Blog 
Last year, we released a Top 10 case-pack that showcased what we called “wow” campaigns by airlines during the holiday season. These highlighted the importance of brand associations and how some airlines had attempted to delight their passengers, and win their loyalty and goodwill, during the holiday season through innovative surprises.
Recently, KLM, an airline well-known for its inventive campaigns, took the lead in delighting customers during the festive season with its Happy Holidays flight.
For this surprise, the airline decided to treat a group of passengers travelling to Chicago with a business class upgrade, delivered in a gift box by a flight attendant, and a special Christmas-themed flight. Watch the video below to see how it happened.
How much do such initiatives matter?
The airline is already well-known surprising passengers through a variety of initiatives, especially for its hugely popular “KLM Surprise” campaign that garnered over a million impressions on Twitter. However, this is the first time it organized one of these campaigns for Christmas.
Campaigns like these are an ideal way to engage customers and to drive customer loyalty in the real world because they are effective ways to show customers that the airline cares about them. Frequent surprises, such as those organised by KLM, further entice travellers to fly the airline. And, as KLM puts it, “actions speak louder than tweets”.
However, it remains to be seen how well such surprises translate into results that go beyond impressions on social media. While such initiatives would certainly make existing customers very happy indeed, ideally airlines should aim for measurable results such as at least a correlation between increased buzz during such campaigns with revenue or loyalty membership growth.
With the holiday season approaching, we look forward to seeing many more innovative initiatives by airlines.
