AIRLINE MARKETING MONTHLY September 2018 - Issue 70
WORLDWIDE SNEAKER DAY LUFTHANSA
THE TRIP YOU PROMISED BY CHINA AIRLINES
INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS BY EMBRAER
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WELCOME TO AIRLINE MARKETING MONTHLY
Welcome to the September issue of Airline Marketing Monthly, the only trade publication devoted to aviation marketing. Most of you will be reading this online, but some of you will have picked up a print copy at one of the SimpliFlying labs, or at the Aviation Festival in London. If so, a bit background. In 2010, the LAN Airlines (now LATAM) Marketing Director called SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam to ask if SimpliFlying’s knowledge on airline campaigns could be shared with the team on a regular basis. That led to the SimpliFlying monthly benchmark report. Eighteen months ago we redesigned the report to have more of a magazine look and feel. And recently we re-launched it as an actual trade publication and magazine - Airline Marketing Monthly. Over the past seven years, we’ve shared over 1,000 detailed airline marketing cases in 70 issues. That huge amount of accumulated knowledge in turn informs the work and consultancy we provide for aviation brands. In this issue, we cover 18 campaigns, delving into a bit more detail in five of them. Our cover story is Lufthansa’s Adidas sneaker, and the recent ‘Worldwide Lufthansa Sneaker Day.’ Other campaigns we’ve featured come from Embraer, Delta and China Airlines - to name a few. Do you have any marketing campaigns you’d like us to know about? Send me an email!
Dirk Singer, dirk@simpliflying.com
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Airline Marketing Monthly Published by SimpliFlying, 152 Haig Road, #13-04, 438791, Singapore, www.simpliflying.com CEO and publisher: Shashank Nigam, shashank@simpliflying.com Editor: Dirk Singer, dirk@simpliflying.com
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INSIDE FEATURED CAMPAIGNS Embraer - Incredible journeys_________ 6 Lufthansa - Worldwide sneaker day____ 10 Austrian Airlines - My Message from the Cloud_________________________ 13 China Airlines - The trip you promised 17 Delta - SEA to MOM_________________ 20 INDUSTRY INSIGHT - Working with influencers? How to spot fakes________ 23
AIRLINE CAMPAIGNS THIS MONTH Sichuan Airlines - new uniforms and ‘Panda’ A350______________________ 26 EL Al - Retro Dreamliner_____________ 27 Singapore Airlines - Canyon Ranch_____ 28 Emirates - Holiday milestone cards_____ 29 Hong Kong Airlines - Raimonds Tiguls__ 31 Air Baltic - Raimonds Tiguls____________ 33 easyJet - Threesyjet__________________ 34 Air Iceland Connect - Shared stories__ 35
AIRPORT ROUND-UP London City Airport - Smartphone Amnesty 37 Munich Airport - Bike and style________ 39 Singapore Changi Airport - Love at first flight_____________________________ 40 Sydney Airport - United Neytions________41 AIRLINE MARKETING MONTHLY 9/2018
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THE SIMPLILIVE SHOW
This magazine is monthly, but here’s how you can get aviation insights and analysis every day. SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam has so far broadcast 300+ daily shows around aviation and airline issues. This includes over 50 interviews with senior aviation executives. Here are some recent highlights: • What does Ben Smith’s appointment as the CEO of AirFrance-KLM mean for the airline? (And for Air Canada?) • What makes loyalty programs VERY valuable these days (for airlines etc)? Hint: It’s not about loyalty • How Hong Kong Airlines turned its error fare into a branding opportunity (see also the article in this issue) For more, head over to our Facebook page.
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INTRODUCING SOAR SOAR is the first book to chart the journey of 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 80+ brands become remarkable. For more details on how to order copies for you, or your team, go to our website.
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FEATURED CAMPAIGNS
INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS EMBRAER
Over the past few months, aircraft manufacturer Embraer has been heavily promoting its “profit hunter” E190-E2 jet, with online video and visual storytelling taking centre stage in the campaign. Over the Spring, Embraer launched a four part online video series called “Pioneer Flights”, this followed the development of the E190-E2, the creation of a phantom airline for test purposes called ‘Pioneer Airlines’, and the delivery of the aircraft to the launch customer, Wideroe of Norway.
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This has now been followed up by “Incredible Journeys”, which is a web TV show, fronted by British TV presenter and former Royal Marine Arthur Williams, who uses a wheelchair following a car accident a number of years ago. Williams first became a TV presenter during the 2012 Paralympic games, and has been used by Britain’s Channel 4 ever since. In part one, Williams travels to Norway to be on the first E190-E2 flight from Bergen to Tromso. He interviews airline staff,
and does a flight report before landing in also follows something we believe in, Tromso. namely that ultimately everyone is a consumer. The second episode features the Farnborough Air Show as well as London City Even if you have a b2b brand / product, Airport, where due to runway restrictions, the people you are talking to still want most takeoffs are from Embraer aircraft to be enthused and inspired. And of (in particular via British Airways, Lufthan- course there is value in gaining wider acsa, TAP Portugal, KLM and Alitalia). ceptance, not to mention awareness, of the aircraft, among the travelling public. Overall both shows are engaging, and a great way to bring the aircraft to life. It The only additional comment we would
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make is that a few times, the dialogue in nel. This included a daily web TV show both the Pioneer Flights and Incredible from the Farnborough and Singapore airJourneys videos seemed a bit forced as shows. they veered into brand speak. DELTA AND UNITED - TWO AIRLINES We also thought that the videos are THAT INVEST HEAVILY IN ONLINE weaker when Arthur Williams takes a VIDEO look at the destinations, as well as the aircraft. In episode one, the scene at the So long as the production values are high end where he samples Norwegian cuisine enough, and the narrative is compelling, in a restaurant in Tromso was almost an it is worth looking at how you can proafterthought. duce so-called “webisodes.” Contrast that with videos produced by the main AV bloggers. They don’t bother showing much of the destination because they know they can’t do it justice in the time available, and because their audience is first and foremost interested in the flight.
You keep the audience hooked, and coming back for more. And of course once they have watched it once, then the chances are that the YouTube algorithm will serve it up to them again.
As well as Embraer, in this edition, we’ve additionally profiled Singapore ChanBoth Pioneer flights and incredible jour- gi Airport’s “Love at first flight” series, neys form part of a very impressive range where the protagonists are a couple who of videos on the Embraer YouTube chan- met while interns at the airport.
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Meanwhile two US airlines that invest heavily in online video include Delta and United. Last year Delta released a web series called “Earning our wings”, which follows a group of cabin crew trainees through their training programme.
Earlier this year, trade title Digiday reported that United was ramping up its inhouse online video creation capabilities.
This follows United hiring Megan Mitchell, previously head of social media and video for TravelZoo, as senior manager for Meanwhile, United’s “Big Metal Bird” is an integrated digital engagement. ongoing series of short videos that take a behind the scenes look at the airline. All Mitchell told Digiday that bringing onthe Big Metal Bird videos are hosted on a line video in-house meant that the airline microsite and each episode is broken into could “move at the speed of social”, and individual segments, where you can learn not have to work with the kind of approvmore. al loops you get when using an external supplier. For example, Episode 7 is about in-flight beverages. As part of that, you can find Over H2 2017, United more than doubled out more about the airline’s ‘master the number of videos shared to platforms sommelier’ Doug Frost, as well as a look with video views increasing by 245%. at Ily’s (United’s coffee partner) Colombian coffee farms.
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WORLDWIDE SNEAKER DAY LUFTHANSA
Do you want to get your hands on a pair of limited edition Adidas Lufthansa sneakers? You can try your luck on eBay where a few pairs are currently going for around €100.
gust, as the airline designated the day as “Worldwide Lufthansa Sneaker Day.”
The Lufthansa Adidas sneakers were first unveiled in February to coincide with both the new logo and brand (see our Or perhaps you are fortunate enough to February issue), and also to celebrate be a Lufthansa employee, who could buy 100 years of Lufthansa. a pair. In an employee conference, LufthanIn fact, if you really are a Lufthansa em- sa boss Carsten Spohr announced that ployee then you would have been able all staff would be given a voucher so to wear your sneakers to work on 24 Au- they could buy something with the new
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Lufthansa look on it, which could be a pair of Lufthansa / Adidas sneakers, or another item. According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, Spohr called the sneakers “my personal favourite.” The shoes themselves are all white, with the blue Lufthansa crane on the side. They then come in either white and yellow laces. They have been offered to employees at a series of pop-up stores around German airports. The most recent was on August 5th in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne and The Berlin shoes sold for €180 and inHamburg. cluded a yearly travel pass, printed on the shoe itself. However only 500 were From looking through Instagram, we can ever produced. see that staff seem to love the shoes, with some posting that they’d like to That in itself is a concept airlines can build wear them to work. And on ‘Worldwide on. For example, a frequent flyer proLufthansa Sneaker Day’ that became gramme could partner with (e.g.) Mont possible. Blanc pens, or order iPads engraved with a rewards number….the possibilities are Lufthansa did say that though it was endless. preferable that staff wore the Adidas / Lufthansa shoes on the job, it wasn’t a re- However, going back to the Lufthanquirement. sa sneakers, this is a concept that really works and ticks a lot of boxes. When the shoes were originally launched in February, the German press made a It’s exclusive to staff, so they are getting parallel between the Adidas / Lufthansa something no one else has. The shoes accollaboration, and another Adidas tie-up tually look really good, and employees with the Berlin transport authority.
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excited about the new brand….Lufthansa needed to get the new logo out and assimilated into the staff as much as possible.” OTHER AIRLINE SNEAKERS Lufthansa of course isn’t the only airline to use sneakers as a marketing tactic. When Joon, the ‘millennial airline’ from Air France launched last year, one of the defining features was the uniform - including sneakers worn by cabin crew. Meanwhile we featured KLM last year for producing a limited edition sneaker. The “KLM Amsterdam sneaker” was aimed at consumers in Nordic countries.
seem to appreciate them. Sneakers are ultimately a fashion item, and LH staff members will want to be seen in them. And the global sneaker way in August was a great way to bring the whole collaboration to life. See as well the SimpliLive show from August 23rd, where SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam praised Lufthansa for coming up with a “brilliant idea, not only in co-branding, but in getting employees
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Anyone who booked a KLM flight to Amsterdam in March 2017 could win a pair of the shoes that came with an “I Amsterdam” City Card, including free entry to Amsterdam’s top museums and attractions. Finally, easyJet produced a pair of sneakers as a fashion wearable and tried them out in Barcelona. The sneakers were programmed to take you on a walking tour of the city and they vibrated whenever you needed to turn left or right.
#MYMESSAGEFROMTHECLOUD AUSTRIAN AIRLINES
In-flight WiFi is hardly novel or new anymore. The 2018 WiFi report by Routehappy, says that 82 airlines worldwide now offer it, including smaller carriers such as Air Astana from Kazakhstan, Air Cote d’Ivoire from Ivory Coast, and Air Mauritius from Mauritius.
creative campaign is Austrian Airlines, which in July promoted the fact that its entire A320 fleet is now equipped with GX Aviation, which powers the Austrian Airlines’ FlyNet in-flight system.
A campaign called: #MyMessageFromTheCloud As a result, getting cut through or making saw passengers on Austrian Airlines news out of your WiFi product isn’t easy. flights send messages, which were then brought to life by a group of artists in One Airline which succeeded through a Vienna.
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#MyMessageFromTheCloud worked as At the same time a group of artists was follows: in place on Vienna’s Mariahilfer Straße, who turned these messages into creative 1 - On July 13th, passengers on select #myMessageFromTheCloud illustrations. short and medium haul flights were able to use FlyNet for free. 4 - Visitors to the event stall on Mariahilfer Straße were also invited to share and 2 - Among other things, they could use hashtag their photos to take part in the it to send out messages about their competition. dream destinations while on-board an Austrian Airlines flight, using the According to Austrian Airlines, #MyMessageFromTheCloud hashtag. people shared holiday greetings, their expectations about their destinations Sharing messages on Facebook and and their travel plans. When it came Instagram, additionally put passengers in to dream destinations, Reykjavik, a draw to win flights. Marrakesh, Stockholm and Paris proved to be particularly popular.
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An Austrian Airlines microsite shows the range of illustrations that were produced on the day. All the drawings were in black and white, with added red, so mimicking the Austrian Airline brand.
While we’ve been sceptical of high street or shopping mall stunts before, this Austrian Airlines campaign neatly tied together something happening on aircraft flying in the skies above Europe with on the ground activity in Vienna itself.
In addition to destination messages, Austrian Airlines says one passenger used The participation of a big social media the free in-flight WifFi to tell her partner influencer ensured a decent reach for that she was expecting their first child. the campaign, and we can also see the potential for building on this campaign Meanwhile, music and social influencer, and running further executions in ‘DJ Mosaken’, was flying from London future (for example, there is no reason back to Vienna and produced a social why Austrian Airlines couldn’t do a media video for his 1.2 million Facebook #MyMessageFromTheCloud Christmas fans about the stunt. special). While on board, he expressed a wish for the traditional Austrian dessert “Eismarillenknödel” (cream and apricot dumplings), which Austrian Airlines presented to him and the other passengers on his flight, on arrival. ‘ In-flight WiFi may not be new, but the reality is it is both sought after by passengers, and it presents airlines with a lot of potential. Writing in marketing magazine The Drum, Immarsat’s Ben Griffin outlined a number of opportunities for airlines including serving targeted and relevant messaging to a ‘captive audience.’
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(Image credits - Warda Network | Jolly Schwarz)
THE TRIP YOU PROMISED CHINA AIRLINES
A new China Airlines ad campaign, For example, an office worker reads a revolves around the theme of broken menu in a cafe and is reminded of the promises and holidays that never happen. afternoon tea in London she promised her friends, while a police detective looks Produced by Leo Burnett, the ad was at crime statistics in a powerpoint chart according to China Airlines viewed three where the circles look like mouse ears. million times, 24 hours after its release After that his son pops up to remind him about a missed Disneyland trip. In it, a series of different people get guilty consciences when every day events Meanwhile a boss sits on the WC reading remind them of empty holiday promises an article about the Northern lights, that they made in the past. whereupon his co-workers crowd around
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him reminding him about the time he launch, with special fares from Taipei to promised to take them to the Canadian London, Brisbane and other destinations. Arctic. It’s a funny piece of advertising, and China Airlines explains the thinking we could see potential for campaign behind the campaign: “Each year, we extensions, for example via a social have different excuses. However, how media and PR push all around the theme many ‘next times’ do we have? Let’s make of broken promises (e.g. why not have it ‘this time’.” a ‘broken vacation promise amnesty’, where people can print out ‘get out of jail’ To give passengers that extra push to monopoly style cards, linked into some keep their vacation promises, China kind of flights competition). Airlines ran a sale coinciding with the ad
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It’s also gone down well in Asia-Pacific, with Parents.” both among consumers, measured in views, and the ad industry. According to Leo Burnett’s Murphy Chou, “We discovered that although Writing in Best Ads on TV, Jureeporn people often traveled with their parents Thaidumrong, chairwoman/CCO, Grey when they were kids, many couldn’t recall Bangkok, chose it as her favourite TV memories of those trips when they grew campaign, commenting: up. “This is great insight for the Asian audience. And most have experienced this “promise” before. And as the film goes there is surprise after surprise. Great deeply twisted execution of storytelling.”
“We shared our findings online. At the end of the film, we encouraged consumers to take a trip with their parents to create new shared memories.”
In 2016 Hong Kong Airlines also launched TRAVEL WITH PARENTS a travel with parents ad, the creative execution here featured a son taking his The ‘Trip you promised’ is a follow-on mother on business class. from China Airlines 2017 campaign “Travel
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SEA MOM DELTA Over the past few years a number of airlines have tapped into ‘Mother Power’ to persuade people to fly home. For example, in January 2017, HOP! Air France gave Parisian parents the chance to purchase a pair of Adidas sneakers and have it sent to a child who lives in another city The catch in this ‘Run to Mum’ campaign was that HOP! Air France only sent one shoe to the child. Getting the other shoe meant flying to see your parents to collect it. Meanwhile probably the best known campaign in the whole genre is the 2013 “Ticket to visit mum” from British Airways. Targeting Indian expats in North America, the launch video featured a mother in India saying how much she misses her son and cooking his favourite dish. BA then flew her to the US to surprise her son, with the home cooked meal. ‘Ticket to visit mum’ was one of the most high profile airline campaigns of that year. According
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to
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Marketing Communications (Effie) Awards for which it was a finalist, the campaign “not only reversed BAs fortunes on one of its most important routes, but set a precedent that would change the way BA approached retail marketing for years to come.”
focused on the Seattle area. It seeks to promote Delta being the largest airline in Seattle, and ties into the fact that 60% of Seattle residents came from somewhere else.
Launched on August 15, the campaign features funny messages from real moms Now Delta is the latest airline to tap into of Seattleites that remind their children the power of moms. However, rather than to come visit, and that seek to embarrass tug at the heart strings, Delta’s approach them into doing so. is using humour. Each handwritten reminder message is As the name suggests, ‘SEA Mom’ is paired up with a picture of the mother with
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child, when s/he was very young. And not only are these reminders appearing on billboards, they are appearing in the kind of places you see ‘lost cat’ or ‘car for sale’ notices - for example on shop fronts. One image released by Delta shows a gym where a mother appears on screen with a picture of her son as a toddler. The message reads “Hey Zachy, until you visit I’m sending Mr Snuggles and your Bun Bun to keep you company.” The campaign is accompanied by a series of short videos where an unsuspecting Seattle resident is swamped by body doubles of his her / mother, before one of the fake moms hands over a free flight ticket to go home. For example, one of the videos features Lisa Smith from Chicago and her daughter Laura-Mae who now lives in Seattle. The video shows Laura-Mae and a friend sitting on a park bench, while lookalikes of her mother walk, cycle (and also row) past. Seattle professional football/soccer club Seattle Sounders FC (a Delta partner) is getting involved in the campaign as well. Siblings and Sounders FC players Cristian and Alex Roldan, who are originally from
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California, were greeted by a group of look-alike moms that delivered a message from their actual mom, Momma Roldan, to come home and visit soon by flying Delta.
WORKING WITH INFLUENCERS? HOW TO SPOT INSTAGRAM FAKES
For our May special edition on visual social media, we carried out an experiment where we purchased a ready-made account with 12k followers and a feed full of stock images.
Many airlines now work with Instagram influencers. And the platform keeps growing in numbers and importance. For example, according to the Daily Telegraph (UK), in the restaurant industry Instagram is now more important than Tripadvisor The cost of this whole exercise was $65, when it comes to reviews, with images and the goal was to show how easy it is being more impactful than words. to game the system. Indeed, a one minute google search will reveal literally And with these platforms becoming more hundreds of services offering to sell you important in driving consumer purchascheap fake followers and likes. es, brands will pay money for influencers to feature them.
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A Reuters article cites a study by Rakuten Marketing which says some UK marketers are willing to pay celebrity influencers more than 75,000 pounds ($100,000) for a single Facebook post. Even so-called micro-influencers with c 10k followers might get £1500 / $2000 for an endorsement.
fer subscription services where you ‘drip feed’ likes and followers over time, making any growth seem totally natural. However, here are a few guidelines:
1 - Is there engagement as well as likes? An infuencer’s posts may have a stack of likes, but is anyone engaging by comSo how do you spot influencers who have menting? bulked up their profiles with fakes. 2 - Are the comments ‘canned.’ Like anyAt first glance, it’s not easy to do so. The thing else, comments can be bought. Are fake likes industry has become much most of the comments something along more sophisticated over the years, with the lines of “dope shot!” with an emoji, or the result that many for example now of- do they seem genuine?
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3 - Look at some recent followers of the influencer. Do they seem real? A giveaway is followers who follow many, many more people than follow them with few posts
ers are real, then even 58% means a large proportion of fakes and bots are bulking up an influencer’s account.
Similarly, if the result shows 90% real followers then that will give you a reason4 - If you are suspicious, you could also able amount of reassurance (NB, most put an influencer’s posts through a re- people have some bots following them, verse image search engine such as Tin- no one will get an exact score of 100%). eye. In addition to IG Audit, there is also TW USE AUDIT TOOLS Audit for Twitter, while Andrew Hogue showed us the prototype of a service Finally, there are a number of tools that that will track in real time whether an inaudit an influencer’s account. fluencer is buying bogus likes, comments and followers. Some, such as Social Audit Pro will charge you a small sum to do an audit of a user’s account. However, one good free tool is IG Audit, at igaudit.io. This allows you to perform a quick search on any Instagram account. The tool was built by Andrew Hogue from Authentique Inc. It claims accuracy to +/- 8% almost all (99%) the time. A variation of 8% sounds lot, but being realistic that is good enough for you to get a snapshot of an influencer’s following. If the tool shows only 50% of follow-
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AIRLINE CAMPAIGNS
SICHUAN AIRLINES - NEW UNIFORMS AND ‘PANDA’ A350
Sichuan Airlines has unveiled a new red uniform for cabin crew to coincide with the delivery of its first A350. A Facebook post has cabin crew showing off the uniforms, while dancing and lining up in different formations at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. This is the sort of thing we’d love to know more about but in common with most other mainland China Airlines (with the possible exception of Hainan Airlines), there’s no further information, let alone a media section, on the very sparse and dated looking Sichuan Airlines website. The arline’s first A350 flew between Chengdu and Beijing on August 16th, was decked out in a special Panda livery, as befitting one of the things the Sichuan region is best known for.
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EL AL - RETRO DREAMLINER
Israeli flag carrier EL AL has similarly painted one of its aircraft in a special livery. Called ‘Rehovot’ (after the Israeli city), EL AL’s sixth 787-Dreamliner was painted in a ‘retro’ style design to mark EL AL’s 70th anniversary.
The aircraft arrived in Tel Aviv on 14 August and was welcomed in a ceremony, which included Sara Netanyahu, wife of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, wearing her former EL AL uniform.
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SINGAPORE AIRLINES - CANYON RANCH
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With Singapore Airlines reintroducing 18 hour 45 minute long flights from Singapore to Newark in the Autumn, the airline has been looking at ways in which ultra long haul travel can be made more palatable for passengers.
After all, reviews of the Qantas Perth to Heathrow flight when it launched were not 100% positive - with the caveat the Qantas has an economy cabin on the route, while SIA will offer only Premium Economy & business from SIN - EWR.
One solution has been to team up with US wellness brand Canyon Ranch, to jointly develop “wellness cuisines, rest and relaxation, and general well-being on the world’s longest flights.”
As a result, from a perception as well as a practical point of view it matters that Singapore Airlines is thinking about ways to help passengers get through what will be the longest flight in the Specifically, the airline says that the part- world. nership will include menus developed by Canyon Ranch chefs and nutritionists fo- And from a PR standpoint it seems cused on nutrition and hydration, “sleep to have worked, Many travel websites strategies” to help passengers rest bet- and publications almost pushed the ter, and stretching exercises, accessible partner-ship as a reason to fly the route in its own right, with Conde Nast via the in-flight entertainment system. Traveller gushing, “The World’s Longest One barrier to getting people to book Flight May Also Be the World’s Longest tickets on 15+ hour flights is of course a Spa Treatment.” possible reluctance to spend so long on an aircraft.
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EMIRATES - HOLIDAY MILESTONE CARDS
Emirates has teamed up with UK author, actor and mother Giovanna Fletcher to create a limited-edition series of family holiday milestone cards, that allow parents to remember the different firsts with their kids as they go on holiday.
To launch the initiative, Emirates has come out with a survey saying that 43% of kids have flown by their first birthday while by the time they reach school age, one in five children (20%) will have travelled to 5 or more different countries.
The packs of ten illustrated cards have been designed to help parents include ‘First flight’, ‘First splash in the sea’ and ‘First holiday friend’. A limited number of sets is being handed out to families at all seven of the UK airports Emirates flies from as well as on its social channels.
Earlier this summer British Airways came out with a very similar survey. The BA study found that the average youngster is flying for the first time when they are four years old, and by the age of 10 the average child will have travelled to four different countries
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NORWEGIAN - JANE AUSTEN
Norwegian’s latest “tail fin hero” is the British author Jane Austen. Jane Austen’s portrait will sit on the tail fin of one of Norwegian’s Dreamliner aircraft.
Now other nationalities have been included, coinciding with the airline’s expanding route network. Jane Austen will become Norwegian’s sixth British tail fin hero.
Norwegian has made tail fin heroes a distinctive element of its livery and its brand. Originally it featured a number of famous Scandinavian figures who influenced the arts and sciences, architecture, philosophy entertainment and sports.
The others are rock legend Freddie Mercury, footballer Bobby Moore, children’s author Roald Dahl, pioneering pilot Amy Johnson and aviation maverick Sir Freddie Laker. Image, from Norwegian
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HONG KONG AIRLINES - $600 BUSINESS CLASS TICKETS they honour the fare, it’s the way that they decided to honour the fare, that’s caught everyone’s attention.” In fact, there was speculation that the $600 business class fare was a deliberate marketing ploy. For example, the God Save the Points blog points out that $600 isn’t so outOn August 16th, Hong Kong Airlines brief- landish bearing in mind Qatar Airways ly advertised some ludicrously cheap has previously offered business class business class fares from the US to the Far tickets for $550: East, in particular you could fly for under “Airlines have blurred the lines of what’s $600 from LA to Shanghai or Bangkok. clearly a mistake, and what’s a flash sale The fares were only available for a few designed to create buzz.” hours, before they were taken down, with Hong Kong Airlines saying it was an error. However, the airline said it would indeed honour the reservations of anyone who had purchased a ticket at this exceptionally low cost. That got the airline a lot of goodwill, as this isn’t always the case with error fares. For instance, in June, British Airways said it wouldn’t honour mistake fares to Dubai and Tel Aviv (though in fairness these Not so said George Liu, the airline’s CMO were for £1 + tax) on Twitter, who put it down to a genuine mistake. “We really screwed up”, but As SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam “we are willing to pay a price to keep our said in a SimpliLive show, “not only did promises as a brand.”
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AIR BALTIC - RAIMONDS TIGULS
According to Raimonds Tiguls, “The idea behind this composition was to create ambient music with a national identity for airBaltic passengers in honour of Latvia’s Centenary celebration. The aim is to creThe series of compositions consists of ate a relaxing feeling for the passengers, four different themes – spring, summer, so they could fully enjoy their flight.” autumn and winter - and will welcome our passengers on board. In honor of Latvia’s Centenary, Air Baltic commissioned Latvian composer Raimonds Tiguls to write special melodies for the airline’s A220-300 aircraft.
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EASYJET - THREESYJET
UK mobile phone network Three has To mark the partnership, Three’s ad agenteamed up with LCC easyJet, in a ‘Threesy- cy, W&K produced an ad featuring Three’s jet’ promotion. character, the “Giraffamingo” - part giraffe, part flamingo. Three customers are now eligible for easyJet’s ‘Hands Free’ service, which offers In the ad, “Giraffamingo” is seen walking privileges when it comes to bag check-in through an airport making the most of and pick-up and boarding. the easyJet Hands Free offer.
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AIR ICELAND CONNECT - SHARED STORIES
In mid August, the Financial Times featured Air Iceland Connect with the story, “The tiny airline with an inspirational alternative to in-flight movies.”
The idea is simple. A hardback book is left in the seat back pocket, and as a passenger you leave hand-written or drawn impressions of your trip. Then the next passenger writes in it, and so on.
The FT praised the airline for coming up with “an in-flight entertainment system Air Iceland Connect told us that since more gripping and potentially moving introducing this in May 2017, they have than the best Hollywood movie.” filled around 350-400 books:
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“The stories range from short messages to long detailed stories with photos from our passengers travels in Iceland and Greenland. They usually describe their experiences of our country and our destinations and also some good tips for the next passenger, where to go, what to eat etc.” Of course, it helps that Air Iceland Connect’s routes are all conducive to making you want to share your thoughts on paper (and also share on social media). The exact same tactic wouldn’t work on, say an early morning Frankfurt - London flight packed with sleepy eyed business travellers heading to their morning meeting. Nevertheless, it is still a creative and innovative way to get passengers sharing and interacting, and the fact that the airline has filled almost 400 of these books shows that people really are taking part and getting into the spirit of the ‘shared stories’ initiatives. Despite being a small airline with six aircraft, Air Iceland Connect also has a very impressive in-flight magazine (‘My North’), which is accessible via the digital magazine platform Issuu (which we also use).
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AIRPORT ROUND-UP
LONDON CITY AIRPORT - SMARTPHONE AMNESTY
According to a Washington Post story almost two thirds of holiday makers plan to check their work emails while away, with only a third unplugging. This compares to 2014, when the proportion was 50/50.
access, you are never really away. That’s even the case in the air, with 80+ airlines now providing in-flight WiFi (see our Austrian Airlines story in this issue).
In response, London City Airport launched It’s something almost everyone can sym- a ‘smartphone amnesty’ in association pathise with. Unless you are in a really re- with NYC startup Light Phone. mote location with no mobile or internet
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mitting them to at least 48 hours of Light Phone use, while their smartphone remained switched off. As a bonus, passengers could even get to keep the pretty attractive looking handsets at the end of their holiday (LCY’s press release does make clear supplies are limited). Light Phone’s partnership with LCY comes as the company is about to launch a new version of their phone, which this time offer a few more features such as messaging and an alarm clock. Light Phone raised almost US $ 2 million on Indiegogo, for this ‘Light Phone 2.’ Passengers flying from LCY from 13 to 27 August were given the chance to register for a Light Phone, a basic phone that allows you to store nine numbers and make calls - but that’s it. No mobile web browsing, checking social media, reading emails, getting ping notifications etc.
This is a smart and creative campaign that not surprisingly got London City Airport a fair amount of media pick-up such as in the Evening Standard (London), Gizmodo, and Tech Radar.
Though LCY has traditionally been known as a business traveller’s airport, there has Each phone came with a pay as you go been an increase in routes of interest to sim-card from UK phone network EE. holiday makers such as ones to Ibiza, Nice, Faro, Skiathos and Mykonos (British Passengers additionally had to sign Airways), and Lisbon and Porto (TAP Air “Memorandum of Understanding”, com- Portugal).
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MUNICH AIRPORT - BIKE AND STYLE
In August, Munich Airport once again staged an international mountain biking tournament in the plaza between terminals 1 & 2, with the centrepiece being a 3,000 square meter bike parcours with a giant ramp, as well as a grandstand for 500 visitors.
Munich Airport has a track-record of staging very high profile events, including an annual Christmas market, which rivals many town Christmas markets in size. This year’s Christmas market will take place from November 17th.
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SINGAPORE CHANGI AIRPORT - LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT
We featured Embraer in this issue for its and indeed has highly professional prodifferent online video series. Another duction values. brand which recently commissioned a series is Singapore Changi Airport. With the characters speaking mainly in Mandarin (with subtitles) accompanied “Love at first flight” is a three part series, by a soundtrack of local pop songs, the which was released on the airport’s social intended audience is clearly a Singapore media channels between August 15 and / Far East one. 17. It follows the story of Zhi Xing and Yueling, who meet while enrolled in the The narrative and treatment might seem a airport’s Changi’s ‘Youth Ambassador’ little sickly sweet to some Western viewprogramme. ers, but for a regional audience it works, as evidenced by the first episode getting It looks like a youth-focused soap on TV, 200k+ views on Facebook in the first few days.
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SYDNEY AIRPORT - UNITED NEYTIONS
Visitors from around the world departing from Sydney Airport are being ‘farewelled’ by a striking work of contemporary art by Kamilaroi artist Archie Moore as they depart Australia.
Launched on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the flags feature 28 Aboriginal national flags.
According to Sydney Airport, United Neytions may end up being the most seen Moore’s United Neytions, consists of 28 piece of artwork in Australia large flags hanging from the 17-metre high ceiling of Sydney Airport’s T1 International Marketplace.
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AVIATION BRANDS IN THIS ISSUE Air Iceland Connect Air Baltic Austrian Airlines China Airlines Delta easyJet EL AL Embraer Emirates Hong Kong Airlines London City Airport Lufthansa Munich Airport Norwegian Sichuan Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Changi Airport Sydney Airport United
(Image - Shared Stories, Air Iceland Connect)
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WHO IS BEHIND THIS MAGAZINE?
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 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 We’ve helped over 80 aviation brands culture that appeals to the disruptors in worldwide become remarkable. We can the industry. do the same for you, adapting our fivestep consulting process to your needs. Take a look at our journey over the past ten years on our website.
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ABOUT VISIBLE Visible is our newest division, looking at aviation content marketing, with an emphasis on visual storytelling. It’s headed up by Dirk Singer, an agency veteran with 20+ years experience (and the editor of this magazine). Take a look at our presentation at simplivisible, and the produced on visual and aviation at visiblemagazine.
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introductory app.box.com/ magazine we social media app.box.com/
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