Marketing / Advertising
Eindhoven Airport rewards Facebook VIP’s with designated parking spot and fast track security
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
20 May 2013 | Eindhoven Airport, the Netherlands’ second-largest airport, has embraced social media technology in a novel way by offering a select number of its Facebook fans several perks when they fly via the airport.
Anyone who likes Eindhoven Airport’s Facebook page and is due to fly from it can sign up to its ‘VIP’ scheme, and two fans are selected each month from the pool of entrants. The ‘VIP fans’ can then enjoy the benefits of one free airport meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner – flight-time dependent), fast-track security screening, personal accompaniment and free parking at a designated Facebook-marked spot in a prime location near the terminal entrance point.
The Eindhoven Airport Facebook VIP programme sign-up process is straightforward. Once the airport’s Facebook page has been ‘liked’, there’s a simple form to complete, requiring users to input their name, date of birth, email address, telephone number, the number of people travelling, the date of travel and the relevant flight number. Video of the program here.
Social media presence
In the past 7 months, Eindhoven Airport has added over 11,000 fans on Facebook and with the Facebook VIP scheme the airport wanted to do something in return for its online fans. Says Eindhoven Airport’s CEO, Joost Meijs, “Eindhoven Airport is working very hard on its online presence, with regularly the highest engagement rate on Facebook of all Dutch airports and the sixth position in the list of most popular check-in spots in the Netherlands. With a rapidly growing number of Facebook fans the time was right for us to offer our fans something extra.”
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Airlines embrace their inner tech-geek
This article appears in the May edition of the Airline Marketing Benchmark, a monthly report by airlinetrends.com and Simpliflying, which identifies the latest innovative marketing capaigns recently launched by airlines around the world.
5 May 2013 | One of the hardest marketing messages to convey is that you are current, and understand the market. ‘Silicon Valley favourite’ Virgin America is one of the best examples of this. Easy to recognize thanks to its iconic cabin lighting and hip and forward-looking approach to airline travel, Virgin America has firmly established itself as a favoured choice among the urban, tech savvy flying demographic. In fact, one of the airline’s aircraft is dubbed #nerdbird to celebrate the large number of Wi-Fi users travelling on the San Francisco-Boston route, thanks to their fleet-wide onboard wi-fi and USB and power outlets at every seat.
Recently more and more airlines are embracing their inner-geek to stay ahead of the trend-curve and cleverly selling themself as geek-chic.
#newAmerican x SXSW
American Airlines has pushed hard to shake off its old image, trying to prove that its new brand image is more than skin-deep. The airline organized a hack-a-thon at the annual SXSW event in Austin last March, allowing more than 60 developers to work with American’s travel API for the first time to see what they could come up with to further develop the users experience with the airline.
At the end of the event a total of 15 apps were created, based on over a total of 1800 man hours. The winning App entry was ‘AirPing’, which was a multi use tool for both airline and customer, providing live updates to flight changes and delays with estimate travel time to the airport.
The event also saw American launch a ‘Napkin Pitch Contest’, where travelers could pitch a business idea to the airline to make the world a better place, all on a simple airline napkin. Passengers could either complete a form online or drop their napkin into boxes located at the #newAmerican lounge at the Austin Convention Center and the Startup America Lounge at the Austin Hilton.
The latest venture for the carrier is to launch an investment fund for start up companies. The project is known internally as Blue Ocean, and the fund could invest money in entrepreneurs, startups and incubators, but it could also use its resources to fly entrepreneurs to investor meetings, or help them with awarding points, or in other non-monetary in-kind ways.
Delta x TED
Delta also turned more Star Trek than airline in February, showcasing its renewed focus on sleep at the annual TED conference in an innovative way. The airline hosted a talk from renowned Oxford neuroscientist and sleep expert Dr. Russell Foster addressing jet lag and how the eye tells time and demonstrate his research in action with a so-called ‘Photon Shower’ – a small light chamber that conference attendees could enter for a short period of time to help reset their body clocks through a personalized light treatment.
Delta has also teamed with TED to generate innovative crowd-sourced ideas to improve the travel experience, called ‘Ideas in Flight’. The program uses curated TEDTalks in social media as thought-starters to inspire their community, across technology, entertainment, design, etcetera. Ideas can be submitted through a dedicated tab on the Delta Facebook page, but passengers can also use the in-flight Wi-Fi for free to go to a dedicated ‘Ideas In Flight’ website which can only be accessed while onboard Delta transcontinental flights.
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The State of Airline Marketing
By Raymond Kollau (airlinetrends.com) & Shubhodeep Pal (SimpliFlying)
26 April 2013 | Airline marketing is undergoing a phase that’s exceedingly exciting, unpredictable and creative. Faced with ever more experienced consumers, who routinely ignore the commercials and ads thrown at them, airline brands are finding new ways to break through the advertising clutter to reach and engage consumers.
Besides dreaming up experiental marketing and creative – traditional media-based – initiatives, airlines around the world are equipping themselves with the tools and know-how to conquer the digital marketing revolution, experimenting with new social media platforms and launching mobile campaigns that link the online with the offline world.
Airline Marketing Benchmark Report
In today’s fast-moving environment, it is important not just to be creative and innovative yourself but to be more striking than your immediate competition as well. However, given the speed at which things move in digital media, it is no easy task to stay on top of the latest trends, fads and innovations.
Over the last six months, SimpliFlying and airlinetrends.com have published a premium Airline Marketing Benchmark Report. Published monthly, the report contains a selection of 15 of the most innovative marketing and advertising campaigns launched by airlines around the world and assesses their impact.
Across the close to 100 innovative marketing initiatives that have been featured to date, we have identified EIGHT TRENDS that range from experiental to location-based, co-creation and social loyalty initiatives and which reflect the current state of airline marketing:
1. EXPERIENTAL
Faced with ever more experienced consumers, who routinely ignore the commercials and ads thrown at them, airlines are finding new ways to break through the advertising clutter and are turning to brand experiences in order to capture the imagination of today’s consumer.
2. SOCIAL CARE
Today’s traveler is always tuned in to his social networks via a mobile device while travelling. In times, when frustration with a product or service can be vented (and spread) in an instant, it is important for airlines to tackle the problem at the place where it occurs, building goodwill as well, since everyone can see the responses.
3. ON LOCATION
Brands want to reach customers where they are. Instead of pulling customers and users out of their comfort zones, airlines are increasingly “going to the customer”. And what better way to do this than to design initiatives based where you are located?
4. BACK TO REALITY
Airlines have woken up to the need to connect with “real” people. There is a growing focus on everyday people, away from stereotypes, supermodels, celebrities and professionally made pictures/videos and airlines are seeking user-generated content or for example feature airline staff that share their day-to-day life.
5. CROWDSOURCING
Airlines have used crowdsourcing as an effective means to a variety of ends such as product innovations, for a tablet application, loyalty tier rewards and for improving hand luggage respectively.
6. VIRAL VIDEOS
In today’s online arena, those brands that come up with a creative and compelling ‘traditional’ commercial will be rewarded for their creativity as their work will spread very fast around the world.
7. SOCIAL LOYALTY & GAMIFICATION
Airlines are tapping into location-based services to track loyalty in terms of repeat visits as well as social advocacy. By offering real-world rewards to fans and followers who promote their brand online, airlines add an element of gamification to their marketing.
8. MEME JACKING
An internet meme is a concept that spreads from person to person via the internet. It can be anything from an image to a video to a hashtag. The popularity of internet memes and their deep association with the “internet culture”, makes them an effective marketing tool for airlines to create buzz around their brands.
Virgin Atlantic takes to the streets of Boston to surprise its Twitter followers
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
30 March 2013 | Airline marketing is undergoing a phase that’s exceedingly exciting, unpredictable and creative. Faced with ever more experienced consumers, who routinely ignore the commercials and ads thrown at them, airline brands are finding new ways to break through the advertising clutter to reach and engage consumers.
Surprise
We have seen airlines such as Virgin America, Delta, Brussels Airlines, SAS and airBaltic use the luggage belts in the baggage claim area to surprise passengers with free gifts to celebrate Christmas, Easter or Valentine’s Day, while LAN has surprised patrons of restaurants in the US with a free ticket.
Effective airline marketing today employs a hybrid model. The pervasiveness of Internet and social media users almost necessitates the adoption of marketing tactics that involve both the online and offline spaces. Even when the real initiative happens offline, airlines, more often than not, depend on their online audience to spread the buzz. For example, combining social media with real-world interactions, KLM a few years ago created a ‘Surprise Team’ at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport that randomly surprises passengers that have checked-in at KLM venues on Foursquare with ‘little acts of kindness.’
Virgin Atlantic ‘#FITFOO’
Recently, Virgin Atlantic started it’s new advertising campaign, and similar to British Airways’s ‘To Fly. To Serve.’ campaign, the strapline ‘Flying in the Face of Ordinary’ is less of an advertising slogan, and more of a company philosophy. Virgin Atlantic have now taken this to the next level to prove it’s not just a saying, but a belief.
In March, the airline took to the streets of Boston to brighten up an otherwise grey and rainy day. Scouring social networking site Twitter, Virgin Atlantic hunted for @VAAintheUSA followers to provide them some one-on-one attention to add a splash of colour to their lives. A team of Virgin Atlantic cabin crew in a bright red Mini Cooper visited Bostonians in need. Some people received cupcakes, one a bright red poncho to keep the rain away, and others had anything from a pair of hunter wellington boots to bright red scarves and mittens, and even brought a packed lunch to one worker in a furniture showroom.
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Air New Zealand plays matchmaker in Valentine’s Day ‘Blind Gate’ campaign
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
14 February 2013 | To promote its London to LA route, as well as its innovative Skycouch seat, Air New Zealand UK has launched a Valentine’s Day campaign which uses its own flights to pair two strangers together on a blind date. Named ‘Blind Gate’, the campaign invites those looking for new love to sign up for a chance to compete in a blind date contest, with two lucky couples flying from London to Los Angeles on ANZ.
The airline is collaborating with UK newspaper The Guardian, who had those interested in the contest sign up on the weekly ‘Blind Date’ section of its website. On Valentine’s Day, ten shortlisted contestants will gather at a specially built TV studio at Heathrow’s T1 to take part in the blind-date contest.
This contest consists of questions that promote elements of Air New Zealand’s in-flight experience, for example contestants will be asked what drinks they might order or what movies they might watch on their journey.
Each contestant has to bring a passport and a packed suitcase, and the two lucky couples chosen – one gay and one straight – will board an ANZ flight to LA as soon as the winners are announced. The couples will be seated on Air New Zealand’s Skycouch, a row of economy seats that folds into a 2-person couch, and which is also known as “cuddle class.”
To see how they get on, a camera crew from the Guardian will also document and follow the couples’ holiday to LA, including coverage of the flight on the Skycouch, for a five-episode series on the campaign website and for a feature in The Guardian’s Weekend edition.
ANZ’s “Blind Gate” initiative is not the airline’s first forray into inflight matchmaking. In 2009 the airline declaring that one of its regularly scheduled 12-hour overnight flights from Los Angeles to Auckland would be transformed into a special Matchmaking Flight, complete with its own social media networking site, pre-flight airport party, in-flight hijinks and a ticket to a gala post-flight mixer attended by 150 single Kiwis.
For more innovative airline marketing campaigns check airlinetrends.com’s monthly “Airline Marketing Benchmark Report” which is produced in cooperation with airline brand consultants SimpliFlying.
First ever Peugeot airport lounge opens in Malaysia
By Ryan Ghee, Future Travel Experience
7 February 2013 | The world’s first Peugeot Lounge has been launched at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport’s Subang Skypark Terminal in Malaysia. Before the 1998 opening of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, the (then) Subang International Airport served as Kuala Lumpur’s main airport and today primarily serves general aviation and some turboprop domestic flights.
Since 17 January, Peugeot owners departing from the airport can enjoy a luxury lounge experience, simply by presenting their boarding pass and Peugeot Privilege card or car key. The one-of-a-kind lounge, introduced by Nasim Sdn Bhd, Peugeot’s Malaysian distributor, features a private meeting centre and VIP room. Patrons can also enjoy complimentary light refreshments, WiFi services, satellite television and newspapers and magazines, as well as a flight information display.
Dato’ Samson Anand George, Chief Operating Officer, Nasim Sdn Bhd, said: “Passenger traffic at Subang Skypark has been increasing, and we expect it to keep growing this year as more flights are added. The Peugeot Lounge is a place for Peugeot owners to unwind and relax before boarding their flights. “We are committed to giving our customers the best ownership experience and we are proud to launch the world’s first ever Peugeot Lounge for our customers.”
Peugeot owners can bring a guest into the premier area free of charge as long as they too have a boarding pass. Exclusive Peugeot merchandise is also for sale in the lounge, which is located on the first floor of the Subang Skypark Terminal.
Air France app lets music fans ‘capture’ songs in the sky with their mobile phone
By Vivek Mayasandra, Globalizer.co
3 December 2012 | Since the launch of its ‘Air France Music’ initiative in 2010, the airline has built a reputation for offering passengers and its social media fans and followers exclusive musical content such as exclusive podcasts and ‘on air’ playlists of the music it play on board its aircrafts. In November 2010, the airline also took three bands – The Shoes, Monsieur Monsieur and Alb – on an Airbus A380 flight from Paris to Tokyo, with each act composing and recording a new track while in the air.
According to Air France’s SVP Corporate Communications Adeline Challon-Kemoun, “music plays a central role in brand communication” for the airline, with the app being a way to “evoke the relaxed serenity of air travel” through music.
Following its ‘Side by Side’ Facebook iniative earlier this year, Air France recently launched its latest musical initiative, a global mobile music discovery app.
Music in the Sky
Air France ‘Music in the Sky’ is an app for iPhone and iPad that allows users to ‘capture’ new tracks by pointing their devices upwards to the sky. The app uses an augmented reality element so that songs show up on the screen as little dots with music notes inside them. Users can then capture a song and add it to their playlist.
‘Music in the Sky’ also features different tracks in each country, so frequent travellers can discover more music through the Air France Music mobile platform. Additionally, users can test their music knowledge on the app to win “other unreleased tracks, concert tickets or even air tickets” by finding hidden games in the sky during certain times of the year. Video of the ‘Music in the Air’ app here.
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Lufthansa alarm clock app rewards users for guessing which city’s sounds they wake up to
By Springwise
9 November 2012 | Getting up on time can be a challenge, but numerous variations on the alarm clock theme are aiming to make it easier. Now a mobile app launched earlier this year by Lufthansa adds a different twist altogether. Specifically, users of Lufthansa’s free Anywake app are awoken to the sounds of a random city — if they guess which one it is, they’re rewarded with discounted tickets to that destination.
After downloading the app — which was created for Germany-based Lufthansa by ad agency DDB Stockholm and Monterosa — users begin by selecting a standard wake-up sound, which will then wake them up each day. Every other morning or so, the app will wake the user to the sounds of a randomly selected city instead. To turn off the alarm, they must guess which city it is — if they’re right, they get rewarded with a discount for airfare to that city. This video explains the premise in more detail.
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JetBlue’s offers 2012 free seats to Republican voters to fly out of the USA
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
22 October 2012 | Following Virgin America’s initiative to allow passengers to register for the upcoming US presidential election while up in the air, rival ‘no-frills chic’ airline JetBlue has launched a new campaign that is based on the outcome of the US election.
The new campaign, created with Boston marketing agency Mullen, is titled ‘Election Protection’ and plays into Americans’ proclaimed desires to “leave the country” if the presidential candidate they support does not win. For this, JetBlue has pledged to give out 2012 free seats (1006 roundtrip flights) to international JetBlue destination of choice for participants whose candidate-of-choice does not win the election.
The ‘Election Protection’ website, open for participation through November 5 (one day before the election) prompts visitors to watch a video and subsequently choose the emblem of the party they support in the elections, as well as their international JetBlue destination of choice should the election results not be in their favor.
The ‘Election Protection’ website also offers a real-time ‘heat map’ of customers’ preferred destinations, as well as how each candidate is doing by state. All of those who submit their candidate choices through the website are automatically entered into the contest and winners will be drawn at random on November 7.
“We’ve all heard it said before: if my candidate does not win, I’m leaving the country,” said Marty St. George, senior vice president marketing and commercial strategy for JetBlue. “Fun is one of our five founding values, and in this spirit we decided to give people a chance to recover from the political noise and follow through on their claim to skip town if their candidate comes up short.” Read full article »
KLM taps into Chinese social media with ‘Miffy’ campaign
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
29 September 2012 | Mascot marketing has been used by the likes of Finnair (Angry Birds), EVA Air (Hello Kitty), and All Nippon Airways (Pokémon) to engage consumers around Asia.
Now KLM, well-known for its innovative social media campaigns, has recently launched a social campaign targetted at the Chinese market in which well-known Dutch children’s rabbit character Miffy (Nijntje in Dutch) is the star.
China
With the local campaign on Chinese social media platforms, KLM looks to increase its brand awareness in the country, promote its European destinations, as well as increase the number of followers on KLM sites in the various Chinese social media platforms. KLM has made expansion in China the centerpiece of its Asia focus and is the only airline to operate direct flights from Europe to second-tier cities in China such as Chengdu, Hangzhou and Xiamen.
Miffy was chosen to be the ambassador for the campaign as the creation of Dutch artist Dick Bruna is extremely popular in China, especially among young women between the ages of 20 to 30.
Social media
The campaign relies on Chinese social media platforms RenRen, Weibo, Tencent, and Youku to build an interactive story in which a real-life Miffy – together with her ‘uncle pilot’ – travels to several KLM destinations in Europe over the course of sixty days.
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Brussels Airlines flies to ‘Tomorrowland’ in experiental marketing campaign
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
4 September 2012 | Since 2005, the end of July has marked the arrival of Belgium’s Tomorrowland, a major festival of dance music and culture in the northern Belgian town of Boom. The 2012 edition of the Tomorrowland festival – which took place on 27, 28 and 29 July – attracted 180,000 people to see high profile performances by the likes of artists David Guetta and Fatboy Slim. The festival is hugely popular and all tickets for this year’s event sold out in less than one day (at some moments there were 2,000,000 people on the online waiting list).
As the Tomorrowland organization noticed a growing demand from people abroad wanting to visit the festival it decided to enter a partnership with Brussels Airlines. Attractive travel packages were put on offer, which included flight, festival ticket and hotel accommodation or tickets for the DreamVille camping. The concept proved to be a success, as the 2,000 packages on offer were sold out in a matter of hours.
Flight to Tomorrowland
On Friday July 29th, 25 Brussels Airlines flights departed from 17 different cities today to bring more than 2,000 passengers from around Europe to Brussels Airport. Upon departure, passengers could check in at a Tomorrowland desk and were accompanied by special hostesses. Upon arrival at Brussels Airport, Tomorrowland hostesses were again on hand to welcome them.
Those flying in from Barcelona boarded an Brussels Airlines A319 aircraft branded with Tomorrowland flair and the 140 passengers on board were treated to a surprise inflight party, with performances by celebrated DJs Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike and Yves V. A video of the flight has generated more than 225,000 views so far on YouTube.
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Turkish Airlines taps on London Olympics fever through QR codes
By Shashank Nigam, SimpliFlying
8 August 2012 | The Olympic fever is gripping sports fans the world over. Tapping on the trend of real-world engagement through social media, which we highlighted in SimpliFlying’s recent webinar, Turkish Airlines has transformed national flags into QR codes and then placed them on digital bus shelters all over London to engage Olympic fans.
Working with their agency, McCann, Turkish Airlines has also added a little gamification on top of it by turning it to a London scavenger hunt. Those who find and scan the QR Code with their mobile phone automatically “check-in” to that flag via the mobile site. To win a ticket to one of Turkish Airlines’ 200 destinations, all one has to do is be the participant with most check-ins. Those familiar with location based tools like Foursquare would find this a breeze.
Of course, the underlying aim here is to co-relate the number of diverse countries represented at the Olympics to Turkish Airlines’ own diverse destinations. Even if a person doesn’t win a ticket, at least he or she knows Turkish Airlines flights to the particular destination on the bar code.
In the mobile site, users can see the closest bus shelters, learn their check-in data and general stats. This video shows the QR Flags campaign in action at a bus stop in London.
Gatwick Express offers free music tailored to the trip to the airport
By Springwise
28 July 2012 | Music can be an excellent traveling companion, and we’ve already seen several efforts to suggest or even tailor music playlists for a particular trip. Now, a new selection of custom music from the UK’s Gatwick Express train service aims to give riders a musical description of their journey.
The Gatwick Express train travels nonstop between London’s Victoria Station and Gatwick Airport in what is roughly a 30-minute trip. Now, offered exclusively to customers who buy their tickets online, the free Gatwick Express Tracks include three custom-recorded musical interpretations of the journey from recording artists Philip Sheppard, Benga, and The Milk. This video illustrates the premise in further detail.
Free love almost always tends to be a winning strategy, and that’s particularly true when it can help consumers get more enjoyment out of your product or service. Transportation entrepreneurs the world over: time to commission something similar?
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IKEA opens temporary airport lounge at Paris CDG Airport
Images: Streetplanneur
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
15 July 2012 | Aéroports de Paris, which operates Paris Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly airports, has developed a reputation when it comes to establishing innovative partnerships with well-known brands in order to create what trendwatching.com calls ‘Brand Spaces’ – branded areas that offer passengers a space to relax before their flight free of charge.
Following collaborations with Sony (Salon Vidéo HD), Samsung (SoundCorner), and Philips (light therapy pods), the airport has now teamed up with IKEA to create a public airport lounge accessible for all passengers.
‘Democratic lounge’
In what IKEA has dubbed “the first democratic airport lounge open to everybody,” travellers at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport can relax in a 220-square meters lounge area that features a large number of sofas, table, lamps and tv’s from the Swedish furnishing giant. Passengers can wait for their flight while reading or watching TV from a comfortable sofa and tired travellers can even hop into an IKEA bed located in one of the nine bedrooms of the space for a short nap. Meanwhile, children can enjoy themselves in a secure area supervised and entertained by qualified childcare instructors.
Says IKEA in its press release, “Holiday departures are often a source of stress and nervousness. To make the journey start already in the airport, IKEA and its partners have designed a space where the whole family can relax. Because waiting time in the boarding area is on average 1 hour and 43 minutes, IKEA wanted its expertise in interior design to serve the economy class […] showing its commitment of improving the everyday life for the many.”
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Low-cost carrier Volaris offers free tickets to Mexicans who have never flown before
By Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com
12 July 2012 | Despite the fiscal woes in Europe and the recession that is taking place in a large part of the developed world, a new middle class is emerging in rapidly developing economies such as the so-called BRICs and The Next-11. These countries are enjoying significant economic growth, which is resulting in the creation of a middle class who are ‘trading up’ from long-distance buses to travelling by air, often flying for the first time in their life.
Brazil, Kenya
We have reported before how an airline like TAM is targetting the rapidly growing middle class in Brazil in innovative ways, for example by selling tickets via kiosks at low-end retail chains and subway stations. The airline also allows customers to pay their ticket in multiple installments and provides ‘how to fly’ advice to first-time flyers. Meanwhile in East Africa, airlines such as Kenya Airways and Uganda Airlines have teamed up with mobile payment services like M-PESA and Airtel Money to allow people without a bank account to purchase air tickets via their mobile phone.
Mexico
To demonstrate that air travel is no longer out of reach for the masses, Mexican low-cost airline Volaris in 2011 joined efforts with EnElAire – a Mexican aviation website and radio program – to realize the dream of 15 people with a passion for flying but who had never taken a flight before.
After asking the general public via radio and various social media, “Do you know anyone who dreams of flying on an airplane yet hasn’t been able to do so?,” Volaris and EnElAire received dozens of stories submitted by people nominating friends or family members to participate in the contest.
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