Airline Marketing Benchmark Report-December 2017

AIRLINE MARKETING BENCHMARK REPORT December 2017 and Issue 63

I AM YOU

BY S7

A VERY MERRY MISTAKE

BY AIR NEW ZEALAND

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

BY VIRGIN ATLANTIC

WELCOME Published by aviation marketing strategy consulting firm SimpliFlying, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report contains 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 recently launched by airlines around the world.

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 marketing initiatives compare to campaigns from competitors in general, these repor ts are indispensable for airline professionals working in the field of marketing and corporate communications.

The monthly reports also help agencies that work with airlines stay on top of the latest innovative airline marketing initiatives.

For any questions about the report, please contact Dirk Singer at dirk@simpliflying.com.

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INSIDE This issue features: 1. Campaign of the month S7 - I am you 2. Aeroflot - The World’s four star airline 3. Air Canada CoolNotCold 4. Air New Zealand - A very merry mistake 5. Emirates - Game Changer 6. KLM - Care Tag 7. Heathrow and Munich Airports - Airport christmas campaigns 8. Qatar Airways Our success is also America’s shared success 9. Virgin Atlantic - Where I want for Christmas 10. WOW Air - WOW Miracle

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CAMPAIGN OF THE MONTH

S7 - I AM YOU 4

Russian airline S7, via ad agency W&K Amsterdam, has over the past few years established a track record of launching some high impact and really innovative marketing campaigns.

shopping mall, where shoppers were able to fly to a destination using their minds (brain waves via a headset controller).

Last year, S7 worked with OK Go in filming a music video in a zero gravity environment on a S7 aircraft, with S7 cabin crew appearing in support of the band. A sign of its success online can be seen that it was the most shared viral video in February 2016.

For example, in 2015, “Imagine” featured kids thinking of the kind of mythical places they would want to go and see (ones with chocolate lakes, places with dragons, mermaids etc) followed by imagery of actual S7 destinations that mirrors each of these ‘myths.’

Meanwhile continuing the zero gravity theme, S7 ran a campaign at the end As part of that campaign, W&K went of 2016 narrated by Cosmonaut Andrey one stage further and built an actual Borisenko, who spent 164 days on the ‘imagination engine’ in a Moscow International Space Station.

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A stirring and beautifully shot ad, hosted on a dedicated micro-site has Borisenko’s voice over a series of sensory experiences (e.g. the sounds of thunder, rain drops on skin, a couple hugging on a balcony, a door opening and revealing a great hall).

It then cuts to Borisenko sitting in the international space station saying, “I see the world every day. You have the world every day”, with the final tag-line being “see, taste, hear, feel. Discover the best planet we know.”

around you, especially when you are seeing it for the first time.

In its latest campaign, S7 has changed agencies from W&K to Moscow-based Stereotactic.

But the overall theme remains the same.

“I am you” is an ad which marketing magazine Campaign says ‘stands out in the air travel category.’

In it, the airline contrasts the fake, The message in all of these campaigns is manufactured experiences of the a similar one: Travel opens you up to new digital world with actually seeing and experiences. It makes you feel more alive experiencing things for real. and it makes you appreciate everything

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The ad starts with a series of Instagramstyle ‘boomerangs’ and ‘cinemagraphs’ and shows life being seen through a series of sometimes bizarre social media hearts and filters. In the first part of the ad, people reach out for experiences only for them to vanish on touch - because they are not real.

The idea that we should free ourselves from digital fakery and experience the world for ourselves is further articulated in both a series of print ads and via a web app.

The print ads show popular destinations with contradictory headlines.

For During the ad, a voiceover then recounts example, the title “this_is_not_berlin_ how the world has now become a place yet.jpeg” appears over a picture of the where you “like places you’ve never been Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. to, follow people you’ve never met.”

Meanwhile the web app allows you to The video then changes tack and tells upload photos of destinations you want the viewer that the “world is bigger than to visit. After doing so, the app creates a the palm of your hand” and it’s there to visual “ticket” of your chosen destination. explore for real. The sights and images Share it online and you can get a discount are then shown without filters or digital on actual S7 tickets and flights. gimmicks.

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KEY TAKE-AWAY In the words of the design-collector blog and website, “S7 Airlines did it again”, commending the airline and director Salomon Ligthelm for a campaign that mixes “glitch, vaporwave, selfies and unlimited access to planet Earth.”

Like other S7 campaigns, “I am you” works because it’s a world away from the typical airline marketing campaign.

Definitely not formulaic, it is beautifully shot in an almost trippy style.

“Yet at the same time, the campaign directly links into a key consumer insight: Why people travel for leisure. They do it because they want new experiences, and real ones, not the manufactured ones you get via your smartphone or laptop. According to an IPOS-MORI poll on behalf of Tripadvisor, the top two motivations for travel are ‘liberation’ and ‘immersion.’

Adding a web app that gets fans to share online content in exchange for ‘real’ experiences (via flight tickets) is a nice addition and one that further brings both the theme and campaign to life.

Well done S7 on another highly creative campaign, which is our campaign of the month.

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AEROFLOT - THE WORLD’S FOUR STAR AIRLINE

The Soviet Union might have fallen as long ago as 1991, but negative perceptions about Russian brands, in particular Russia’s national airline Aeroflot, carried on far beyond the end of communism.

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A cursory search of Internet traveller reviews from even ten years ago (2007) ago throws up gems such as “ The plane was very basic. The food was a joke”, “You’d get better food in an Indian prison” and “I was assaulted by one of the female staff on a runway in Moscow.”

Meanwhile Aeroflot has had several attempts at rebranding, for example in 2001, 2003 and 2007.

Fast forward to 2017 and things have finally changed. Earlier this year, Aeroflot was unveiled as the surprise choice for ‘most powerful airline brand in the world’

by Brand Finance, ahead of American Airlines, Delta and Emirates.

According to Brand Finance, which produces the rankings, Aeroflot received the accolade because of its “sponsorship of Manchester United, its young fleet, and its heavy investment in marketing, particularly in Asia.”

themselves’ – compared with BA, which ‘has not invested in the same way’.

Aeroflot the airline might have changed beyond recognition but perceptions of poor quality tend to be difficult to shift.

Aeroflot also won four star status from According to Giorgio Callegari, Aeroflot’s Skytrax, which in July contrasted the deputy CEO for strategy doing so hangs airline favourably with British Airways on two elements in particular. saying that it was “a ‘shining example of an airline that has transformed First of all there is the on-going

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association with one of the most high profile football / soccer brands in the world - Manchester United.

Though based in England, Manchester United is very much a global brand. For example in Russia it reportedly has eighteen million fans.

successfully turned around its image of being a communist era car maker churning out old bangers, into being perceived as the high quality, low price arm of Volkswagen that it now is.

It is also Asia’s most popular football club, with David Prosperi of Man U’s former sponsor Aon stating, “Manchester United has no equal in sports when it comes to global brand awareness, particularly in Asia.”

That gives Aeroflot exposure in the important Far East market, where it competes with the likes of Finnair and the Gulf carriers for East / West traffic.

Secondly, the airline has launched a fairly simple and to the point advertising campaign, initially in the UK, with the strapline “the world’s four star airline” and listing some of the places you can fly to via Moscow (e.g. Beijing, Hong Kong, Delhi).

The inspiration according to Giorgio Callegari is actually the car maker Skoda, which during the early 2000s,

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KEY TAKE-AWAY Sometimes simple works best. The tieup with Manchester United is at its core a badging exercise with some promotional activity built in. However, it gets Aeroflot in front of tens of millions of TV viewers worldwide every time the team walks out onto the pitch and associates them with quality and success.

Meanwhile the ‘world’s four star airline’ campaign has a fairly straight forward message. When most people think of ‘four star’ they think of hotels and brands such as Hilton or Sheraton. High quality but crucially, not out of reach.

AIR CANADA - #COOLNOTCOLD

#CoolnotCold is a campaign conceived throughout North, Central and South by advertising agency JWT to inspire America via its Toronto hub.

Brits to travel to the Americas this Winter - to “Cool” and not “Cold” destinations.

The integrated marketing campaign spans digital out-of-home, programmatic The core message is that Air Canada is display, press inserts, digital lightboxes not only a Canadian airline, it is a global and banners and a pop-up Poutinerie carrier that will take you to destinations in London’s Shoreditch district, which

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appeared in November.

JWT Live, explained that the idea of a poutinerie was inspired by looking at Inside the Poutinerie, visitors were able trends as the cuisine has become “an to sample dishes themed around ten underground food” sensation.

Air Canada Americas destinations, from Halifax to Buenos Aires.

Meanwhile, Air Canada’s Andrew Edmonds said that “The #CoolNotCold The pop up also allowed guest to virtually campaign is part of Air Canada’s new “take off” on an Air Canada flight through push to challenge what UK travellers a virtual reality on-board experience at think about the Americas in winter. We the Poutinerie and enter an Instagram and want to encourage everyone to explore Twitter competition to win Air Canada what these fantastic destinations have to flights, by tagging photos #CoolNotCold. offer all year round.”

Tom

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O’Donnell,

creative

director

at Pop-ups and experiential events are now

part and parcel of what most advertising agencies suggest to make campaigns go further. Some, such as Delta’s Tinder Wall, are so innovative that they turn out to be a great marketing investment due to the worldwide coverage.

For others, you have to wonder if the expense justifies the returns. For example, this year we have had pop-ups in London from American Airlines easyJet, Norwegian, Air New Zealand and Swiss to name just a few.

Is it a “rewarding move” as Campaign suggests? For the agencies who suggest it certainly, but we’d always ask - who is going to see the campaign, and what else could that marketing spend buy?

In the case of Air Canada, the airline does seem to have done a blogger and social media outreach campaign to support the pop-up. For example, leading UK travel blogger Elle Croft was given a free meal at the Poutine and wrote a very positive piece about it.

KEY TAKE-AWAY As brands such as Delta have shown, experiential events can work extremely well if they are innovative and creative.

At other times however we suspect there is an element of ‘reach for the pop up’ by the marketing agency.

If you are going to do an experiential or pop-up campaign one of the key questions to ask is this: Who will this reach? Sure the pop-ups are branded and visible from the street but with the average American being exposed to up to 4,000 ads a day, these are easy to blank out.

Instead is there social media amplification so that many more people will see it?

Or, as in the case of Delta, is the event so different that media worldwide will end up writing about it?

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AIR NEW ZEALAND - A VERY MERRY MISTAKE

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Type in “New Zealand accent” into Google and one of the auto-suggestions from the search engine giant is “do people speak English in New Zealand?”, indicating there is at least some doubt about this online.

him. However the board on his wall then tells him it is time to start taking calls from New Zealand, after which things start going wrong.

In call after call, Santa misinterprets what the Kiwi on the other end of the phone is telling him, and these nonsensical present suggestions are then relayed down to the elf factory.

The answer is naturally yes, but the New Zealand accent is a fairly unique one, especially when pronouncing certain vowel sounds. This is the basis of Air New Zealand’s Christmas based campaign, “A very merry mistake.”

For example, a book of “magic tricks” is heard as “magic trucks”, a “new bed” In the campaign video, Santa is first of becomes “a new beard”, while the factory all seen taking a call from China where he is told to make a “biscuit ball” instead of speaks fluent Mandarin, after which he is a “basketball.” congratulated by the elf sitting opposite

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Finally, after being harangued by an assistant with a heavy Scottish accent about the bizarre toys being produced, Santa summons a group of Air New Zealand flight attendants to help him out, who explain that “A’s are E, E’s are I’s, I’s are U’s, and O’s are O’s”

misunderstood at times, it’s also a signature part of our service. In fact, for many Kiwis, being welcomed onboard an Air New Zealand flight by crew after being offshore for some time makes them feel instantly back at home.”

So far the hash-tag that Air New Zealand According to the airline’s Chief Marketing is using to support the campaign, and Customer Officer Mike Tod, “while #MirryChristmus is reaching around 750k it’s no secret the Kiwi accent has been Twitter users a week.

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The campaign has also received acclaim in different media outlets worldwide.

For example, Mashable uses the Air New Zealand Christmas campaign as an example of how New Zealanders have been making “superb advertisements recently” (Mashable cites a Police recruitment video released by New Zealand Police which also got a lot of pickup in November).

Australia’s SBS News talks about the “viral Air New Zealand Christmas ad”, while the world’s largest English speaking newspaper online, the Daily Mail, called the spot “hilarious.”

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KEY TAKE-AWAY Getting cut-through at Christmas is hard. You are expected to do a seasonal campaign, but how can you stand out when every single one of your competitors is doing the same?

Air New Zealand has succeeded thanks to a few very important elements. The video is funny, it is the sort of thing you want to watch over and over and also share. It plays on something that everyone ‘gets’ - how do you understand accents and dialects different from your own?

It of course un-mistakenly says ‘New Zealand’, and more importantly by bringing in the Air New Zealand cabin crew as the ones who save the day, it showcases the people behind the brand (and their accents).

EMIRATES - GAME CHANGER

Both Dubai-based Emirates and its rival from neighbouring emirate Abu Dhabi, Etihad, have relied heavily on TV and film celebrities to front ad campaigns.

Earlier this year, Etihad collaborated with Ricky Martin on a campaign to promote Abu Dhabi stopovers, which we featured on the cover of our May issue.

Nicole Kidman worked with Etihad in campaigns last year, including starring in a VR film that showed off the different Etihad cabins. Meanwhile Jennifer Aniston has a long-standing association with Emirates, where most recently she was used in an ad that responded to the US laptop ban.

The latest celebrity to be enlisted by one of the Gulf Airlines is car-fanatic Jeremy Clarkson, who now has his own show on Amazon Prime after having been sacked from the BBC.

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In “Game Changer�, Clarkson does a reveal of the new Emirates First Class

Suite on the 777, claiming that sometimes the design features are inspired by the you experience something so unique that Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars: anything else pales in comparison after that.

“Emirates’ latest First Class product gives a nod to the design philosophy of The ad finishes with an Emirates jet the Mercedes-Benz S- Class, bringing roaring overhead while Clarkson stands together two global brands renowned on the runway. The jet causes his clothes for innovation, luxury, and comfort. The to fall off, revealing pyjamas of the type collaboration inspired several design you can wear in the first class cabin. details in the private suite including the soft leather seating, high-tech control Clarkson was chosen not only because panels, and mood lighting,” the airline he’s a recognisable face and a “brand” explains. in his own right, but also because of his motoring credentials.

That’s because The Mercedes / Emirates collaboration

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class by business you that Emirates

coming up with some better class product. I have to tell the demand for first class on remains very strong.”

KEY TAKE-AWAY Jeremy Clarkson is not an uncontroversial figure, it is worth remembering that he left the BBC after punching a production crew member.

then extends to S-Class cars with chauffeurs being made available to passengers prior to departure and on arrival.

According to Emirates boss Tim Clark, the Mercedes tie-up is a sign of the airline’s commitment to further developing its first-class product: “There is a view that many carriers are pursuing a response to the demise of first

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Nevertheless, just like Amazon did when it gave him a new show, Emirates probably correctly, works on the assumption that most of his fans (who are of course overwhelmingly male and middle aged) don’t care.

The type of motoring fan who laughs along to Clarkson’s antics is also the type who will be impressed by the S-Class link and is more likely than average to have money to spend on expensive cars.

Hence when it comes to demographics, interests and spending power, this is a collaboration that works.

LONDON HEATHROW AND MUNICH AIRPORTS AIRPORT CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGNS

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The average major airport gets revenue from three main sources. Fees from the airline is of course one source. But that’s now typically dwarfed by parking and, in particular, money from retail concessions.

again for Christmas, in “It’s a wonderful flight.”

The ad, which Britain’s largest newspaper, The Sun calls possibly “the cutest Christmas ad of the year”, follows Mr & Hence many airports ramp up their Mrs Bear through time from meeting marketing campaigns at the peak Summer on a BOAC plane in 1967, to Mrs Bear and Christmas periods, hoping to get welcoming her husband back with what’s passengers in and spending money. now become a whole family of bears in the present day.

For the second year running, London’s Heathrow Airport has released a TV ad “It’s a wonderful flight” has so far featuring two teddy bears. Coinciding generated coverage in almost every with the airport’s 70th anniversary, last UK national newspaper, as well as every year’s spot featured the bears landing, marketing trade magazine. As a result, going through immigration, getting their the initial investment in producing the ad baggage and more, with the soundtrack has paid off many times over. being the Chas & Dave Song “I’m going back.”

At the same time, Heathrow has created a micro-site which brings the campaign to This year Mr & Mrs Bear have come out life for fans. As part of it, you can take a

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‘what kind of bear are you’ quiz and listen to the song that accompanies the ad - the 1966 single, ‘I couldn’t live without your love’ by Petula Clark.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Christmas experience that MUC regularly goes for is to stage its own Christmas market. This has now been going for the past nineteen years and features an ice rink, kids’ shows, Munich Airport, which regularly wins live music and of course Christmas stalls awards for being the best airport in selling traditional crafts as well as food Europe, has taken a different approach. and drink.

A hallmark of MUC is to create regular live experiences in the space between The Christmas market also sees MUC Terminals One and Two. partnering with many of the airlines that use the airport. For example, LufthansaIn the Summer that has included building owned Air Dolomiti staged a series a surf arena and hosting the European of acrobatics shows, which included Stationary Wave Riding Championship. spectators being given the chance to win Meanwhile, in addition to the “Surf and tickets to Italy.

Style” event, the airport has also staged mountain biking and freestyle cycling demos in a “Bike and Style” arena.

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KEY TAKE-AWAY Both LHR and MUC’s Christmas campaigns are noteworthy for different reasons.

Heathrow has taken a successful formula, the ‘bears’ that were first introduced to the public in 2016, and built on it. Just like last year, the reaction to the bears was almost universally positive, and this year’s ad has a lot of emotional ‘pull.’

By following the bears from 1967 to the present day, this new 2017 ad also reinforces the message that Heathrow has for the past 50+ years been the main international gateway into the UK. Meanwhile Munich has pulled off another major live event with a real ‘wow’ factor.

Just like the surf and cycle events, the Christmas market is big enough to bring people in from around Munich, and also encourage arriving and departing passengers to linger at the airport for a bit - and ideally spend money

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KLM - CARE TAG

Wearable tech is big business, with the size of the market expected to double by 2021. According to IDC, 125.5 million wearable devices will be shipped this year (up from 104.3 million in 2016) and the total will hit 240.1 million in 2021.

prototype of ‘sneakairs’, which were GPS enabled trainers that guided you around Barcelona.

At the time, easyJet said the shoes would ‘one day’ be available to buy on board, but it seems that easyJet rolled these out As a result, it’s not surprising that airlines more as a PR-stunt rather than an actual have been looking at how they can product initiative. take advantage of the wearable tech revolution. Last year, easyJet created a The latest airline to get into the wearables

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market is KLM, and its innovation looks tips. A limited number of the tags were both more promising and realistic. released in September in English, but there are currently plans to produce The “Care Tag� is a smart luggage tag tags that talk to tourists in Chinese, that you put on your rucksack or handbag Portuguese, German and Russian. Indeed, when walking around Amsterdam. there are pages in each language up now highlighting the fact that these will be It is a smart audio luggage tag that available in 2018. automatically provides visitors with location based verbal tips on how to The design studio which created the traverse the city. The specially designed KLM Care Tag, Frolic, also designed the location-aware audio luggage tag KLM Night Light, which we covered in an consists of an offline GPS module and a earlier report. This is a light that business speaker. travellers can give to their kids, allowing them to count the number of nights that Naturally the voices on the KLM Care Tag the Mom or Dad will be away. that guide you around are those of KLM cabin crew, who recorded 300 insider Finally, like easyJet, KLM has also

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KEY TAKE-AWAY If producing a piece of wearable tech, four questions are worth asking.

First of all, is this just a gimmick to get some PR? Secondly, is it useful and does it add value? Thirdly, does it support the overall brand in some way? And finally, can it be scaled up?

produced its own pair of sneakers.

However, though these were limited edition Amsterdam-themed trainers for the Nordic market, they were not ‘smart’ shoes.

The answer to all four questions here is yes. The KLM Care Tag is a real thing and not just a stunt. You can see how all the GPS-guided insider tips are useful, and you can imagine how people would want this tag on their handbag or rucksack.

The fact that KLM crew recorded the voice-overs immediately adds a brand element. And it can indeed be scaled up - for example in different languages as KLM is doing now, or it could in theory be rolled out to other cities beyond Amsterdam.

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QATAR AIRWAYS OUR SUCCESS IS ALSO AMERICA’S SHARED SUCCESS

According to Qatar Airways, its “No Borders, No Horizons” video released in response to the economic embargo introduced by neighbouring countries was the most watched online video in June, netting 54 million views worldwide.

With Qatar Airways (along with Etihad and Emirates) having come in for sustained criticism from the big three American carriers over the past few years, the airline has launched a hard hitting campaign that claims that it is good for the American economy and American Qatar Airways has now released another jobs. campaign where the aim is to make a statement rather than sell seats or Key messages in the campaign include promote a new product or route. the following: That the airline brings 3.1 million tourists to the US every year

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(who in turn spend $4 billion), that it has workers with the key messages and stats invested $90+ billion in 332 American on top, as well as an online video / ad. made (Boeing) aircraft. And that it in turn supports 123,000 American jobs.

The video has images of everyday Americans, American cities and Qatar According to Qatar Airways boss Akbar Airways aircraft and includes the line Al Baker, “This commercial speaks “together we’ve strengthened the US directly to the hearts and minds of the aviation industry and the economy.”

American people. It eloquently expresses our firm belief that nothing great was So far the video has been seen 1.2 million ever built in isolation; that together, with times, and in addition to being covered our American partners, we will continue in Middle Eastern business media, it has to invest in America’s future by building also had pick-up in US publications. the greatest aircraft in the skies. Together, For example, according to the Chicago we will continue to soar to even higher Business Journal, this campaign sends a heights.” “blunt message to United.”

The campaign consists of a collection of Qatar Airways has also been celebrating shareable graphics showing American its 20th anniversary, which included

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launching a sale over November. As part of the anniversary celebrations, Qatar Airways issued four unique commemorative postage stamps in partnership with the Qatar Postal Service Company (Qatar Post).

It is worth noting that there are over 60 million stamp collectors worldwide, twothirds of who are in Asia-Pacific, a crucial market for airlines such as Qatar Airways which depend a lot of transfer traffic through its global hub.

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KEY TAKE-AWAY With its US-focused campaign, Qatar Airways has chosen to be bold and direct. Given the challenges that the airline has faced since the Summer when the blockade took effect, and given the criticism from major American carriers this approach does seem to make sense.

By going on the offensive, it gets talked about. And by being talked about, it can get key talking points across in the media and start to change the narrative.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC - WHERE I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

Crowdfunding is currently going through a boom period. Websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are used for everything from charitable causes to companies who want to bring new products to market.

Virgin Atlantic is now the latest airline to get on the crowdfunding bandwagon, with it’s “Where I want for Christmas” initiative, which encourages Brits to ask friends and family members for contributions towards flights and holidays instead of unwanted Airlines are now also waking up to the Christmas presents. concept. Last year Air Canada launched its ‘Embarq’ programme, the aim of which To take part, you have to create a profile was to help “cash-strapped” millennials go on the Virgin campaign page and then on a honeymoon, business trip or adventure outline where you want to go. After that by collecting small donations from friends, you ‘invite’ friends and family to contribute family, and even total strangers – which cash sums towards your 2018 holiday. the participant received as an Air Canada e-gift card.

Not everyone will be comfortable with

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the idea of sending out e-invites asking for holiday money, so Virgin Atlantic has also come up with a more conventional product to sit alongside the crowd-funding initiative.

pair of socks, a cheese grater etc) before being told that this year they can actually get what they really want - a holiday to Las Vegas, Orlando or any other Virgin Atlantic destination.

Virgin Atlantic Gift Cards have been made available to buy in London’s Liberty department store. These can be loaded with anywhere from £50 to £150 and hung on the Christmas tree.

The thinking behind the campaign is best explained by Virgin Atlantic’s SVP of marketing Claire Cronin: “We’ve conducted extensive research and know that our customers are increasingly valuing experiences over materials things.”

The campaign was developed by advertising agency Adam & Eve, which Though that sounds like press releasecreated a series of humorous 20 second speak (the rest of the quote goes on about ads and online videos to support the idea. Christmas socks), it does link into wider travel trends. As we mentioned in the S7 The videos (one of which has already article, an IPSOS-MORI study found that generated over 1 million views online), show seven out of ten travellers are looking for people on Christmas Day unwrapping “unique experiences.” useless and unwanted presents (e.g. a

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KEY TAKE-AWAY Virgin Atlantic isn’t the first airline to try crowd-funding, Air Canada was there first last year. However in many ways we prefer Virgin’s execution of the idea.

By linking it into unwanted Christmas presents, it is more fun, and the videos manage to bring the whole idea to life.

Virgin also hasn’t made the campaign totally dependant on crowd-funding, as it includes the more conventional route of gift cards.

Finally, positioning a Virgin flight and holiday as a life-enhancing experience rather than a product that you buy both makes it more valuable and ties into what people actually want when they go away on holiday.

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WOW AIR - WOW MIRACLE

Over the past few years, a number of airlines have used developed marketing campaigns where the idea is to delight, reward or unexpectedly surprise passengers.

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The most famous example is KLM, with its KLM Surprise. As far back as 2011, our CEO Shashank Nigam wrote a post asking whether ‘surprises’ such as this represent a viable marketing strategy (conclusion yes, but there are a few caveats).

The mechanics are fairly straight-forward.

Send a travel wish to WOW air on social media using #WOWMiracle, say where you want to go and how many people will be coming with you, and that’s it.

And how are the tickets delivered? By In our last issue we also covered British drone off course! With the WOW air drone Airways, which has an on-going #BAMagic already having made an appearance in scheme, where deserving passengers are Stockholm and London. rewarded with flights and experiences on a regular basis.

The campaign is supported by a video showing WOW air staff in a ‘Santa’s Just how regular? Since our last report workshop’ style setting where they wrap came out, BA has released two more up the miracle tickets and send them out. #BAMagic videos. In one, a young girl who has been treated for cancer gets So far, the campaign seems to be getting the chance to fulfil her lifelong dream of good pick up on social media. According becoming cabin crew. to Union Metrics, it received almost 200k impressions on Twitter in the past week In another, the airline reunites a married (at time of writing). And though there couple where one lives in Australia and are inevitable social media replies from the other in the UK (it’s noteworthy that customers along the lines of “it would be BA chose a same sex couple for this). a miracle if you got me to my destination on time”, the overwhelming number of The latest airline to roll out a surprise- responses are genuine ones, from people based marketing campaign is Icelandic wanting to win tickets LCC WOW air, which is currently running a Christmas themed initiative “WOW Miracle.”

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KEY TAKE-AWAY This campaign works on a number of levels. It’s simple and low effort, it doesn’t take much for people to take part. It’s fun and seasonal (Christmas giving).

The use of a drone in delivering tickets means it is creative. And the fact that the drone goes from city to city, allows WOW air to showcase different destinations at the same time.

Looking at the wider issue of whether “Surprise” is a good marketing strategy, the advice SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam gave in 2011 remains the same. Is this scaleable? Can it be repeated again and again?

The answer for British Airways with its #BAMagic initiative is yes. Someone is currently being rewarded with a free flight and experience once every two weeks, which gives #BAMagic credibility, as it is a sustained marketing campaign rather than a ‘one hit wonder.’

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ABOUT US

SimpliFlying is a global consultancy that believes in thinking differently about aviation marketing. Having worked with over 50 airlines and airports around the world, it has presences in Singapore, UK, Spain, Canada and India.

Today, SimpliFlying advises airlines and airpor ts on customer engagement strategy, achieving aviation business goals by harnessing the latest innovations in the social media space.

The firm also conducts MasterClasses to train and develop airline and airport teams to become self-sufficient in executing measurable and rewarding social campaigns.

SimpliFlying’s growing list of clients includes Lufthansa, Emirates, Toronto Pearson Airport, Halifax International, KLIA, Jet Airways, LAN Airlines, airBaltic, Airbus and Bombardier.

Get in touch at engage@simpliflying. com or visit simplifying.com.

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