Airline Marketing Benchmark Report December 2012

As innovative campaigns come in all shapes and sizes, this month’s edition of the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report is categorized into the following five themes:

Welcome to the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report

December 2012

Published by market research agency airlinetrends.com and airline branding specialist SimpliFlying, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report analyses a wide range of airline marketing case studies each month, providing you with the latest and most innovative social, digital, experiential and traditional airline marketing campaigns, and assesses their effectiveness.

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or are eager to help your airline move into the next stage of engagement, while also understanding how your airline is performing with respect to competitors in general, these reports are indispensable for airline professionals working in the field of marketing and corporate communications. Crucially, these will also help agencies that work with airlines stay on top of the latest airline innovations and initiatives.

For any questions about the report, please contact Shubhodeep Pal at reports@simpliflying.com.

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Campaign Of The Month Our monthly pick of an innovative or major integrated marketing initiative that stretches across multiple media platforms.

Experiential 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.

Social Media Besides engaging their online audience via Facebook and Twitter-based campaigns, the airline industry is also busy experimenting with new social media platforms, as well as launching mobile campaigns that link the online with the offline world.

Digital With a consistent global upswing in mobile technology, airlines are tapping into an ever-growing user base that takes to a variety of devices to stay connected and engaged.

Traditional Despite the current focus on social, mobile and experiential campaigns, airlines continue to serve up creative, traditional media-based, initiatives.

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JetBlue 'Getaway with it' | In June 2012, American ‘no-frills’ carrier JetBlue’s launched an online, live game show titled ‘Getaway With It’, aimed at promoting awareness and sales for its JetBlue Getaways package holiday service. The show, which aired on JetBlue’s YouTube channel, was presented in vintage American game show format, and was filmed live at a set in New York City.

JetBlue promoted the show through an integrated print, outdoor and social media campaign, including ads at its JFK terminal as well as through embedded ads on online cable television listings. The promotional campaign generated over 42 million total impressions and over 13,000 people signed up through an HTML5-based campaign website to be a contestant on the show. JetBlue also offered calendar syncing with Google Calendar to help remind people of when the show would be on air. The show relied on Skype to bring contestants live on air. Three contestants at a time, from across the US and the world, were asked a series of questions about JetBlue Getaways packages and destinations. Correct answers moved the contestants up in the rounds.

The winner got a JetBlue Getaways package for two to a JetBlue destination.

Over its five-day broadcast, ‘Getaway With It’ resulted in over 93,000 total live-stream views and 1.4 million unique page views. The viewing time of the show averaged at over 10 minutes per view. Additionally, the campaign increased consumer awareness of JetBlue Getaways by 117 percent.

‘Getaway With It’ was developed by JetBlue with its creative agency, Mullen, as well as production companies Unit9 & Holster and Suite Spot. According to JetBlue Senior Vice President for marketing and commercial strategy, Marty St George, the decision to build an online game show came after considering JetBlue’s customer base to be “young, affluent and digitally savvy” as well as taking inspiration from the increasing “gamification” of marketing.

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JAL ‘Welcome! New Sky Cafe’ | Brands often offer consumers a taste of their products. In a recent airline example, Japan Airlines collaborated with the Royal Garden Cafe, a restaurant in the Aoyama ward of Tokyo, to bring its new 777 seats to restaurant patrons. Inside the restaurant, JAL placed a First and a Business Class seat, as well as two Premium Economy seats and a row of three Economy Class seats, for guests to try out.

Between November 22 and 25, the Royal Garden Cafe also featured dishes prepared by Chikara Yamada, JAL’s International Business Class chef, served in JAL’s Original paper tray, which added to the verisimilitude of the JAL experience. A large promotional banner on the balcony of the restaurant indicated the cooperation with JAL

collaboration with the Cafe and its experiential initiative comes as part of its Welcome! New Sky upgrade program, which will see the airline implement new JAL’s

seats in all four cabins of its long-haul aircraft, starting with its new B777-300ER’s. The airline’s new inflight product will be inaugurated on a January 9, 2013 flight to London Heathrow. On a similar note, Singapore Airlines recently installed a fully operational Business Class seat at Harrod's in London to woo new premium customers. In Hong Kong, Turkish Airlines collaborated with local venue caffe HABITU to let visitors sample traditional Turkish dishes created by the airline's flying chef Denizhan Dağdelen.

United Airlines x Chase VIP Mall Lounges | With the holiday season being the US's busiest for retail, brands are attracting customers with new initiatives. For the second year in a row, United and Chase, the financial partner of the airline’s MileagePlus Card, are promoting their partnership by offering a co-branded experience for shoppers in key US cities.

Between November 23 and December 24, the Chase x United VIP Lounge experience is being offered in major malls such as Houston's Galleria, The Mall at Short Hills (New Jersey) and a new space at Westfield San Francisco Centre . Open to Chase United MileagePlus card-members and their guests, the lounges feature wi-fi, coat checks, cafe seating, snacks and flat-screen TV's among other amenities. Additionally, the lounges are supporting the charitable organization Toys for Tots on Tuesdays whereby non-Chase United members who bring in two unwrapped toys for charity will receive two United Club passes for access to the lounge. On Sundays, the lounges hold Football Sundays, where members and visitors can watch live American football games from the lounge.

The Chase x United lounges are an example of taking airline brand loyalty – a key business objective - outside the realm of aviation. Through the lounges at shopping malls, United and Chase have the opportunity to showcase their brand values as well as generate interest from other shoppers. Chase participated in a similar co-branded space exercise at the London Olympics with Visa, offering a lounge with food, wi-fi and Olympic athlete appearances for customers.

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Air New Zealand 'An Unexpected Journey' | Born from its strategic partnership with Warner Brothers, Air New Zealand last month unveiled its hit Hobbit-themed ' An Unexpected Briefing' safety video, which so far has generated nearly 10 million views on YouTube. As part of the on-going effort between the film, New Zealand and the airline, Air New Zealand introduced several more Hobbit-themed initiatives as part of its ‘The Airline of Middle Earth’ campaign.

Southwest ‘Business Travel Challenge’ | Southwest Airlines recently launched a series of advertising spots titled the ‘ Business Travel Challenge’, which, using campy dialogue and a game show setup, exhibit Southwest’s advantages for business travel.

The creative framework was developed by Austin, TX-based agency GSD&M, who constructed large sets of 80 foot-long courses for the game show-themed sets. In the ads, two contestants test what it’s like to travel under business travel scenarios.

The airline turned one of its B777-300ER aircraft into a flying billboard for the movie, covering it with a spectacular Hobbit-themed livery, featuring images of the first film of 'The Hobbit' trilogy. The aircraft arrived in Wellington, New Zealand in time for the film's premiere on November 28 and performed a 300-meter low fly-over above the Hobbit film premiere festivities. In addition, Air New Zealand also set up 'The Hobbit'branded check-in desks and baggage claim belts at Wellington Airport. ANZ’s ‘Hobbit’ aircraft is deployed on the airline’s important Auckland – Los Angeles– London routes – where it attracted a crowd of aviation geeks and Hobbit fans – to promote the film and its association with it. Onboard the aircraft, Air New Zealand's business class passengers are being given Hobbit-themed menus as well as hairy Hobbit socks in their long-haul amenity kits. The airline also featured a 25-page story about its involvement with the Hobbit franchise in the November issue of its 'Kia Ora' inflight magazine.

One spot whimsically highlights Southwest’s lack of change fees, and another shows the airline’s elimination of bag fees. Five commercial spots were released to YouTube through the Nuts About Southwest channel, bringing in 2000 to 7000 views each.

In a follow-up to the commercials, Southwest is bringing the ‘Business Travel Challenge’ to customers across four US cities. The challenges will feature similar game sets, inviting customers in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco to run through the game set ups. If contestants make it through to the end, they have a chance to win Southwest Airlines tickets and discounts. According to the airline, further details on locations, times and the prizes to be won will be announced on Facebook. In creating and translating a well-received television spot into an experience for customers, Southwest is targeting the US domestic business market in a very non-traditional manner, bridging the online and offline worlds.

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Turkish Airlines 'Zero to Hero' | In an effort to spread the word about its inflight wi-fi service on flights between Istanbul and New York, Turkish Airlines recently unveiled a new, cartoon-based Facebook contest. In 'Zero to Hero', Turkish Airlines asked its 1.3 million-strong Facebook community to come up with a story for someone who could go from being an ordinary person to being a 'hero' using wi-fi on-board one of its flights.

For the contest, Turkish Airlines created a special Facebook app which contestants had to 'like' to enter the competition. Contestants then watched an introductory video on how to write and send in their stories before submitting them through the app.

Additionally, Turkish also included a suggestion that the story submission be in English.

After the submission period between November 15 and 29, a jury set up by the airline then selected the best story based on creativity and writing . The winner of the contest, announced on November 30, won a four-night trip to New York.

The contest saw high levels of engagement, with each Facebook post by Turkish garnering between 500 and 1,300 ' likes' over the course of two weeks. Turkish also employed bit.ly to track analytics on the contest, which saw over 14,600 clicks.

American Airlines 'Know it All' | American Airlines' latest marketing initiative is a game that incorporates elements from inflight connectivity and mobile technology – both increasingly important in a connected world.

The game, entitled 'Know it All', was released on November 19 for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, and features trivia questions on a variety of topics. To promote the game and its new iPad app, American Airlines launched a simultaneous draw for entrants to win 100,000 AAdvantage miles each week by 'liking' the 'Know it All' page on Facebook. Top scorers from the 'Know it All' game each week are given an additional entry for the AAdvantage miles draw. 'Know it All' also lets passengers with iOS mobile devices play against each other on-board American Airlines flights via the inflight wi-fi network. Additionally, the 'Know it All' Facebook page features a leaderboard, showing top scorers, their miles flown and what flights scored the highest.

Perhaps the most important aspect of 'Know it All' is its integration with other functionalities on American Airlines' iPad app. Players have access to their AAdvantage account information, one-touch access for passengers to check flight details, get mobile boarding passes and select seats. The iPhone and iPod Touch app updates also include support for Apple Passbook. Facebook posts by the airline to its page generated over 1,400 'Likes' and 150 comments.

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Delta x TripAnomaly | Some airlines have tried incorporate social elements into their loyalty programs. Examples include Virgin America's work with TopGuest to award Elevate points for check-ins, JetBlue’s similar deal with Facebook Go Places, and Estonian Air's AirScore which rewards its social advocates with points that can be redeemed.

Delta and TripAnomaly, a travel startup, have jointly launched an initiative to award SkyMiles for location-based check-ins. In this arrangement , SkyMiles members can share their location at a Delta terminal or gate area at the airport on Facebook to receive 80 SkyMiles per check-in. The check-in takes place through TripAnomaly's own website, via which it is posted to Facebook. The back-end infrastructure to track checkins would be provided by TripAnomaly to SkyMiles for Delta to award. While loyalty points have often been seen as applicable mainly for frequent-flyers, apps and services like TripAnomaly's can be seen as the entryway for increased engagement with a greater number of travellers.

Another innovative example of how social media is being used to reward active social media users is Cathay Pacific's partnership with Klout at its San Francisco lounge.

Between May and July 2012, the airline welcomed influential social media users – those with Klout scores of over 40 – into its lounge, hoping this would create additional brand exposure.

JetBlue 'Think Up' | Through its variety of charitable campaigns and online and real-world marketing initiatives, JetBlue is an airline well-known for its social media presence and customer engagement. The airline's latest crowdsourcing campaign seeks to create a new tablet experience for flyers.

In 'ThinkUp', the airline reached out to its 680,000 Facebook fans to submit their ideas for the design of the airline's new tablet app, scheduled for launch in 2013. JetBlue will vet customer suggestions across six categories – Educational, Fun, Ticketing, Functional, Loyalty and Other – and will hold a live public vote for the five best ideas for each category. Submitters of the highest-voted ideas will win one full year of travel on JetBlue. The contest began on November 19 and continued through December 2, with voting taking place between December 10 and 17.

This campaign was launched in line with the 1 millionth JetBlue iPhone app download and the launch of its Android app. It's a great example of crowdsourcing, with a substantial incentive to draw quality submissions. Additionally, JetBlue benefits from the usage of direct customer-sourced suggestions to get a feel for what customers expect.

The airline posted 'ThinkUp' as a Facebook app under its page for “Customer Inspired Innovation” and titled the app's comments section as a “Chat” forum for fans to exchange ideas.

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Cathay Pacifc x LinkedIn | While many brands target their general audiences through Facebook and Twitter, Cathay Pacific turned to LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, as a platform for a highly targeted campaign.

For its American market, Cathay Pacific had a goal to increase brand awareness among business travellers who often fly to Asia. Tapping into LinkedIn user data, Cathay Pacific targeted Asia-focused professionals, 70 percent of whom planned on taking “one or more business-class flights between the United States and Asia in the next 12 months”.

The airline then placed a blend of targeted LinkedIn display ads and three sponsored polls, which asked questions about what travellers would do with their loyalty points.

The polls resulted in 1,324 responses from business travellers. Additionally, 97 product recommendations were generated from LinkedIn's so-called recommended ads, which added more social recommendations for Cathay Pacific.

Through data collected via LinkedIn's platform, Cathay Pacific's polls also gathered traveler information to use in future campaigns and on-board. Cathay Pacific, which now has 18,000 followers on its LinkedIn product page, ran the campaign for a total of nine months.

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Lufthansa ‘Anywake’ App | In an increasingly mobile-centric marketing world, mobile apps are seen as a key to reaching customers. Smartphone apps have been used by airlines to touch various points in the ‘Connected Travelers’ lifecycle. Lufthansa’s latest app is called ‘Anywake’, and functions as a daily alarm clock to wake customers up to the sounds of different cities around the world. To turn the alarm off, users are required to guess the city whose sounds are waking them up.

The unique feature of Anywake lies in its integration with Lufthansa booking: a correct city-sound match guess is rewarded with a discount for Lufthansa airfare to that city. If the user guesses incorrectly, they must wait for the following day for another chance. The app (for iOS and Android) is only available for the Swedish market and was developed by Swedish agencies Monterosa and DDB Stockholm. Lufthansa also released an instructional video on operating Anywake, which generated over 14,000 views on YouTube. Additionally, the app is also marketed as a way for downloaders to functionally cater to their wanderlust during the cold, dark Swedish winter months when it’s hard to wake up. Thus, Anywake offers an innovative look at how smartphone apps can be implemented in the airline digital space.

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Air France 'Music in the Sky' | Since the launch of its ‘Air France Music’ initiative in 2010, the airline has built a reputation for offering exclusive musical content. Following its 'Side by Side' Facebook campaign, Air France launched its latest musical initiative in November, a global mobile music discovery app. 'Music in the Sky' is an app for iPhone and iPad that allows users to 'unlock' new tracks by pointing their devices upwards to the sky. The app uses an augmented reality element for users 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. To celebrate the launch, Air France offered a preview of five unreleased songs from indie artists such as Francois & The Atlas Mountains and Melody's Echo Chamber. According to the airline'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. By engaging users through unique music, Air France's app positions the airline as a trendy brand that places importance on the sensory elements of the customer experience.

Downloadable through the iTunes store, the app was announced across Air France and Air France Music's social media profiles, giving it exposure to nearly 120,000 fans. Additionally, publications such as PSFK and FastCo picked up on its blend of music, travel and tech.

Delta 'Find the Red Coat' | Over the last two years, Delta has invested USD 1.4 billion into further developing New York as a major hub for the airline. In its latest effort to align itself with the city, Delta has launched a contest that offers 40 New Yorkers (and New York lovers) the chance to win a free flight to Los Angeles.

Entitled 'Nonstop NYC', the contest features three ways to play: 'Find the Red Coat', ‘Weekly Missions’ and 'Up Your Score' upon registering through the mobile-optimized campaign website. 'Find the Red Coat' has contestants “answer a question to unlock clues to the Red Coat's location” online. The first contestant to physically spot the Delta Red Coat in New York and give the correct password is a winner of a flight to Los Angeles. Weekly Missions are a series of quizzes and tests on the 'Nonstop NYC' website; the latest is a test to quickly identify five New York landmarks and match them to their mapped locations. ' Up Your Score' on the other hand, has contestants check in at designated Delta locations through Facebook or Foursquare in New York or spread the word about the contest socially. Through this, Delta sets itself up to gain exposure to its contestants' social networks. Additionally, for certain clues and information on the contest, Delta had contestants follow them on Twitter.

The airline has also promoted the seven-week-long contest to its 420,000+ Facebook fans, with between 200 and 800 'Likes' per posting. With its blend of social media and real-world experience, 'Nonstop NYC' is an excellent example of leveraging a strong market base (New York) to fortify the brand locally.

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Air New Zealand 'Airpoints or the Bag?' | Air New Zealand has had a long-standing collaboration with the country's All Blacks rugby team. A recent campaign by the airline leveraged this relationship to promote its loyalty program, Airpoints.

Wideroe 'Change Flight, Change Airline' | SAS-owned Wideroe is a regional airline in Norway that operates a large domestic network. Norway's larger and fast-expanding Norwegian Air Shuttle recently launched flights from Torp (Norway) to Trondheim and Bergen at lower fares.

Much like the popular TV show ‘Deal or No Deal’, in 'Airpoints or the Bag', contestants were given a choice between collecting an incrementally increasing amount of Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars or taking one of the “booby prizes” hidden inside each of the 10 All Blacks tote bags.

Wideroe, in partnership with McCann Oslo, responded with an audacious campaign to woo customers from Norwegian. Last month, immediately after Norwegian's first takeoff from Torp, Wideroe announced that it would offer passengers with tickets on other airlines a free flight on Wideroe to any overlapping destination with Norwegian; the premise behind the move being to highlight Wideroe's higher frequencies and flexibility with ticketing on the routes. Additionally, unsold Wideroe seats were the ones made available to Norwegian customers, resulting in little to no impact on Wideroe's existing passenger loads. According to Wideroe's Communications Director Richard Kongsteien, the move would cost the airline money in terms of passenger revenue and tax, but was “more than worth it in goodwill and marketing.”

The bags were filled with prizes ranging from signed All Blacks jerseys to holiday packages to Fiji. The contest was open to Airpoints members between November 5 and 22, and members had to enter through the contest's campaign website. Selected entrants were called at 7:45am by the Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB radio show. The host of the show asked participants a quick succession of questions to determine what they'd win. Additionally, during the contest period, Air New Zealand waived fees for applicants to the Airpoints program in order to increase membership.

The move also drew national media attention in Norway to Wideroe's main assets of frequency and service, leading to greater awareness among the public as well.

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SimpliFlying is a leading consulting frm that has advised over 25 airlines and airports on customer engagement and marketing strategy. SimpliFlying’s growing clientele includes Lufthansa, IATA, Estonian Air, airBaltic, LAN Airlines, Toronto Pearson Airport and manufacturers like Airbus and Bombardier. One of the Top 5 most influential on Twitter with over 10,000 followers and with over a million views on YouTube, SimpliFlying.com is also recognised by FlightGlobal for being one of the Top 2 leading aviation blogs.

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