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Editor’s Note: SimpliTrends is a new series of articles that will elucidate, to our readers, the latest trends in airline and airport marketing. Read previous articles in the series here.
Brands want to reach customers where they are. Instead of pulling customers and users out of their comfort zones, airlines are increasingly “going to the customer”. And what better way to do this than to design initiatives based where you are located?
A multitude of ways to reach customers
Turkish Airlines, for example, tapped on the Olympic fever with a QR-code based campaign at strategic bus stops in London. American Airlines promoted the addition of a new Boeing 737 into its fleet by organising a scavenger hunt in Miami based around a Twitter hashtag. Lufthansa, meanwhile, lets passengers compete to become the ‘mayor’ of a route by rewarding frequent flyers with the most Foursquare check-ins on each flight.
The rise of location-related initiatives, from GPS-based apps and social network initiatives to real-life scavenger hunts, or discounts hidden in a square are part of efforts to humanize the social media experience and connect the real-world with the virtual. Contrast this to airline marketing of the yesteryears where the only true connection you would have made with the airline brand would have been at the airport and, subsequently, within the plane itself.
If you’d like to know more about location based airline marketing campaigns, you can read a detailed case-study in our State of Airline Marketing report.
More trends, more insights
Our State of Airline Marketing 2013 report, produced jointly with airlinetrends.com identifies the eight most important trends that define airline marketing today, and includes detailed case-studies with each trend that showcase how some of the best airlines in the world are adopting a new approach to marketing their airlines and engaging the Connected Traveller. You can download the report right away by clicking below.
Airline Marketing Benchmark Reports
Jointly produced by SimpliFlying and airlinetrends.com, the monthly airline marketing benchmark report contains a selection of the 15 most innovative marketing and advertising campaigns launched by airlines around the world and assesses their impact.
In such a fast-moving environment, it is important not just to be creative and innovative yourself but to be more striking than your immediate competition as well. However, given the speed at which things move in digital media, it is no easy task to stay on top of the latest trends, fads and innovations. But with our Airline Marketing Benchmark Reports, help is finally at hand!
Here is what a happy client says about the reports:
“SimpliFlying’s monthly benchmark reports are a great resource for Turkish Airline’s marketing strategy. In today’s world, where the flow of information is constant and overwhelming, these reports are designed to serve the most relevant and inspirational case-studies from the global airline sector. They fulfil our needs very well.”
– Neset Dereli, Turkish Airlines Interactive Marketing Manager
For more information on the reports, click here or email Shubhodeep Pal at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.