossings were now being enforced as a criminal offence, resulting in adults ending up in court and jail before being deported again. Airlines very soon found themselves embroiled in the controversy. Forced deportations often happen on commercial airlines. The new US immigration policy however resulted in something new - airlines were being used for flights to take kids separated from their parents to holding centres.
The outcry prompted airlines to act, with six, representing the bulk of the US airline industry, refusing to carry separated immigrant children American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaskan Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines. American Airlines was first, following reports that flight attendants had posted on social media about Latino kids being escorted on flights by Federal Agents and not their parents. Frontier Airlines followed with a tweet saying that they would “not knowingly allow our flights to be used to transport migrant children away from their families.” There then quickly followed similar statements by United, Alaska and Southwest. The US Department of Homeland Security accused the airlines of “buckling” to the mainstream media. However, hours after the Department released that statement, President Trump partially reversed the policy through an Executive Order. As a result, the airlines in question arguably helped shape Government policy, a
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theme taken up by SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam in an episode of the SimpliLive show. Noting that many of the airlines justified their decision on being family friendly brands, Shashank Nigam said that “this was an opportunity for the airlines to reinforce their brands with their core message.” “Airlines have the power to influence policy” and so “airlines should take a stand when something is in conflict with their values.” According to Quartz, there are still “many charter airlines that don’t operate scheduled flights and can still be used by the US government to repatriate asylum seekers who have been denied refugee status. Among them: Xtra Airways, based in Coral Gables, Florida.”
Volaris offers to fly separated kids home for free Almost all the children separated from their parents come from Mexico or other Central American countries. This resulted in Mexican airline Volaris announcing that it would offer to reunite families - for free. Volaris, which serves 65 destinations across Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, stated that “families belong together and our commitment is to help them stay together to build a better future.”
Virgin Atlantic stops cooperating with UK Home Office Meanwhile in the UK, airline Virgin Atlan-
UK in some cases since the 1950s, being
tic announced that it would no longer cooperate with Britain’s Home Office in
deported to Caribbean countries, the airline said that it was “in the best interest
forcibly removing migrants.
of our customers and people”.
Coming after the political scandal which saw people who had been living in the
However, according to media reports, Virgin Atlantic is at time of writing still
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working with the Home Office on deporations, with the new policy only taking effect on August 1st. High profile deportations in the UK have in the past resulted in unpleasant scenes at airports and on-board for airlines. For example, in 2014, 17,500 people protested at the UK Government’s decision to deport High School student Yashika Bageerathi to Mauritius, which included multiple callouts to Air Mauritius not to take part in the deportation and protests at Heathrow itself.
Key takeaway: As Shashank Nigam said in his broadcast, this was an opportunity for airlines to step up to the plate and prove that their commitment to ‘family values’ is more than just words. It also shows how the aviation industry can have a major influence on one of the major issues of the day. As cases such as the Jimmy Mubenga incident we mention above, deportations can also result in public relations disasters for airlines with passengers witnessing distressing incidents - despite the airline itself not being at fault.
Meanwhile in 2010, British Airways passengers on board a flight to Luanda (Angola) were “haunted by the last cries of a dying man” - Jimmy Mubenga, who was unlawfully killed by guards restraining him, according to a
Of course, taking a stand isn’t without risk. When Delta announced that it would cut discounts for National Rifle Association (NRA) members, its home state of Georgia announced a cut of
2013 inquest.
$40 million in tax breaks in retaliation.
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AIRLINE WORLD CUP CAMPAIGNS
Our last issue was devoted to the current FIFA World Cup in Russia, where we published a number of articles about how airlines are running marketing campaigns around the world’s biggest sporting event, along with the Olympics. With the World Cup (at time of writing) still in full swing, we’ve looked at campaigns and initiatives that didn’t make it into the last edition.
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Red Devils Safety Video Brussels Airlines has an A320 named “Trident”, which brought the Belgian national team (the “Red Devils”) to Russia. On board, each player has its own personalized chair, with their name on the headrest cover.
Devils themed scarves and ties.” Coinciding with Trident’s flight to Russia, the airline released a safety video starring the Belgian “Red Devils” players. This is currently being shown across the A320 fleet.
Brussels Airlines says that a special in-flight menu has been developed, in cooperation with the team’s nutri-
During the video, the players narrate the various safety tips, while a “referee” hands out yellow and red cards for
tionists. Meanwhile the aircraft itself transported 90 footballs, 1,300 football shirts and 150 pairs of football shoes to Russia.
various offences such as consuming your own alcohol or smoking in the restrooms.
Finally, cabin crew on “Trident” have been wearing special “Red
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In addition to the safety video, Brussels Airlines released a series of “bloopers” featuring the players who took part in the recording.
S7 Airlines baggage reclaim belt Russian airline S7 staged a baggage reclaim belt stunt at Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport. A set of goal posts was painted on a luggage carousel. If your bag hit the “goal” when it was offloaded you won free flights with S7. A Russian sports commentator on a tannoy MC-ed the whole event, and S7 had an English speaking Russian presenter interview the assembled passengers, who came from a variety of different countries.
Airline content around World Cup matches You don’t have to be a FIFA World Cup or team sponsor to create World Cup content. Here are a few airlines that have been doing exactly that, some in real-time: Ryanair regularly pushes out football themed content during the European and English club season. The UK is of course a prime Ryanair market, while many Irish fans follow English Premier League teams. Football also squares with much of the airline’s demographic.
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As a result, whenever a club manager leaves or gets the sack, Ryanair is inevitably there with a post telling the newly unemployed individual to go on holiday. During the current tournament in Russia, Ryanair has been tying destination posts to whatever team happens to be playing. Meanwhile small opportunistic posts take advantage of some of the different results. For example, this post of a weeping German fan following Germany’s defeat by South Korea might not have been the most original piece of content, but the point is that it was released quickly after the match and for something that will have cost very little, it got 18k+ likes, 5k+ shares and 2k+ comments.
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A similar approach has been used by Volaris, which issued a gif for Mexican fans immediately following the team’s defeat by Brazil, advising them to drown their sorrows with a vacation. Avianca has also been providing a running commentary on the tournament. This has included a daily post highlighting who is playing, as well as congratulations to the winners. This is despite the fact that Avianca in fact doesn’t fly to many of the countries it talks about (unless via a Star Alliance partner). For example, on 2 July the airline congratulated Japan for a heroic effort against Belgium, even though Tokyo is not an Avianca destination. The thinking is clearly that as football is almost a religion in Avianca’s Latin America heartland, the airline should be talking about what customers are talking about - even though there’s isn’t a direct commercial link. To mark England reaching the quarter finals (where they eventually beat Sweden), British Airways mocked up a flight ticket from “Moscow” to Home” and released it on social media.
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This fed into a popular football song in England dating from 1996, but popular again now, called “Football’s Coming Home.” The Gate was listed as “South-Gate” (after Gareth Southgate the England Manager) and the gate closing time was 1966, a nod to the last time England won the World Cup. Finally, proving that football really is global, Saudi LCC flyadeal has been publishing posts and poster style graphics that around the Saudi national team’s matches. Though the team was eliminated in the first round, it ended the tournament on a high by beating Egypt.
¡Te amamos Corea! While other airlines have been running opportunistic World Cup posts, Mexican airline Aeromexico went one better by running a 20% off sale for flights to Seoul.
make our last tournament themed issue, we were impressed by Brussels Airlines campaign for the different elements it included in its World Cup campaign.
This was a direct result of South Korea beating Germany in the group stages, which allowed Mexico to qualify (after which it was eliminated by Brazil).
While lots of airlines do special liveries, Brussels Airlines went that one step further by talking about everything from special personalized seats for the players, to the cabin crew wearing team scarves. It also produced a fun and watchable safety video featuring the players themselves.
Aeromexico advertised the sale by producing a graphic showing one of its aircraft mocked up as “AeroCorea.” The 20% off promotion is currently being supported by a dedicated landing page. Key takeaway: Though it appeared too late to
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Meanwhile some of the other airlines we’ve talked about prove that you don’t necessarily need to spend big money to be part of the overall conversation. You can still produce graphics and posts (in the case of some airlines in real time), or even run an opportunistic sale much like Aeromexico did.
SAFETY VIDEO ROUND-UP
In the previous World Cup round-up article, we featured the “Red Devils” / Belgian national team themed safety video from Brussels Airlines. However there have been several more over the previous few months. We’ve given a run-down of five: From Air
Transat, British Airways, EL AL, Hawaiian Airline and Thai Airways. As well as giving a short description on each, we asked someone who has watched a lot of airline safety videos over the years to give a comment on the whole safety video genre - SimpliFlying’s director of consulting Marco Serusi.
Air Transat Canadian airline Air Transat’s new safety video was produced by Montreal studio Vallée Duhamel. The studio team of Julien Vallée and Eve Duhamel specialise in “high quality lo-fi videos, visuals, and installations, favouring a playful and experimental approach toward work.” The studio team have in the past produced work for Samsung, Hermés 22 |
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Paris and Google among others. The finished piece of work looks like an art installation piece, with illustrated backdrops and scenery moving around behind passengers, while the video imparts the usual safety information. Air Transat says that it “plunges the traveller in a playful universe, without losing sight of the main message—inflight safety procedures.”
British Air ways - Flying Start Last year’s SimpliFlying Awards featured a special award for best safety video, which was won by British Airways. The video, in aid of charity initiative Flying Start, had comedian “Chabuddy G” auditioning a group of famous UK TV and film personalities including Sir Ian McKellen, Thandie Newton and Rowan Atkinson, among others. Recently, BA produced a sequel. The theme is similar - Chabuddy G asks a group of famous faces to audition for parts in safety video. However the actors are different. This time the cast includes Sir Michael Caine, Joanna Lumley and BAFTA Award winner Olivia Colman (who Chabuddy G mistakes for the tea lady). According to Chabuddy G in the video, “It's pathetic really. And sure, they've got their Oscars, they've got their Baftas - but what they really want is a Sista the Society of In-flight Safety Training Awards.”
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EL AL “Supernatural” At the beginning of this year, Israeli airline EL AL came out with a video that reminded us very much of an earlier safety video produced by Turkish Airlines. The airline teamed up with illusionist (he calls himself a “supernatural entertainer”), Lior Suchard, to produce a video complete with tricks and illusions - including a question of where you have to remember a card in a deck Suchard is holds at the start of the video, and give your answer at the end. In a making-of video, EL Al’s director of in-flight services Mira Fizitski talks about the importance of finding a concept that is linked to “Israeli-ness...and at the same time is global.” Why does it remind us of a Turkish Airlines video? Because Turkish Airlines had a similar idea when it recruited YouTube star and digital illusionist Zach King for its video. Although EL AL and Lior Suchard did have the added element of a viewer card trick!
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Hawaiian Airlines Rather than recruit celebrities, or use special effects, Hawaiian Airlines chose to make its home islands the star of its safety video. Even though Hawaiian Airlines uploaded this video in May, it is not a new
piece of work as such. Instead, the airline has refreshed and updated something created all the way back in 2015. This featured crew members and their family showing off their favourite Hawaii spots.
Thai Air ways According to a recent report on the Australian website news.com.au, “fat people” have been “banned from the pointy end of Thai Airways’ Dreamliners.”
new seatbelt airbags in business class.” The website says this also means that parents with infants on their laps may also have to go back to “cattle class.”
Or to be more specific, “passengers with a waistline of more than 142.24cm (or 56 inches) will not be able to fasten the
Meanwhile, the introduction of new 7879 Dreamliners has also meant a new Thai Airways safety video.
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The video takes the form of a pop up book, where colourful flowers and orchids surround cabin crew members as they go through the safety instructions so that the whole video looks like it is taking place in an animated forest. Reaction to the video in Thailand itself wasn’t universally positive. According to the Bangkok Post, some have criticised the video for not using native flora. Instead, many of the flowers and birds shown are actually from South America - something that would be lost to most casual viewers. Academic Rungsit Kanjanavanit, quoted in the Bangkok Post said that “he was not an “extreme nationalist” but decided to air his opinion in order to remind people to be proud of Thailand’s natural beauty.” According to the piece, one social media commentator made an unfavourable comparison with Singapore Airlines videos, which promote the landmark and attractions of the city state.
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Corendon Airlines Corendon Airlines mainly flies routes between German airports and Turkish holiday beach resorts. While the other videos above have a creative hook, Corendon Airlines’ new safety video takes a much more basic approach, featuring a single female cabin crew attendant giving safety instructions aided by some computer animated graphics.
Co m m ent f rom Ma rco S eru s i , S i m pl iF lyi ng’ s d irec tor of co ns u lti ng Airline safety videos have been all the rage amongst airline marketers for quite a while now, but amongst all the hype and trendiness it is wise to stop and ask a few questions. The biggest of them is “why” .- why are the airlines making the videos in the first place? Part of the answer is quite clear: safety videos tend to get some media attention and are the only piece of content that passengers are (theoretically) required to pay attention to in every flight. This means that they are prime real estate for marketing teams. 27 |
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Goals of safety videos The challenge is what to do with the attention. Airlines generally take one of two approaches, prioritizing either the safety message or a marketing message.
if they may not get as much media attention as other genres.
In the first case we end up with videos where most of the content is filmed on a
Airlines video that likely inspired it.
plane or something that looks a lot like a plane, where instructions are clear and
Marketing-focused videos are almost always centered on destination marketing
uninterrupted.
and shot outside the plane.
These generally give an image of a safe, reliable airline and often use nice visual transitions to keep the viewer’s attention.
Although the airlines themselves will never admit it in these videos the safety message plays a secondary role, with most of the attention being focused on the destination.
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A good example of this is the EL AL video featured in this edition and the Turkish
The most classic example of this is provided by Air New Zealand’s safety videos that pioneered and helped popularize the genre. Unfortunately we also sometimes encounter a third type of video that is the result of misplaced goals and priorities. These are videos where the creators
work hard to get attention but forget to pass on a message to the viewers. In these cases viewers will often get some message, but not one that is necessarily good for the airline or even related to it and - on paper - they will appear to have performed well in terms of views or reach.
Things to keep in mind When creating safety videos we always encourage airlines to keep 3 things in mind: 1.
What they want to say about the airline
2.
How it will translate across cultures
3.
If it will be still good/interesting after several viewings
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The cultural element is an especially sensitive one for airlines, and we have covered the results of cultural misunderstandings in previous issues. There is, however, a side of it that is often missed and that is how well the people and references in the videos will be understood. Airlines will - for example - often use famous people or make references to recent cultural events that may be immediately understood at home but be completely missed by people in other countries. The third point is one that gets forgot30 |
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ten very often. Marketing teams will usually create the safety videos with online viewers and media in mind but they don’t always remember that the videos will also be screened on every flight. This means that on a normal return flight with a connection it will be seen 4 times by each passenger and that a frequent flier could easily see it dozens of times. This is not generally a problem when the videos show nice views of the destinations but it can become an issue in cases where the content stops being interesting after the plot twist, joke or surprise is known.
THE LAUNCH OF SWOOP Is Canada currently one of the most innovative aviation markets? This is one conclusion Shashank Nigam made after trying out “Swoop�, the new ultra low cost airline owned by WestJet.
priced food and drink as well as wireless inflight entertainment on board.
Despite being the cheapest flight he has ever taken (49 Canadian dollars from
As a new entrant in a crowded North American market, Swoop obviously needs to stand out, and is doing so through cheeky, tongue and cheek ads and posts.
Halifax to Hamilton (for Toronto)), Shashank commended the airline for having
For example, to mark Canada Day on 1
friendly flight attendants, reasonably
July, Swoop released a graphic showing
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a beaver in an airport terminal with an invitation for people to suggest captions in return for the chance to win flights. In particular, the airline asked social media fans to “give us your best dad jokes, Canadianisms, quips, quotes or lyrics... Just keep it clean in the comments and chill in the chat.”
“Keep it in your pants” Of course there is a fine line between cheeky and controversial, and one Swoop social media ad which did raise eyebrows and generate some complaints was one titled “Keep it in your pants.”
portunity” while not being a good longterm direction for WestJet when it comes to positioning the airline.
The ad showed a number of backsides with cash in the trouser back pocket, which caused a few comments about the
Key takeaway: In his video, Shashank Nigam mentions talking to a number of passengers on his flight who had managed to enhance their vacation due to Swoop’s cheap fares - for example by stay-
ad being “sexual” in nature.
ing for longer and staying in a better hotel.
Swoop responded by telling Canadian broadcaster CTV, that “sometimes we'll say or share things that might hit home for some and miss the mark with others however it's never our intention to offend.”
As a result, the core proposition is easy to understand - it’s a basic A to B service and fare that allows you to spend more money when you get to your destination.
Meanwhile marketing consultant and academic David Howse quoted by CTV said that the tactic probably did help Swoop get standout as a “one off marketing op-
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And the brand positioning seems to support that - it has an informal, fun, friendly feel, right down to letting pilots adopt a more casual dress style than you would find on other airlines.
AIRPORT ROUND-UP We don’t only cover airlines, we feature airports and other aviation brands, such as engine manufacturers too. Here is what a selection airports have been doing over the past few weeks:
Changi Airport, Singapore
Changi Airport SIngapore is 37. Even though that’s not a landmark birthday like 10, 50 etc, the airport has still marked the occasion through a special video. The video has a split screen where the theme is symmetrical beauty, and runs through everything from the arrivals experience, to the restaurants, to the shops. Coinciding with the video, Changi Airport is encouraging social media fans to share posts with the hash-tag #ChangiSymmetry. The airport also runs regular “flash” competitions. For example, coinciding with the World Cup it ran a “score a penalty” photo competition with Adidas, where fans had to draw a goal in front of a Changi-related photo.
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Munich Airport Munich Airport has a track record of staging large scale events in the plaza between terminals 1 & 2. At the moment, the airport has built a giant screen and stands holding 2000+ showing World Cup matches (despite Germany’s early exit). This will be followed up in August, by the “Bike and Style” event. Running over 17 days, this is an international mountain biking tournament, which will see MUC build a 3,000 square meter bike parcours with a giant ramp and a 500 seat grandstand.
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
London Heathrow Airport
In time for the Summer holidays, London’s Heathrow Airport has released an ad campaign, which centres around the joy of setting your email to “out of office.” In the ad, a woman is sitting with her kids at a departure gate and we hear the words in her head as she taps out the message. The idea is to take something simple that everyone can relate to, or as Heathrow’s ad agency Havas put it in AdWeek, they wanted to “tell a seemingly small story that had big resonance.” The ‘out of office’ theme is amplified via a OOH executions, which takes someone’s email message and looks at what it leads to - for example, a beach break with the kids, or a Dad’s visit to his daughter to meet her new boyfriend. You can watch the ad here.
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
Athens Airport
On June 23rd, Athens International Airport unveiled a tapestry named “I Love Greece” in the arrivals hall in the presence of VIPs, including music artist “Sting.” It sounds like a destination marketing ad celebrating the beauty of the country, but it’s not. Instead, it is artwork designed by Greek artist Sophia Vari, which supports Amnesty International’s “I Welcome” campaign. Despite suffering a major economic downturn over the past few years, Greece was often the first stop for refugees fleeing Syria and other countries from 2015 onwards According to Athens Airport, “ the Greek welcome offered to hundreds of thousands of men, women and children from Syria fleeing war and persecution, at a difficult point in time for Greece itself, the tapestry will be on permanent display in the arrivals hall of Athens International Airport, for millions of passengers to pass by it, reflect and remember.
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
Calgary Airport Human trafficking is a big issue in the aviation industry, with airports and airlines regularly training staff to spot tell-tale signs. In fact, industry body IATA recently launched a campaign called #EyesOpen, with a view to facilitating “discussions between passengers, airlines and governments.”
The Calgary Herald quotes Bob Sartor, president and CEO of the Calgary Airport Authority, in saying that millions of people come through the airport each year, making it the “ideal place to raise awareness.”
One airport which is raising awareness of
“We have a secret weapon at this airport and it’s called white hat volunteers. They are actually trained to see people who
the issue on a local level is Calgary Airport, which has teamed up with a Canadian campaign called #NotInMyCity. Fronted by country and western singer Paul Brandt, the campaign seeks to combat sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
are in distress — usually these are people who can’t find their gate or don’t know which direction to go, but distress is distress. We expect to have close to 500 white hat volunteers this year. They’ll be a pivotal part of this campaign.”
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
Cairns Airport Over in Northern Queensland Australia, Cairns Airport has launched a campaign aimed at persuading locals to fly direct to international destinations. At the moment, over one million passengers a year fly to Brisbane and Sydney, with many then transferring internationally. Sydney in particular is an almost three hour flight in the “wrong” direction. The creative hook is two kids local to the “far north” of Australia - Presley Raso, 6 and Layla Hennessy-Letinic, 7 - asking the question parents hear from kids all the time: “Are we there yet?”
conversation that has likely been played out in the domestic departure terminal many times: “Kids are invariably known for saying exactly what we’re all thinking and often they get right to the heart of the obvious with their straight-forward logic.” In fact, Cairns Airport is directly connected with Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, something Paul McLean says many passengers don’t even realise. It’s a nice campaign, with an easy to under-
In the ad, Presley and Layla ask the ques-
stand message and conveying it through the mouths of young kids really works.
tion because they can’t get their heads around the fact that you have to travel
It’s also a problem many secondary and regional airports worldwide face, a lot of
South to then go North again. Or as Layla asks her Dad - “We have to go two hours
travellers are simply on auto-pilot to fly to an airline’s hub.
this way, to go eight hours that way?” Cairns Airport Chief Commercial Officer – Aviation Paul McLean said Presley and Layla perfectly captured the essence of a 38 |
Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
We could also see several ways in which the idea of having to fly two hours South to go eight hours North, could be extended and amplified even further.
THE WORLD’S HIGHEST POP-UP RESTAURANT FOR ETIHAD Fine dining on Everest? It’s become a possibility thanks to Etihad, which created the highest pop-up restaurant in the world, located at Everest Advanced High Camp.
Etihad’s Sanjay Thakur is a chef who has gained a profile beyond the airline. In 2015 for example he was a finalist in San Pellegrino’s Young Chef 2015 awards.
A team of Etihad in-flight Chef, Sanjay Thakur and fellow chef Soundararajan Palaniappan were included in the Guinness Book of Records on June 4th,
The whole project took six months to plan. This included acclimatisation and fitness training, and complex logistics
for setting up Tiryagyoni, a pop up fine dining Indian restaurant at 5,585 metres above sea level.
to ensure they had the permit, gear and transportation they needed to prepare the meal and welcome guests.
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
The trip itself took eight days from Luk la, Nepal, with ten diners being served a meal in “Tiryagyoni.” According to Sanjay Thakur: “Coming from the Himalayas, I’ve grown up in awe of these mountains and it has been a huge personal achievement to combine my love of food and cooking with a remarkable project to promote sustainability and to help protect this unique part of the world,.” In addition to breaking a world record, the goal of the challenge was to raise awareness of sustainability in the region, with all proceeds being donated to Altruistic Hands, a Nepal-based charity. The meal itself included ingredients
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
collected from the alpine environment around them on the mountains. Staying true to the theme of sustainability, the team used solar energy to cook the meal, served on lava rock plates. The aim was to leave no trace of human activity on the Mountain. On his return, Sanjay Thakur’s achievements were celebrated at Etihad HQ in Abu Dhabi, in the presence of senior executives. Though the Etihad project was the highest pop-up restaurant on Everest, it wasn’t the first. In 2016, the One Star House Party, featured a group of chefs setting up shop on the mountain for a select group of guests.
AIR NEW ZEALAND - THE IMPOSSIBLE BURGER “What is the Impossible Burger and why is everyone obsessed with it?”, asked Metro US on 26 June. The Impossible Burger, which has been making waves worldwide, is a veggie burger developed by a San Francisco company that looks, “bleeds”, “sizzles” and (depending on your point of view) tastes like a beef burger. The first airline to serve it has been Air New Zealand, which is offering it in its Business Premier Cabin between Los Angeles and Auckland. To mark its introduction, Air New Zealand produced a funny, short film that nods at The Impossible Burger’s almost celebrity status. In it, two flight attendants walk through security at LAX and greet a TSA employee, who starts scanning their bags. He stops when he spots a dish with a burger going through, after which he takes it to the side exclaiming, “it’s the Impossible Burger, right?!”
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
He then proceeds to examine it, making a number of jokes (“would you spread your buns”), calls a colleague over, and then finally lets the Impossible Burger depart with the flight attendants. So far so good. Air New Zealand had a PR coup in stocking a product, which is being talked about worldwide. It reinforces what the Australian Financial Review calls its reputation for “being a progressive, forward-thinking airline” (in the same article the writer mentions she’s tried the Impossible Burger, commenting on its ‘scary likeness’ to the real thing).
Politicians accuse the airline of hurting local farmers Not everyone back home in New Zealand, which has an active beef farming industry, was best pleased though. Politicians, right up to the acting prime minister Winston Peters have got involved, criticising the airline for serving the product. Peters commented, “when Air New Zealand was in trouble, it was bailed out by the taxpayer, and by a lot of farming agricultural money. Our economy, and this airline is, as I say, the result of farmers’ tax payers money. And the meat industry, and that is genuine meat, not fake meat, is what we’re about.”
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
Meanwhile National Party MP Nathan Guy chimed in with “The national carrier should be pushing our premium products and helping sell NZ to the world.” Many New Zealanders on social media hit back. For example, entrepreneur Steve Ardagh said, “You sound like the CEO of Blockbuster complaining about Netflix.” Air New Zealand itself stuck to its guns, pointing out that “in the past year alone, we proudly ser ved around 1.3m New Zealand sourced beef and lamb meals to customers from around the world. “Air New Zealand makes no apology for offering innovative product choices for its customers and will continue to do so in the future.” Certainly, the fact that a number of New Zealand politicians were up in arms about the Impossible Burger, means that a lot more people now know that Air New Zealand has it on board. Coverage has included the Guardian, Independent (UK), De Standaard (Belgium), and Diario de Noticias (Portugal) to name a few.
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
Key takeaway Both the Etihad Everest expedition and the Air New Zealand ‘Impossible Burger’ move point to a wider truth, something highlighted by Shashank Nigam in a recent SimpliLive episode. Namely, despite the bad rap airline food has received over the years, it’s actually a very important part of an airline’s success. Two of the eight airlines profiled in Shashank Nigam’s book, SOAR focus particularly heavily on food. Turkish Airlines has on-board chefs, and the CEO told Shashank Nigam for the book interview that the airline did away with in-flight duty free to concentrate on food. Meanwhile, Air Asia sells its in-flight meals at select airports. So looking at the Air New Zealand story in particular, it gets across the message that “the airline is trendy, it’s up to speed with the latest food trends out there, and it’s serving the impossible burger.” However, it also shows that “differentiating service is not an impossible task.”
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
AVIATION NEWS ROUND-UP In addition to the campaigns we’ve mentioned earlier in the edition, it is worth taking a look at the following:
Oman Air 787-9 Deliver y flight
In recent issues we’ve talked about
At time of writing Sam Chui’s video
how airlines and aircraft manufacturers are starting to make more out of
has had 140k+ views, and the video includes a competition where you can
aircraft delivery flights. This is something both Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways have done recently where they invited aviation bloggers to attend and to be on board.
win a first class Oman Air amenity kit and PJs.
The latest airline to adopt this approach is Oman Air, which earlier this month flew one of the world’s top aviation bloggers, Sam Chui, from Seattle to Muscat on a new Boeing 787-9. 45 |
Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
This was a nice watchable video that will have been of interest not only to AV enthusiasts, but to the wider frequent flier community. Involving influencers on delivery flights as Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and now Oman Air has done, is certainly the way to go.
Pilot recruitment campaigns The global pilot shortage is well known. Boeing has estimated that by 2034, there will be a need for 95,000 new commercial airline pilots in the EU alone. This equates to 5,000 pilots a year. Airlines are actively trying to do something about this, before it hits crisis point, as for smaller airlines in particular even one sickness or no show can have a bad effect on flight schedules. In March we covered the Qantas Group Pilot Academy, which could see 500 pilots go through its doors annually. British Airways is also currently running a large recruitment campaign, involving a team of “flying ambassadors.” The aim of this is to bring in pilots to fly the Embraer 170s and 190s of its regional arm. This is partially due to the 46 |
Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
growth of routes out of London City Airport, to the East of the city’s Canary Wharf financial district. The flying ambassadors represent pilots from all levels of seniority. They will be attending roadshows and recruitment events around the country to showcase what they do and to assist with any questions. Another airline which is recruiting is European LCC Wizz Air, which in June announced the largest recruitment campaign since its launch. This comes as the airline takes delivery of 21 A320 and A321 aircraft during 2018. Meanwhile if you are a pilot with SAA, the chances are you will be loaned out to other airlines. SAA has been loss making for a decade, so the airline sees this as a way to avoid having to make unpopular large scale redundancies.
Boeing Hypersonic vehicle concept
Boeing has unveiled details of its hypersonic vehicle concept, which in theory could make London - New York flights last as little as two hours, and LA - Tokyo as little as three. The concept, along with other visions of Boeing’s future, will be on display at Farnborough Air show later this month.
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
Jet2 and Love Island One of the most popular shows on UK TV at the moment is the reality TV show “Love Island”, which takes place on Mallorca. The clue to the series is in the name. It involves, “hot young singles who have come looking for a summer of love and romance in Majorca. The winning couple will leave the island with 50,000 pounds.” The official airline and holiday company of Love Island is Jet2. Jet2, which primarily flies from the UK to mediterranean beach destinations, has developed a campaign around the Love Island association. This includes a series of Love Island themed ads. For example,
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
the ad “Chilled Vibe” shows “a group of holidaymakers enjoying a relaxing time in the sunshine, complete with chill out time by the pool and on the beach, with a stunning boat trip thrown in for good measure.” At the same time, Jet2 has carried out a “survey said” style story. This claims that people from Coventry, in the Midlands of England, are more likely to get married to someone they met on holiday, than people anywhere else in the UK. In addition to the PR story, ads and regular social media content, Jet2 is topping off the campaign with a competition to win tickets to the Love Island final.
Alaska Airlines fights plastic pollution
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Finally, Alaska Airlines has joined the fight against plastic pollution.
with aluminum cans, which are more easily recyclable and less wasteful.
In association with the Charity “Lonely
Last year, Alaska Airlines replaced the
Whale” the airline announced that it would replace single-use, non-recy-
majority of our bottled beer with cans, which are lighter and easier to recycle.
clable, plastic stir straws and citrus picks with sustainable alternatives in its airport lounges and on all domestic and international commercial flights starting July 16, 2018.
Plastic waste is very much a hot topic in the media at the moment, and consumers do pay attention to brands who are seen to be doing something about it.
On its blog, Alaska Airlines explains that this is just one part of its mission
In the USA, 1,800 restaurants, schools, and other institutions have
to become more environmentally responsible. In future, the airline will
stopped using plastic straws, according to the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s
also be replacing most juice boxes
“the Last Plastic Straw” campaign.”
Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
AIRLINES IN THIS ISSUE Here are the airlines and aviation companies we’ve covered in this issue. Is there a campaign you want us to know about? Email dirk@simpliflying.com. We’ll also be at Farnborough this year, meet us there!
Delta (Cover story) Aeromexico Air Dolomiti
Airports
Air New Zealand Air Transat Alaska Airlines American Airlines Avianca British Airways Brussels Airlines Corendon Etihad EL AL Frontier Airlines flyadeal
Cairns Airport Calgary Airport London Heathrow Airport Munich Airport Singapore Changi Airport
Athens Airport
Hawaiian Airlines Jet2 La Compagnie Oman Air Ryanair Southwest Spirit Swoop Thai Airways Turkish Airlines Virgin Atlantic Volaris Wizz Air 50 |
Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
WHO IS BEHIND THIS MAGAZINE? Many of you know us and have worked with us before. However, for those of you who don’t know us, SimpliFlying is the world’s leading aviation marketing consulting firm. Our team is 100% remote – based in Singapore, India, Spain, UK and Canada – meaning we can provide airlines with a global and a 24/7 presence. We’ve helped over 80 aviation brands worldwide become remarkable. We can do the same for you, adapting our five-step consulting process to your needs. We’ve recently celebrated ten years since Shashank Nigam our founder, started SimpliFlying. During that period, we have not only worked with an enviable list of aviation brands but also built a unique work culture that appeals to the disruptors in the industr y. Take a look at our journey over the past ten years.
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Airline Marketing Monthly - July 2018
AIRLINE MARKETING MONTHLY July 2018
