6 minute read
Infuencer marketing and aviation brands, some examples
Alaska Airlines - Weekend Wanderer
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From 2017-2018, Alaska Airlines ran a campaign called Weekend Wanderer. The idea was quite simple, as the name suggests Instagramers and bloggers were sent to Alaska Airlines destinations over a weekend to document their journey and showcase each destination.
Examples included San Francisco to Mexico City, Portland to Minneapolis, and even a trip to Singapore to celebrate a new codeshare arrangement with Singapore Airlines.
This is a great campaign for three reasons.
1 - As well as having the Instagramers post on their own feeds, Alaska Airlines had them take over the company account via an Instagram take-over.
2 - Secondly, Alaska Airlines reused the Weekend trips to populate its own blog posts. All too often we see infuencer campaigns just working in isolation, here it actually provided extra value across Alaska Airlines’ digital channels.
3 - Finally, Alaska Airlines clearly gave some thought as to who they would work with. Rather than automatically gravitate towards the ‘biggest’ or ‘most famous’ they often worked with smaller Instagramers where there was a ft in terms of style and quality of content and profle.
Clearly take-overs like this have to be moderated (or at the very least guidelines need to be provided), but running them mixes up your content and account and adds a different favour and perspective.
Though Karen Grubb, who did the Singapore trip, has (at present) 114k followers, Amberly Alene, who is a Havana based flmmaker and who showed off her home city for the airline, has a much more modest 9850 followers. However her local knowledge and the kind of authentic Havana-based content she posts, made her the best ft for that particular trip.
Flybmi - Hidden Treasure
(Disclosure, this is a campaign AMM editor Dirk Singer ran for Flybmi)
Hidden Treasures, which was run by the late British / European regional airline Flybmi had a lot in common with the Alaska Airlines campaign.
The idea was to promote routes in and out of Munich, and so Flybmi recruited 16 content creators from the UK, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden to take part.
The campaign had three elements:
1 - Content creators were either sent to Munich, or from Munich to another destination. They then took over the Flybmi Instagram account over a weekend as well as posting on their account.
2 - The tours were broadly themed, e.g. around art and culture, history, food, nature. The idea was to showcase a range of topics, appealing to different demographics and interest groups.
3 - Flybmi’s Instagram fans were themselves encouraged to take part and show off hidden treasures in their own city or area, for the chance to win fights. Over 700 photos ended up being posted under the hashtag (#fybmihiddentreasures)
As with Alaska Airlines, the focus was on working with
the right kind of infuencer who’d produce content that would add value.
Flybmi’s posts had a reach of 800k, while the infuencer content produced an additional reach of 860k. The campaign social media posts generated 20.6k likes.
This campaign shows that smaller airlines, with more modest budgets, can also run successful infuencer programmes.
Qatar Airways A350 delivery fight
Delivery fights can be something of missed opportunities for airlines. They of course fy largely empty from Boeing or Airbus to the airline’s home airport.
Why not use them to give infuencers a frst look at the aircraft, and also fnd out a bit more about what you are up to as an airline?
A few airlines now do exactly that, targeting the very active AV Geek community of Vloggers and Instagrammers. One example is Qatar Airways, which invited a select group of AV Geek infuencers on board the delivery fight of its frst A350-1000 from Toulouse to Doha.
Aviation YouTubers and bloggers love delivery fights. In a post The Points Guy listed fve reasons why they are ‘amazing’, ranging from insider access, to the chance to meet Airline CEOs on board to a VIP welcome beforehand and on board.
If you haven’t already factored something like this into your own delivery fights, it’s a tactic you should defnitely consider.
Qantas - Project Sunrise
Project Sunrise is the current trial by Qantas to introduce non stop fights between Sydney and London / New York. In November, Qantas ran a test fight from London to Sydney with an 787-9, painted in special Qantas 2020 centenary livery.
On board were senior management (including CEO Alan Joyce) and other employees, who were monitored for sleep patterns and food and drink intake.
However, the airline also invited along Sam Chui, probably the best known out of the AV Geek vlogger community, who has 1.8 million subscribers. Sam’s video, where among other things he described the double sunrise he saw on route, has had over 2.2 million views, with his trip getting additional exposure on his Instagram and Facebook channels, as well as his blog.
Meanwhile the fact that Sam is a big name in the aviation community, actually resulted in Qantas getting extra media coverage, thanks to his presence on the fight.
For example, both Business Insider and The National (in the UAE) referenced both the fight and Sam Chui’s participation.
Due to practical considerations, Qantas wasn’t able to take multiple vloggers on the Project Sunrise fight. As a result the solution of working with one really big name worked really well for them.
Xiamen Airlines - #fyxiamenair
At the end of 2018, and to mark the launch of a new route between Fuzhou and Paris, Xiamen Airlines ran its frst European infuencer campaign - #fyxiamenair.
Travel infuencers from France, Spain and Germany were recruited for the campaign and to promote the new route.
French agency Makers Creators, which developed the campaign, created special bags and merchandise for the infuencers to use, which would again make the campaign more recognisable.
With the most basic objective being to introduce European air travellers to a brand few will have heard of, Makers Creators claims a reach of one million+ through the infuencer posts.
Embraer - Incredible Journeys
One of our favourite pieces of aviation video storytelling comes from aircraft manufacturer Embraer, which in 2018 recruited former UK Royal Marine and Sports presenter Arthur Williams to front its ‘Incredible Journeys’ online video series.
The idea behind the series is to promote Embraer’s E-190-E2 ‘proft hunter’ aircraft. As a result, Williams travels to different countries where airlines fy the E-190-E2, such as Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Norway.
Each episode is around 6-10 minutes long and is part travelogue and part AV Geek video review. It’s well produced, just the right length in terms of being interesting and imparting key Embraer information.
The high production values aside, we like this collaboration for a number of reasons. It has longevity, there have been fve of these so far.
The partnership works as Williams is an aviation fanatic, and clearly has an interest in the subject. And the brand messaging doesn’t seem to be forced, each story is allowed to speak for itself.
