The tectonic plates of airport marketing have shifted radically in the last few years due to widespread adoption of smart devices, social networks and nearconstant Internet connectivity. This have extraordinary implications for every airport as the new Connected Travellers expect airports to be accessible in their “pockets”, whilst receiving excellent customer service and a tailored airport experience on the go. The shift in airport attitudes towards marketing and in dealing with the new-age traveller is quite apparent – especially in Europe.
While airports have struggled with the dilemma of the “unknown passenger” for a fair while, they have fnally realised that the increasing use of public social networks ofers enough valuable information about passengers that can help them drive key business goals.
Many airports today ofer real-time customer service via Twitter and have immensely engaging Facebook pages. In fact, airports are launching some of the most innovative social and mobile campaigns today – all in an efort to tap into the “digisocial” revolution and enhance
the travel experience of today’s Connected Traveller.
SimpliFlying wanted to delve more deeply into the functioning of airport social teams themselves by asking questions such as: What is the budget allocated to social media? How many staf are being dedicated? What is holding back airports from becoming better on social media? In addition, we wanted to understand internal priorities, business goals, and, not least of all, budgeting for 2014.
To study these parameters and gain a deeper understanding of airport investments in social media, SimpliFlying surveyed nearly 50 of the best airports on social media, for its annual Airport Social Media Outlook 2013/ 2014.
Compared to last year’s numbers, we defnitely see a signifcant upward trend in terms of investment in airport social media. In fact, many airports are bullish about the prospects of a more aggressive social media strategy for 2014.
Globally, the top social networks used by airports are 1) Facebook 2) Twitter 3) YouTube. However, in North America, Twitter surpasses Facebook as the most used platform used by airports on social media.
There are, of course, diferences in usage and engagement. The frst thing to remember is that a large following does not automatically mean that an airport is doing something right. A strong brand name can often account for large followings. It is heartening to note, however, that even big name brands such as Heathrow and Changi Airport not only have large followings on Facebook -- about 100,000 and 300,000 fans each -- they also actively engage with their fans. Facebook is also the place where smaller airports can punch above their weight and gain loyal followers and customers -- Eindhoven Airport is a great example of such an airport.
While airports are still weak on Twitter, compared to airlines, some airports such as Amsterdam Schiphol and London Gatwick
have strong customer service presences on this channel. YouTube isn’t nearly as well exploited by airports as it could be -given the vast range of services that could be showcased -- but video is expected to boom in the coming months and years.
This year, more airports have also dedicated more man-hours to social media, compared to in 2012 when many of them were still exploring the usage of social media. A good half of the airport respondents this year have dedicated man-hours equivalent to 1 full-time staf to social media, while more than a ffth overall has allocated man-hours equivalent to 2 full-time staf to social media. Year-on-year, we see almost a stupendous 7X increase of airports that are dedicating at least one full-time equivalent staf working on social media.
Internally, there is an interesting shift sighted among airports this year with most Marketing departments contributing more budget but less manpower to social media and Corporate Communications departments contributing less budget but more manpower.
Majority of the airports invested in at least 1 day of social media training for their staf. Compared with airports in North America, airports in Europe are leading this front. In fact, 40% of respondents from European airports had invested in 3 days of social media training or more for its staf On the contrary, 48% of the airports in US and Canada invested in less than one day of social media training for their staf in the past one year.
What’s worth noting, in addition, is how airlines manage their staf. For example, to cite an airline example, KLM, which is one of the best known social brands dedicates about 100 people to the 24x7 manning of its social presences. While those with the resources would certainly beneft from
more manpower, smaller brands must take heart from the fact that a much smaller team, optimised for efciency, can also perform equally well on social media if -and this is a big if -- customer expectations are clearly defned.
that revenues has been replaced in the top three by both crisis management and driving loyalty as the third top business goals among airports on social media in 2013.
Qualitatively speaking, there is no denying the fact that many airports are engaging their passengers on social media to raise awareness of their brands. This is the number one business goal that airports are driving on social media. The second most important goal is, unsurprisingly, customer service. What is noteworthy is
In Europe especially, during these difcult winter months, it seems most airports are putting social media customer service and crisis communications teams high on their social media agenda. Even news channels today source the latest news from social media channels – the recent shooting at LAX and the Asiana Airlines crash at SFO are evidence of the fact.
However, currently there seems to be a gap between what airports are measuring on social media and the business goals they seek to drive with social media. A large majority of the airports are using ‘likes’, comments, shares, and size of fan base as key social media metrics as key performance indicators (KPIs). They need to delve deeper and explore using average rates of response times and issues resolutions as KPIs. Consider that Facebook itself does not consider ‘likes’ as an important metric in its algorithm that decides what content users see on their news feeds. Airports also need to mine the data from various social media metrics to refne their campaigns.
Of the eight campaign tactics we polled among airports, online contests rank frst –in fact, an overwhelming 85% of them use it. Second most popular campaign tactic used by airports on social media is user-
generated content, followed by air service or passenger development.
Contests usually require users to submit answers to specifc answers to questions asked. Many airports regularly ofer giveaways based on quizzes on Facebook to keep their audience engaged. Usergenerated content can be part of contests as well, but usually require the fans to submit content based around a specifc theme, or of a specifc nature as seen in the SFO Cheer contest in this report.
Further high-level engagement based on user-generated content is seen in Helsinki Airport’s Quality Hunters Program which seeks to improve aspects of the travel experience by inviting ideas from an online audience. Air Service Development based campaign tactics usually centre around promoting either a route or the airport itself versus neighbouring airports. Manchester Airport’s #Flymanchester campaign is a prime example of such an initiative.
surveyed feel constrained in their ability to perform well on social media without sufcient manpower. The lack of budget for social media is the second biggest challenge -- airports still fnd it difcult to oget senior management to open up their tight purses. While the top two challenges have remained the same as in 2012, ‘organizational structure’ (i.e. infexible team structure) has replaced ‘lack of management support’ as the third biggest challenge faced by airports on social media in 2013.
of social media on the business agenda of airport organizations.
The biggest shift has occurred in the $10k-$50k category which saw 33% airports entering it -- a signifcant step up compared to just 20% in 2012. 15% of airports have invested more that $50k into social media budget.
In terms of how the allocated budget is used, social media advertising clocks the most expenditure while training and development of apps come in second and third respectively.
The numbers from SimpliFlying Airport Social Media Outlook 2013/ 2014 are emphatic evidence of a change underway – airports are increasing their investments in social media.
The biggest challenges faced by airports on social media is the insufcient allocation of resources -- 60% of the airports
Compared to a year ago, more airports have put in more money to social media in 2013, and the allocation of a bigger budget is a testament to the increasing importance
While most airports face similar challenges from last year, there is a higher level of optimism to increase social media budget for 2014.
What is noteworthy is that 51% of airports have indicated that they will be increasing their social media budget for 2014. And interestingly enough, it seems that the European airports are leading this front. Only a very small minority -- about 4% -- are planning to reduce their budget.
While our Airport Social Media Outlook survey research provides some answers and guidance to airport marketers in this age of the Connected Traveller, airports need to continue experimenting with diferent social media campaign formats and tactics to refne their marketing strategy and work towards achieving results that map back to their business goals -- such as customer service, loyalty and revenue -- in innovative ways that travellers cannot aford to ignore.
All fndings are based on an extensive research questionnaire that was sent to airports performing well on social media. The statistics are based on responses measured across about 50 of these airports. Some additional information is based on SimpliFlying’s regular research into airport marketing campaigns.