#My Message from the Cloud Austrian Airlines

#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.

As a result, getting cut through or making news out of your WiFi product isn’t easy.

One Airline which succeeded through a 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 saw passengers on Austrian Airlines flights send messages, which were then brought to life by a group of artists in Vienna.

#MyMessageFromTheCloud worked as follows: 1 - On July 13th, passengers on select short and medium haul flights were able to use FlyNet for free. 2 - Among other things, they could use it to send out messages about their dream destinations while on-board an Austrian Airlines flight, using the #MyMessageFromTheCloud hashtag. Sharing messages on Facebook and Instagram, additionally put passengers in a draw to win flights. At the same time a group of artists was in place on Vienna’s Mariahilfer Straße, who turned these messages into creative #myMessageFromTheCloud illustrations. 4 - Visitors to the event stall on Mariahilfer Straße were also invited to share and hashtag their photos to take part in the competition. According to Austrian Airlines, people shared holiday greetings, their expectations about their destinations and their travel plans. When it came to dream destinations, Reykjavik, Marrakesh, Stockholm and Paris proved to be particularly popular.

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.

In addition to destination messages, Austrian Airlines says one passenger used the free in-flight WifFi to tell her partner that she was expecting their first child.

Meanwhile, music and social influencer, ‘DJ Mosaken’, was flying from London back to Vienna and produced a social media video for his 1.2 million Facebook fans about the stunt.

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.’

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.

The participation of a big social media influencer ensured a decent reach for the campaign, and we can also see the potential for building on this campaign and running further executions in future (for example, there is no reason why Austrian Airlines couldn’t do a #MyMessageFromTheCloud Christmas special).

(Image credits - Warda Network | Jolly Schwarz)