How airlines and advertisers can complement each other's brands

By Marc Weber Bång, CEO, SimpliFlying Global Institute

Airlines and advertising

If you read the August 2018 edition of Airline Marketing Monthly, or even just saw the cover, you might remember how it focused on special airline liveries, such as the HiFly – Save the Coral Reefs livery on their A380, or the more commercial and advertising focused Kung Fu Panda livery, on six Hainan Airlines 787 Dreamliners.

The idea of airlines using their aircraft for advertising purposes, caught my attention six years ago, in 2013, when I was studying marketing at Copenhagen Business Academy.

For my final project, I decided to focus on how SAS - Scandinavian Airlines, could utilise their aircraft for interior and exterior advertising, both to generate additional revenue, and to create positive and memorable experiences for the passengers, in cooperation with well-matched brands.

I wanted to make a business case for SAS, to see their aircraft as something more than just selling seats and ancillary services, but simultaneously, not dilute the brand, by becoming a flying billboard service for the highest bidder.

How to get it wrong

During my research, I quickly found some bad examples of both airlines and advertisers, who seemed to have misunderstood the concept of proper brand matching.

Amongst the most surprising partnerships, I found that Jaguar had partnered with Ryanair, and painted one of Ryanair’s 737’s in a dark green and silver Jaguar livery.

Although this was in 1996, and Ryanair did not have the same reputation as it does today, they were still branding themselves as “the low fares airline”, which for a luxury car maker to partner up with, does not make a lot of sense.

Another surprising example was that of Alitalia, which decorated an MD-82 in a McDonald’s themed design, and flew with it for 4 years, from 1998-2002.

However, and around the same time, Alitalia also partnered with twoother brands, which resulted in one 747 being painted in Baci livery(Italian chocolate brand) and another jumbo jet sporting a Bulgarilivery.

Imagine arriving in Rome on Alitalia’s “Bulgari plane”, and then connecting to fly to Milano, on their “McDonald’s” aircraft…? The words “I’m loving it” do not come to mind.

Clearly, Alitalia saw their aircraft as flying billboards for generatingrevenue, regardless of the costs to the brand image of the airline.

How to make sure you get it right

In my case, I wanted to find outwhich brands would be a greatmatch for SAS, and vice versa, thatcould truly add value to each other.

To figure this out, I thought thatthe best people to ask would be thepassengers, who eventually would beexposed to it.

This led me to conduct a survey atCopenhagen Airport, where I askedabout 100 SAS passengers to selectwhich brands they would pair withSAS, from a list of 36 Scandinavianbrands that I had pre-selected.

The most popular picks were:

Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen - Thesecond-oldest amusement park inthe world, and known for its cosy andhomey feel, or “Hygge”, as the Danescall it.

- Bang & Olufsen – Danish luxury hifibrand

- Georg Jensen – Danish designhouse for jewellery, home décor etc.

- Royal Copenhagen – Famous for itsfine hand-painted

- Volvo – Swedish car maker, known for its outstanding safety and reliability

- Ecco – Danish shoes & accessories brand

I then compared each brand with SAS’, based on their values, history, target groups, visions, missions and strategies, and subsequently placed them on a positioning map together with SAS, to further identify the best possible brand matches.

I ended up selecting three brands; Tivoli, Georg Jensen, and Royal Copenhagen.

In addition to identifying good brand matches for SAS, I also asked passengers a range of other questions, such as their attitude towards the idea of exterior and interior advertising, and if they looked at the aircraft when waiting at the gate, which as it turns out, 74% said they do.

I eventually presented my research and ideas to SAS marketing executives, but unfortunately for me (and SAS) my project was never implemented.

Nevertheless, I still believe there is a strong case for utilising the exteriors and interiors of aircraft for advertising purposes, not just for SAS, but for any airline, if executed properly.

So how can airlines make sure they get it right, when choosing the right brand and advertising partner to create a powerful experience or campaign with?

Apart from doing research, which could be very similar of different from what I described earlier, Shashank Nigam, the CEO & Founder of SimpliFlying, offers a powerful insight:

The ultimate test to find out if your airline has a unique campaign lined up, is to simply ask one question: “Would this work if I replaced the logo of my airline with another?”. If yes, the campaign is simply generic, and you should most likely reconsider it. If not, you have a unique campaign related to your brand, and its chance of success is greater

Airlines that got it right

By matching the right brand, with the right airline, there is so much potential for airlines to create a coherent experience for the passengers, and to elevate both brands.

The best example I have seen of this is Finnair, which from the exterior to the interior, are using design elements from Marimekko, a famous Finnish designer brand, which is completely on-brand the Finnair, and very popular with passengers.

In Shashank’s book, SOAR, you can read more about how Finnair uses design as a language, to connect with passengers to breakdown down language and cultural barriers.

In other aspects of partnering with brands and creating extraordinary co-branded experiences for passengers, SAS has led the way in creating the World’s first multi-branded lounge, first in Oslo which opened in late 2017, and now also in Copenhagen, which is based almost entirely on partnerships.

Check out a review I did while visiting the SAS Lounge at Oslo Gardermoen Airport.

Airline marketing fundamentals

To be able to find the right advertising partner and ensure that the passengers, the airline and their advertising partner, all benefit from a potential advertising campaign or partner collaboration, it requires the understanding as to why and how marketing and branding for an airline, stands out from other industries.

This is especially true when it comes to brand engagement, which for an airline can be anything from 2-24 hours, whereas for many other industries, the time the customer spends engaging with a brand is much lower, and less invasive.

At the SimpliFlying Global Institute, we can help with just that. We have leveraged10 years of SimpliFlying experience, of working with 90+ airlines, airports and OEM’s,and hosting masterclasses for more than 1000+ aviation executives, and condensedall of it, into one online course – Airline Marketing Fundamentals.

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If you are an airline, a travel related company, or simply want your employees tothink outside the box by learning from the very best in aviation, please contact us attraining@simpliflying.com to discuss how this can be benefit your organisation.