Airline Marketing Benchmark Report- May 2018

AIRLINE MARKETING BENCHMARK REPORT May 2018 and Issue 67

THE ULTIMATE SCHOOL TRIP JET2

WOW TRAVEL GUIDE

BY WOW AIR

HESSEN GOES GLOBAL

BY LUFTHANSA CARGO

DEAR SUBSCRIBER,

Welcome to the May issue of the our monthly airline marketing report, and welcome as well to our new subscribers following the very successful lab in Miami. If you missed the lab, why not sign up to our next one in London?

First of all some news from SimpliFlying: Nominations for the latest SimpliFlying Awards are open. We have some brand new categories this year, take a look and nominate either yourselves or someone else that you feel would be a deserving winner.

Our campaign of the month is Jet2’s highly successful kids and schools campaign - “The Ultimate School Trip”. 1600 schools from around the UK applied, via video applications, to win a school trip to Majorca.

This would have meant tens of thousands of children, their teachers (and we assume parents too who will have helped) will have taken part in a Jet2 exercise. And being a leisure airline whose mainstay is sun and ski routes, this is exactly the target audience the airline will want to reach.

Our first featured campaign is WOW Air’s travel guide, where 4800+ people have so far submitted video entries to win a paid Summer job with WOW Air, where they travel around the airline’s 38 destinations producing content.

Our second featured campaign is Lufthansa Cargo’s “Hessen goes Global” to reward small businesses in the Hessen region (where Frankfurt Airport is) with free shipping abroad.

Lufthansa Cargo has featured in our previous reports, despite not being a b2c brand, we’re continually impressed with their visual content strategy in particular.

Speaking of visual content, we’ve launched a brand new visual storytelling arm called Visible. If you’ve not already seen it, you can download a magazine we produced to launch Visible here.

Finally, don’t forget you can get a daily dose of analysis and commentary on aviation issues by tuning into SimpliFlying founder Shashank Nigam’s regular ‘SimpliFlying Live Show’ on Facebook.

Dirk Singer.. dirk@simpliflying.com

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INSIDE This issue features: 1. Jet2 - CAMPAIGN OF THE MONTH - The Ultimate School Trip 2. WOW Air - FEATURED CAMPAIGN - WOW Travel guide 3. Lufthansa Cargo FEATURED CAMPAIGN Hessen goes global 4. ANA - Beyond Tokyo 5. American Airlines Avengers Superheroes 6. British Airways Britishness Explained 7. KLM - The Journey 8. Qantas - No one travels like Australians 9. Virgin Atlantic - Rekindle the adventure 10. Virgin America / Alaska Airlines - A Virgin Farewell

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CAMPAIGN OF THE MONTH

JET2 - THE ULTIMATE SCHOOL TRIP 4

According to UK leisure airline Jet2, “School trips help to create some of our best school memories. Inspirational locations, learning outside the classroom and the joy of travelling with your best mates all make school trips magical.”

Dom”, the Ultimate School Trip campaign gave classes of kids aged 9-13 the chance to win a trip to the Sol Katmandu Park & Resort in Majorca to take part in “fun educational workshops.”

To enter, kids had to “jet-power their This insight led the airline to launch it’s imagination” and produce their own “Ultimate School Trip” campaign, last promotional piece for Sol Katmandu Park November, where the actual trip having & Resort, whether that be a poster, poem, took place at the end of April 2018. song or video.

Fronted by UK kids’ TV presenters “Dick & Despite

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the

barrier

to

entry

being

reasonably high (i.e. this is much more than a case of “like to win�), the campaign received an excellent response. 1600 schools ended up submitting entries, with with Jet2 putting 45 entries up for a public vote in March.

For example, Valley Gardens Middle School in Whitley Bay did a spoof news broadcast, Wheatfield Primary School went filmed a song and dance routine, while Ormiston SWB Academy in the West Midlands pretended to do a virtual reality tour of the Katmandu Resort in a Indeed, a look through YouTube shows geography lesson. that a lot of kids and schools went through a fair amount of effort to try and win the Meanwhile, one of the eventual winners, prize, with some really creative entries Canal View Primary School in Edinburgh, being submitted.

Scotland, produced a kind of play featuring a lego set and lego characters.

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In the end, nine schools won the prize, each one linked to one of Jet2’s UK airports (Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, East Midlands, London Stansted etc).

Every stage of the campaign was hosted on Jet2’s social media channels (in particular YouTube and Facebook), as well as via a micro-site. The campaign videos on Facebook in particular seem They were then flown to Majorca for a to have notched up over 100k views, with long weekend over 20-22 April, featuring excellent engagement. a welcome party, a school disco and interactive Science, History, Drama and Crafts workshops hosted by “Dick & Dom.”

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down to nine winners. For 1600 school classes to take part is hugely impressive.

Assuming a class size of 30, that means close to 50k kids will have participated.

And those kids will have gone home and talked to their parents / sibling about it, making Jet2 a topic of dinner time conversation in homes around the UK. Why did so many schools take part? Our assumption is that a lot of teachers will sometimes struggle to come up with a fun and interactive class project Jet2 provided a ready made solution with an amazing prize as an incentive.

KEY TAKE-AWAY We’ve chosen ‘The Ultimate School Trip’ as our campaign of the month for a number of reasons: 1 - Targeting. The targeting here is spot on. Jet2 flies mainly from UK regional airports (and also London Stansted) to destinations in the Mediterranean, as well as some city break destinations such as Prague and ski destinations in the Winter.

2 - Exposure. One of the campaign videos mentions that 1600 entries were whittled

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3 - Longevity. The campaign kicked off in November and the winners’ flew to Spain in March. That’s six months worth of exposure and content. That content was, bearing in mind it was largely produced by ten year old kids and their teachers, of an extremely high quality.

4 - Celebrity involvement. Dick & Dom are well known figures on UK kids’ TV, and other celebrities were brought in as well for the actual trip.

Getting schools to become involved in a commercial initiative can be tricky, but Jet2 has shown how it can be done.

WOW TRAVEL GUIDE FEATURED CAMPAIGN WOW AIR

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In 2009, a travel campaign “stormed” the annual Cannes Lion advertising awards. So much so that it is still being talked about today as an example of best practice travel marketing.

already getting a lot of media pick-up.

WOW Air has launched the “WOW Travel Guide.” The idea behind it simple. Two people will have a “paid Summer job” this Summer in Iceland. However they won’t The campaign was ‘The Best Job in the be there all the time, instead they will visit World’ by Tourism Queensland, where a each of WOW Air’s 38 destinations. worldwide search was conducted to find a paid “caretaker” to live on a tropical Specifically, the successful applicants island.

Tourism Queensland claimed will move to Iceland from 1 June until that this campaign resulted in more than 15 August, where they will receive a $80m of equivalent media advertising monthly salary and live in an apartment space. in downtown Reykjavik.

Nine years on, and another travel brand They will use the place as a base to is trying something not dissimilar, and it’s travel to destinations served by WOW

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Air across Europe and North America and will also explore Iceland. They’ll get a monthly salary, with the stipulation that they have to create content about the different destinations.

guide of your hometown onto YouTube

by May 14th.

At time of writing, YouTube search revealed a whopping 4800 video “applications” for the WOW Air job.

The result will then be the ‘WOW Travel Guide”, a compilation of content about And many of these video applications all the places WOW Air flies to. aren’t from run of the mill members of the public, it looks as if bloggers and so4800 VIDEO APPLICATIONS RECEIVED called social media influencers are trying to get in on the act.

To apply, you have to upload a short travel

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almost 20k views.

A lot of bloggers (as well as a lot of ordinary members of the public) clearly really, really want this job, and our suspicion is that on a few of the videos we saw, the views and likes were artificially “juiced up” (see our piece on the ecosystem of fakes in our launch magazine for Visible).

On most though, the engagement The result is that some of these application appears to be real and the content creator videos have a fair amount of views.. reputable. That means that WOW Air is already reaching hundreds of thousands For example, a guide to the nightlife of travel fans online for free - and the in Playa del Carmen has received competition is still in its first phase. over 100,000 views, and 4000+ likes.

Unfortunately WOW Air doesn’t fy WOW Air has a track-record of producing there, and our hunch is that WOW Air fun and creative campaigns aimed at will probably choose someone from an millenials, and this one very much fits existing destination. into that mix.

Likewise, we suspect that the bloggers who uploaded the very professional and fun guide to Taipei, Taipei zoo and Night Market will be out of luck.

For example, WOW Air has produced one of the best examples of Snapchat Marketing through it’s Snaptraveler campaign in 2016, where (in an idea not dissimilar to the current Travel Guide However there are plenty of videos for competition) Snapchat influencers went destinations that WOW Air does fly to. to WOW Air destinations.

For example, this one by Monica Ortega on Chicago, has already notched up Meanwhile to launch its new California

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KEY TAKE-AWAY This is a great campaign, where the results so far speak for themselves.

Indeed, the only reason why we haven’t put it on this month’s cover is that it still has several months to run - and as a result, we’ll probably be revisiting it over the Summer.

(LA, SF) routes to Iceland and beyond, WOW Air worked with professional surfer Anastasia Ashley (who has two million Facebook fans) in coming up with a 24 hour surf challenge, where she had to surf both a beach in LA and one in Iceland in a day.

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However, it’s well thought out to target WOW Air’s core millennial audience, with CNBC calling it a campaign where WOW Air “will will pay you $4,000 a month to travel the world for free with your BFF.” Engagement so far via the video entries has been excellent, and there’s been a lot of media pick-up about the campaign.

No doubt that will increase as the campaign progresses.

HESSEN GOES GLOBAL FEATURED CAMPAIGN LUFTHANSA CARGO

Despite being a b2b brand, we’ve featured stories and posts.

Lufthansa Cargo in previous issues for having one of the best aviation Instagram In addition to Instagram, Lufthansa Cargo accounts that we’ve seen. also has an active YouTube channel packed with interesting videos as well as Instagram tactics have included a 24 regular mini-features. days of Christmas gift promotion, a competition where fans sent in pictures One example is “Hessen goes Global.”

LH Cargo planes made out of lego, and Hessen is of course the region of Germany several Instagram takeovers where pilots where Lufthansa’s home Frankfurt Airport took over the account and showed what it is located, and this initiative allowed is like to work for the airline via Instagram small and medium sized businesses

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from across the area to enter to win free on the Cargovention website, and each logistics support and transport of their also had a short film made about them goods around the world. which appeared on the Lufthansa Cargo YouTube channel.

The initiative was held in association with a number of other partners including Finalists included “Schönwetterfront” (a logistics firms UPS and Panalpnia, as well Hawaiian shirt manufacturer, where the as regional development agency, Hessen patterns have German-inspired images Trade & Invest. such as Riesling grapes and Edelweiss), “Frankfurter Brett” (a chopping block For a chance of winning the prize, small for chefs) and “Nik Huber Guitars” (an business exporters in Hessen had to E-guitar maker for Robbie Williams and apply via the Cargovention website - the Foo Fighters among others).

Cargovention being a Lufthansa Cargoled exhibition and conference in Frankfurt Every finalist went in front of a judging on March 8th. panel at Cargo Convention, with Lufthansa producing a short film of the event and the Five finalists were then chosen from finalists moderated by German motoring among the entries. Each was profiled journalist Jens Kuck.

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The eventual winners were Nik Huber “Seats for Startups” initiative from UK / Guitars and Frankfurter Brett.

European regional airline bmi.

Over the next year, the two Hessian companies will receive support in launching their products worldwide and thereby tapping new markets.

New and emerging businesses from the Bristol, UK, region (Bristol being one of bmi’s main bases) had the opportunity to apply for free flights to Europe to grow their business, with the judging panel Lufthansa Cargo and its shipping partners including representatives of the UK’s Panalpina and UPS will provide them Department for International Trade. with free air-freight capacity of up to one container per month as well as free door- On the back of this campaign, bmi became to-door shipments and the organisation an official partner of the Department for of all necessary customs clearance International Trade’s “Exporting is Great” processes. campaign, being the only UK airline other than British Airways to be part of the A campaign with a similar idea, albeit initiative executed on a smaller scale, was the 2016

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KEY TAKE-AWAY Key takeaway: There’s a story behind every passenger journey, but the same is true for cargo as well. Over the past few years, Lufthansa Cargo has taken this idea to heart and has produced social media content which is genuinely engaging and interesting.

With Hessen goes Global, Lufthansa Cargo has taken this concept one step further in showing that there’s not only a story behind every piece of cargo, but the companies which send those shipments have their own stories too.

Finally, with Lufthansa being headquartered in Frankfurt, this was a good way of showing that LH is a good corporate citizen, not only to local residents but also local businesses.

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ANA - BEYOND TOKYO

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Japanese airline ANA is quickly acquiring a track record for working with and pioneering experimental technology. In the last issue for example our cover story was the ANA ‘Avatar’ programme.

“teleport” yourself to anywhere in the world (via a robotic skeleton), as well as funding a $10 million prize for teams of developers to do the same.

ANA’s latest initiative, Beyond Tokyo, This both involves the airline developing seems to fit very much into this emerging avatar technology that will allow you to technology theme.

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Beyond Tokyo is a collaboration between for $499 in the US, on top of which you virtual reality company, The Soap need to buy a subscription for content Collective and The World Innovation (there is a free trial).

Lab to a virtual reality experience.

In Q3 2017 (so before Christmas), HTC The VR experience is centred around the had sold 160,000 Vive units, compared to Tokyo neighbourhood of Shibuya, and 490k Playstation VR headsets and 210k includes 360 videos, audio narration, Oculus Rift headsets which were shipped photos, and interactive storytelling. during the same period.

According to the landing page: As a result, ANA seems to be taking a “Experience the hustle and bustle of the punt on a new piece of technology that famous Shibuya Crossing, a visit to an has yet to get mass consumer adoption. izakaya restaurant where locals unwind, Some commentators seem to think it will, “fishing” in Shibuya, the renowned fashion computing company Nvida has predicted culture in Harajuku, the importance of that sales will jump to 50 million by 2021 spirituality in daily lives, the story of Japan’s (with the caveat that Nvida has a vested most loyal dog “Hachiko”, and even some interest in talking up this particular quirky urban legends of the area.” technology).

Beyond Tokyo is not something the average consumer will be able to access.

This is because it works via the HTCowned Virtual Reality headset system ‘Vive.’ Vive is HTC’s answer to Oculus Rift, and it gets good reviews in the tech press.

For example, TechRadar gave it a 5/5 rating and said it delivers the best VR experience. However at the same time, it called Vive ‘pricey’ - it currently retails

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Meanwhile, Zach Osumi, ANA’s Project Director believes that virtual reality has enormous potential for travel brands, and could encourage people to fly more: “I believe that the core value of VR is not to replace the real world, but to create a whole new world and experience. Some foresee a day when technology gets so advanced that no one will go travel.

It could happen. But I strongly believe

that once we could stimulate intellectual curiosity about a place, and help people make an emotional connection with the place, THAT will inspire people to travel more.”

mainstream, them the airline will have a head start in creating content for these platforms.

Other airlines have worked with VR, albeit through Google Cardboard. For Time will tell if ANA’s investment has example, last year KLM produced a ‘flight paid off. If VR headsets do become upgrader’ (which seeks to persuade

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passengers of LCCs to fly KLM).

star airline (according to Skytrax).

WE ARE JAPAN

It’s then split into seven categories, with each looking at a different area of Japan While Beyond Tokyo might be - eat, drink, see, stay, do, discover and go. experimental, another ANA initiative, We are Japan, is much more accessible as it Like ANA’s other online content initiatives runs on Tumblr. (many of which we’ve written about in previous issues), both the imagery and ANA is one of the few airlines to currently copy are high quality, with the Tumblr site make use of the micro-blogging platform, managing to impart useful information despite it having 400+ million blog about Japan without the posts seeming accounts. too commercial.

Using Tumblr has a number of benefits beyond the size of the community. It works well as a kind of visual scrapbook, and of course aviation is inherently visual.

While a lot of travel microsites tend to gather dust after launch, or are only updated infrequently, ANA appears to have a good content funnel for ‘We are Japan.’

Tumblr can also be a good place to test out content that might not immediately In April 2018, for example, there were fit on your main website, including using 13 posts on the Tumblr site, covering it for campaign specific landing pages. everything from staying at Japan’s most serene Buddhist retreats to the top five “We are Japan” is aimed specifically at “Kawaii” Instagramers.

European visitors to Japan.

JOURNEY BY DESIGN The Tumblr site opens with a corporate video promoting the fact that there are Finally, ANA is once again working with seven daily flights from Europe to Japan social media influencers in the Asia-Pacific with ANA and that it’s Japan’s only five region and bringing them to Japan.

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A first group of YouTube and Instagram influencers went to Japan in September, as part of a ‘Journey by Design’ campaign. This second group comes from Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. While in Japan they will create content for their local markets to promote it as a destination.

ANA is just one of a number of airlines, which uses influencers, something that we’re very much in favour of at SimpliFlying and at Visible (our new visual content arm).

Even so-called “micro influencers” often have a reach that rivals that of a regional newspaper or radio station and they can bring a fresh and unique perspective onto your brand (or in this case destination).

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KEY TAKE-AWAY Most new campaigns and initiatives (not only in airlines but in any commercial organisation) are assessed by the likely ROI. When it comes to ‘Beyond Tokyo’ there isn’t likely to be much of an ROI, at least not at first.

Accessing it involves buying a $500 headset and subscribing to a content package. As a result, our guess is that there will several thousand downloads if that.

But our guess is also that this isn’t the point of ANA’s investment in Beyond Tokyo.

Rather this seems to be an investment in a piece of new technology which may or may not take off. If VR headsets do become more mass market, then there’s enormous potential for the travel industry and ANA will have got in early.

AMERICAN AIRLINES - AVENGERS SUPERHEROES

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In the July 2017 report, we featured American Airlines for its support for the “Stand up to Cancer” charity, where 60 cancer-fighting and cancer-surviving American Airlines employees starred in a 60 second ad, in a campaign also fronted

by Stand up to Cancer ambassador, Bradley Cooper.

Avengers: Infinity War. The custom-wrapped American Airlines A321T aircraft will be in service between Los Angeles and New York.

The graphic, which is more than 50 feet long, features Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War heroes: Doctor Strange, Thor, This year American has taken a slightly Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America different approach in its support for and Black Panther. the cancer charity. Staff who are cancer survivors still feature, but in addition to It also features American Airlines LAXchronicling their stories on video, they based Customer Service agent and threeappear on the side of a special “Avengers” time breast cancer survivor Shandra themed aircraft.

Fitzpatrick, LAX-based Flight Attendant Michelle Ballard, Miami-based Fleet Why the Avengers link? It of course Service crew chief Juan Barquero, and reinforces the almost superhuman Chicago-based Captain Ron France; and efforts a lot of cancer survivors have to Stand Up To Cancer Scientific Advisor Dr. go through, as well as the efforts of the Phillip A. Sharp and SU2C researcher Dr. medical staff treating them.

Marcela Maus.

Then, there is the fact that the Avengers In addition to the custom wrapped A321, are in the news at the moment due to the the campaign is being supported by a arrival of Marvel’s latest superhero flick, movie-style poster ad, which features

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Chris Hemsworth, and Scarlett Johansson Actors Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, along with American Airlines staff and Paul Bettany, Scarlett Johansson, Chris researchers.

Evans and Chadwick Boseman are also featured in the voice-over portion of the Meanwhile a “broadcast PSA” features broadcast piece. footage from Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War, and of SU2C’s Scientific Finally to encourage donations from Advisor Dr. Lee J. Helman, as Shandra regular American Airlines fliers, Airlines Fitzpatrick .

AAdvantage® members will receive 10 miles for every dollar donated (with a minimum $25 donation).

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KEY TAKE-AWAY This is an effective campaign and CSR initiative for a number of reasons. Like last year, American Airlines has personalised and humanised the experience of cancer survivors by telling the stories of staff members.

The staff member link makes this much more than a ‘organisation A donates to charity B’ type initiative, there is a realness and authenticity to it.

Meanwhile, linking up with the new Avengers’ movie makes the campaign that much more newsworthy.

The combination of a custom-wrapped A321 (which is instantly instagrammable), the movie style poster ad and video really gives this initiative a lot of impact.

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BRITISH AIRWAYS - BRITISHNESS EXPLAINED

What’s “Britishness”? A number of UK media outlets have over the years tried to have a stab at explaining this. In a survey done by Rife magazine, answers included everything from “being able to order five different flavoured crisps in the pub”, to “unpredictable weather and not knowing what to wear.”

In the video, four BA ambassadors / cabin crew members answer questions posed

by American tourists, who appear to have been interviewed at London Heathrow’s Terminal Five, while checking in on their flight home.

Questions include the inevitable “when is the Royal Wedding between Prince Harry British Airways is the latest to try and and Meghan Markle”, “why do restaurants explain the concept, via an online video only charge a 12 or 12.5% tip” (compared aimed at US tourists to the UK. to c.20%+ in the US), why do Brits pronounce ‘aluminum’ and ‘oregano’ the

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way they do (answer from the BA staff - However, the simple reality is that a large because that’s the way it’s pronounced!) proportion of people come to Britain, and “why are people so polite?” exactly because they have those images on their mind.

This writer would agree with what Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time said Sure, BA could have done a video about about the video: “At first I thought it was (e.g.) street art in East London or Bristol, a bit cheesy...though in the end I found and yes that would have appealed to the whole thing to be quite charming.” some people, but as far as the mass of UK-bound tourists are concerned, it’s Yes, it includes quite a few cardboard cut not what they expect or even necessarily out stereotypes of the UK such as fish want to see. and chips and mushy peas, the rain (or not), and of course the Royal Family.

As a result, it makes sense to appeal to and talk up the very things that make

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most tourists come to the UK, especially from the United States.

BA RECRUITS COUNTRY SINGER FOR NASHVILLE LAUNCH Separately, British Airways has launched its route to Nashville, becoming the only airline to connect America’s capital of country music to Europe.

To launch the route, BA brought on board country singer and songwriter Stella Parton, who took part in a photo-shoot in front of a BA Boeing 787-9.

At the same time, BA is serving traditional hot chicken on flights from Nashville to Heathrow Terminal 5 in all cabins until June 4.

BA has highlighted this fact by getting the airline’s head chef, Mark Tazzioli, show foodies on Facebook how to make Tennessee’s signature dish via a video.

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KEY TAKE-AWAY As the saying goes ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ And certain national stereotypes just happen to loom large in the public imagination.

People will always associate Germany with the Oktoberfest and beer, France with vineyards, art and castles - and the UK with fish and chips and the Royal Family.

These factors drive a lot of the inbound tourism into those countries.

With over 40 million tourists projected to come to the UK in 2018, British Airways has played up to these, but managed to do so in a light hearted way via a video which is accessible and fun - and reinforces BA as the authority on all things Britishness.

See also as well SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam’s video on ‘Britishness Explained’, where he praises British Airways for using real staff members and not actors (giving it authenticity) as well as for filming the staff responses in different London locations, which helps bring it to life.

KLM - THE JOURNEY

Say the word “podcast” and it sounds almost retro. As a genre, it’s been around since 2004, making it reasonably old in Internet terms. However, despite its age, podcasting is alive and well - and there’s some evidence to show that it can deliver significant benefits to brands.

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According to a Wired article from earlier this year, “podcast listeners really are the holy grail advertisers hoped they’d be”:

started a podcast called “The Venture” that is about entrepreneurship. Now KLM is trying its hand at podcasting, with the launch of “The Journey.”

“Forget those worries that the podcast bubble would burst the minute anyone actually got a closer look: It seems like podcast listeners really are the hyperengaged, super-supportive audiences that everyone hoped.”

In the trailer (via a YouTube video), KLM claims the “The Journey is the first podcast in the world that explores the transformative power of travel.”

The different episodes each explore a different travel story. For example, in As a medium, podcasting feels intimate Episode One (‘Living with Bears’): where it seems that the presenter (or presenters) are talking directly to “Linda Nijlunsing of the Netherlands you. As a result, while most people has never taken the easy route. She had stop watching online videos after two been travelling the world for years, until minutes, 90% of podcast listeners make she met Big Jim in Alaska. They fall in it to the end, with few skipping the ads. love and she decides to move in with him, far away from civilisation. They And as well as engagement, podcasting quickly learn that they have different delivers the numbers too.

In 2016, ideas about the relationship. “ 112 million Americans listened to a podcast, while RAJAR research in the Other episodes similarly have the UK indicated that 24% of adults ages narrative of someone leaving their 15 and older surveyed in Q1 2017 had existing life behind and travelling. listened to a podcast at least once.

Episode Three (“The Total Collapse”) Despite these numbers, few airlines features former President Clinton have embraced podcasts as a medium. staffer Dina Kaplan who went to work One is Virgin Atlantic, which last year for a start-up and then suffered from

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anxiety which made her evaluate her life, while in Episode Four (“The Muse from Buenos Aires”), an executive from a multinational sees a woman on a street in Buenos Aires who then becomes his imaginary muse and encourages him to take a different direction.

As travel tech publication Tnooz notes, ‘The Journey’ actually contains next to no information about KLM as an airline: “The podcasts are unusual for an airline marketing department. They mention flying only in passing. They don’t focus

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on fun holidays or luxurious resorts or any of the enticements that are part of the normal travel industry repertoire.”

In response, global head of marketing communications Natascha van Roode claimed that KLM doesn’t have the same marketing budget as (e.g.) Etihad or Emirates. As result, she felt that the airline needed to be more creative and find different and more subtle ways to reach consumers - in this case the podcasts would be like “listening to a play” as a way of keeping people tuned in and interested.

KEY TAKE-AWAY The statistics about podcasting speak for themselves. As a medium it offers both engagement and a potentially large audience.

Our feeling is that KLM has got it right both in terms of investing in podcasts, as well as in making its podcasts more like plays (or indeed audiobooks), rather than something which tries to push sales and marketing messages over and over.

The branding is much more subtle, but the potential reward in having people come back to listen to the different episodes, that much greater.

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QANTAS - NO ONE TRAVELS LIKE AUSTRALIANS

Australians love to travel, with the equivalent of a third of the population heading abroad every year. Meanwhile, more than half the Australian population now owns a passport. That’s more than, for example, the USA, where the figure is around 40% (the 10% stat commonly quoted is 20+ years out of date).

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According to Sydney-based tourism lecturer, Dr David Beirman Englishspeaking countries and close neighbours like Bali remain highly popular destinations for Australians travelling internationally, with the US being the no 3 most popular destination in 2016 and the UK no 4.

- and no one takes us to the world like Qantas.”

Australian singer Lisa Mitchell recorded the soundtrack to the campaign, with the song being a version of “I’ve been everywhere”, which was originally written

by Australian country singer Geoff Mack However, Dr Beirman believes holiday in 1959. destinations like South America, Africa, China, Russia and Iran will grow in As well as an online video ad, the popularity among Aussies: “By world campaign is running across broadcast, standards we are among the greatest of digital, outdoor and social media. world travellers.”

It shows Australian travellers enjoying This “love of travel” forms the basis of the experiences on offer in countries that a new campaign by Qantas, where the Qantas operates to, including surfing tagline is “no one travels like Australians in Waikiki, hiking in Yosemite, strolling

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through the historic streets of Kyoto and PR push to highlight the “game changing� going on safari in South Africa. characteristics of its long-haul fleet, in particular the 787-9 Dreamliner.

Experiences in Australia are also featured such as watching the sunset at Uluru.

Though Qantas launched non-stop Australia to UK flights in March 2018, some As well as running a campaign linking the travellers may of course be reluctant to Australian love for travel with its role as spend 16-17 hours in economy. the national airline, Qantas is continuing a

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This is especially when you have articles such as one published by Britain’s biggest tabloid newspaper, The Sun, which opened its review with: “We reveal the hell of flying non-stop for 17 hours from Australia in economy on the UK’s longest route. Entering the ‘familiar kingdom of screaming kids and aching bottoms’ on the UK’s longest flight.”

Being a tabloid, The Sun will have almost certainly added a bit of extra embellishment to this review, and actual airline and travel publications have been much more complimentary about the experience, but it’s papers like the Sun that more people read.

As a result, a series of social media posts and blog articles talks up the ultra-long haul Dreamliner experience, including ‘new levels of comfort in economy.’

From a PR point of view, the stories that Qantas is considering installing beds in cargo, whether true or not, will also help position the airline as an innovator when it comes to making super long-haul flights more comfortable and practical.

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KEY TAKE-AWAY As one Australian publication puts it “no matter how far-flung or obscure, you can guarantee that you’ll run into another Australian traveller.” And the statistics prove it, Australians love travelling overseas.

As a result, this campaign gets Qantas to own the whole idea of Australians discovering and experiencing international destinations, which at the same time allows the airline to showcase its own extensive route network.

Meanwhile, doing a PR-push about how Qantas is transforming the passenger experience on 16 or 17 hour flights is smart. With the direct Perth to London flights, Qantas wins on convenience. Now the challenge is to persuade passengers that it wins on comfort too.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC - REKINDLE THE ADVENTURE

The fourth Thursday in April is ‘take your child to work day’ in the US. To mark the day, Forbes magazine published a helpful list of dos and don’ts, including “find out what line of work your child is interested in” and “make it real” (“it’s not a trip to Disney World.”).

The video caries the hashtag #ReKindleTheAdventure and follows claims by Virgin Atlantic’s USA marketing team that ¾ of business class travellers do see business trips as an adventure.

According to Virgin Atlantic’s Jenna Lloyd, “We wanted to invite the 25% to Not included in Forbes’ tips are whether rekindle their adventure and remember or not you should take your child on a how stimulating business travel can be.” transatlantic flight, which is exactly what happened when Virgin Atlantic arranged The short video follows Lulu and her for a five year old girl called Lulu to mother getting ready for the trip including accompany her mother to London for a packing, with a lengthy segment (of business trip. course) about both the lounge and the

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experience on Virgin’s Upper Class Cabin.

AIR BERLIN ‘LOVE SUITES’

In the video, Lulu says of the lounge, “she has to have a ticket to go into the secret living room”, while her comment on Upper Class was “you just ask for food whenever you want and they just give it to you.”

Though it’s a lovely and heart warming video, some comments in response were actually negative. This is because a number of travellers used the opportunity to take Virgin to task for its purchase of second-hand Air Berlin aircraft.

The video then ends with Lulu persuading her mother to stop working and have fun in exploring London.

As we reported in our March issue, Virgin Atlantic received a lot of press coverage when it was announced that some aircraft would have so-called “Love Suites” in Upper Class.

In fact, the truth was a little less racy. The so- called Love Suite is actually just the old ‘honeymoon’ style centre seats already installed by Air Berlin, in the A330-200s sold to Virgin after the German airline went bankrupt.

In its blog post, Virgin Atlantic followed up with tips on things you can do if short on time after business meetings in London, including ‘street art’ and the best places to have coffee.

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At the time this turned a non story (or arguably even a negative one as “second hand planes” does not sound positive to a lot of ears), into a major PR sensation and the Virgin marketing team must have been pleased by how they were able to reframe this.

However, this could also be a case of a mismatch between the PR and the reality.

Virgin has over the years built up a loyal customer base for its Upper Class product, and the fact is Air Berlin’s business class is not the same.

As a result, a number of passengers have been posting pictures of the less generous ex Air Berlin business class seats on social media.

One wrote in response to the “Rekindle the Adventure” video “Well that’s nothing like what our little boy is going to see. Stuck on an old Air Berlin plane.... #absolutelyfuming#olddatednotupper”.

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KEY TAKE-AWAY Many business class travellers are parents, and the video is effective as it gets them to look at how a trip would appar to their son and daughter. It reminds them that this is something special and extraordinary, when they may well already take it for granted.

By using five year old Lulu as the narrator, the film also does a good job of highlighting the various features of the premium experience on Virgin.

However, as a few social media comments (and the initial reviews we’ve read on sites like Tripadvisor) show, Virgin needs to plan for a possible backlash with regards to its two ex Air Berlin A330200s.

This isn’t only among frequent travellers, some people save up specially for the Virgin Upper Class experience, with the airline having done an excellent job in promoting it. If they then find that the seats don’t match up to what they saw on the Virgin website and in adverts, they will make themselves heard on social networks.

VIRGIN AMERICA - FAREWELL VIRGIN AMERICA

George Harrison of The Beatles once said, “All Things Must Pass.” This is also what Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson wrote in his farewell letter to Virgin America to mark the airline’s disappearance a separate brand, following the Alaska Airlines takeover in 2016.

Virgin America vanished on 25 April, with the two final flights being Virgin America Flight 1182 which departed San Francisco at 9.30pm, and Virgin America Flight 1948 which took off for Los Angeles at 9.32pm on April 25th.

These final flights didn’t go unnoticed. This

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is because among aviation enthusiasts and passengers on social media and offer infrequent fliers, Virgin America is of course flight WiFi. not just another airline.

As a result, a lot of aviation enthusiasts As the Airline Geeks blog says, “The airline were keen to get on board, VX1948 from had a cult-like following amongst customers San Francisco to Los Angeles, and started and employees alike. When Virgin America making preparations to give Virgin America was founded by Sir Richard Branson on a send off.

Jan. 1, 2004, it set out to create a new airline experience, one that differentiates An event was initiated by frequent flier itself on passenger amenities, and a strong website FlyerTalk. However, Alaska Airlines company culture.� assisted with the preparations once they saw the level of interest in having a farewell Among other things, Virgin America was party. one of the first US Airlines to interact with

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On the day, passengers turning up for the final flight received a souvenir goody-bag including a cup filled with luggage tags, stickers, pins, name tags, and more. Plus every passenger got a unique poster that was made showing every Virgin America destination ever served.

On board the final flight, there was another singalong to the safety video (with FlyerTalk having sent out instructions beforehand on what to do), while there was a Richard Branson cardboard cutout on board, who came along to have “his” picture taken with passengers.

Passengers were additionally served red velvet cakes, after which they were treated to an impromptu live demonstration / “flash dance” of the popular Virgin America Safety video - the VX Safety Dance.

Once they arrived in Los Angeles, passengers were invited into the Alaska Airlines lounge in Los Angeles to have one final celebratory toast and drink.

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Though Virgin America signage has now

gone from US airports, a number of aircraft will still be kitted out with a Virgin America cabin and the in-flight entertainment system will still work until a refit takes place.

Though a lot of aviation enthusiasts (as well as Sir Richard Branson) mourn the passing of Virgin America, some travel journalists have reacted positively to the merger and the changes.

Writing in Conde Nast Traveller in January, Laura Dannen Redman said that “Alaska was as great as Virgin America— and this new hybrid has the potential to be one of the best airlines in the country.

“Seattle-based Alaska was never as highprofile; it didn’t have as many California routes as San Francisco-based Virgin America, or the megawatt founder to help with PR. “But for those who lived in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, it was a godsend—an airline much like JetBlue or Virgin that felt familial, with friendly staff, great amenities (leather seats in economy! microbrews and Tom Douglas meals onboard!), and a guarantee that you would get your luggage within 20 minutes of your plane arriving at the gate.”

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“So what happens when the cool kid of the skies hooks up with the straight-A student?

You get a straight-A student who’s now dressing a little more punk rock and cracking open a beer in the parking lot.”

Finally, as CNET points out. “If you still love the Virgin brand, don’t despair. There’s always Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, Virgin Trains in the UK or you can just wait for Virgin Galactic or the Hyperloop One.”

KEY TAKE-AWAY Though Alaska Airlines didn’t initiate the farewell party, they gave it active support, which aviation bloggers described as “gracious.”

This seems to be the right way to go, Virgin America clearly had a community of dedicated fans, and the challenge (as Motley Fool wrote recently) was to make sure they stay with the “new” Alaska especially as many would probably have considered Alaska Airlines anyway.

The fact that Alaska Airlines supported the farewell will also send a positive message to ex Virgin staff, that their contribution and what they’ve achieved so far is welcome.

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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