Turkish Airlines Invest on Board Adds a Twist to Online Crowdsourcing and Connects Entrepreneurs with High-Value Investors

Turkish Airlines has launched Invest on Board, a crowdsourcing initiative that seeks to connect the best entrepreneurial ideas in Turkey with high-flying investors. The initiative will allow investors to meet startups from the comfort of their seats onboard Turkish Airlines flights. Do watch the video below for a good summary of Turkish Airlines Invest on Board:

Six Reasons why this is a smart marketing initiative

Remember airBaltic’s zany real-estate sale in-flight? It turns out Turkish Airlines is looking to get the business juices running in-flight too. Here’s what works about their initiative:

• It is clearly targeted towards getting high-value business customers — specifically, rich investors interested in discovering promising business opportunities worth backing — to fly Turkish Airlines.
• It provides a platform to upcoming startups to showcase their ideas and an opportunity for them to meet investors — a critical factor for any startup.
• Moreover, it smartly positions itself to become the airline of choice for startups as well. After all, if potential investors are on-board Turkish, you’d naturally be there too.
• As a result, the Turkish Airlines brand — and especially, Turkish Airlines flights — automatically get associated with business and networking. After all, for any airline, its business customers are critical.
• Further, the novelty of the initiative also ensures that the Turkish Airline brand continues to be seen as one that is keen to differentiate itself from competitors and try out new, innovative ideas.
• It seamlessly merges the online and social platform with real-world flight experience — which is, essentially, what any airline wants i.e. for its online initiatives to get people to fly it.

More details about the initiative from Turkish Airlines:

Starting this December, Invest On Board will fly 11 startup ideas into the skies via Turkish Airlines in partnership with eTohum, a program which aims to introduce entrepreneurs into the marketplace. Using Turkish Airlines’ in-flight entertainment system ‘Planet,” which offers films, short programs, music, radio channels, games and live flight information to passengers on an interactive touchscreen, investors will also be able to browse video pitches to discover the next big idea. These pitches will be updated monthly.

The project will be online at InvestOnBoard.com, where new startups can apply to be included in new video pitch releases.