You don’t need to be a fan or a follower to benefit from social media at Gatwick Airport

How many industries have their customers passing through their facilities – some for up to several hours – multiple times a year?  Airports more than most businesses, hold a unique opportunity to engage the offline passenger with the online social media experience. According to Mandie Armstrong, Digital Communications Manager at Gatwick Airport, “this is a unique opportunity to connect people to your brand for two-way conversation, whether they’re on social media yet or not”.

It’s all about customer experience for Gatwick

Already the winner of our Best Airport in Social Media award in 2011, and a runner up in 2012, when asked about the social media strategy at Gatwick, Mandie refreshingly replied – “actually it’s really simple – it’s directly linked to the overall business ambitions and strategy of the airport. And 3 of the 6 overall business goals are directly linked to social media”.

Engaging instantly and directly with their customers in a way and time that is convenient for them (the customer), has allowed Gatwick to communicate the new ‘brand Gatwick’, with an intentional and distinct tone of voice.

Speaking exclusively to SimpliFlying during our recent ACI Europe Digital Marketing workshop, Mandie spoke of how social media is intrinsically linked to their overall business goals. Actually, 3 of the 6 overall business goals are directly linked to social media as Gatwick aims to deliver the best possible PAX experience, driving efforts to assist it’s airlines to grow whilst protecting and enhancing its reputation, to compete and grow and become ‘London’s airport of choice!’

Driven by instinct, supported by execution

For the vast majority of airports Social media tends to be driven by instinct and by what tends to ‘feel right’. But with a better planning process and a strategy aligned towards business goals, the quality of customer engagement using social media can be immediately elevated and the opportunities are sky-high.

Having dedicated full time staff and using external support to ensure that they are always up to speed with the ever changing marketplace, has delivered much success. With 7 awards for social media excellence, Mandie and the team at Gatwick have done a brilliant job.  Gatwick’s social feeds are live on their website, highly visible on FIDS throughout the airport and driving offline marketing campaigns throughout the terminal. So the online drives that are seeing great results are also being delivered to the offline passenger travelling through the airport.

Gatwick is becoming an expert on linking something that’s psychically taking place in the airport to activities on social media, using various channels.  Partnering with the new Jamie Oliver restaurant saw both passengers and potential passengers (through roving ’Social Reporter’ filming live) captivated with live cooking events and even hooked the attention of the naked chef Jamie himself, as Jamie Oliver offered his continued support and RT’s -  nice one @JamieOliver (I’m a big fan!).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Online activities are supporting commercial activities to promote new facilities and energise non-aeronautical revenues.  2-way conversations with the ever ‘Connected Traveler’, extending customer service support has the full backing of the wider Gatwick business. Even in the last few months, there has been notable internal change in attitude to social media – particularly in crisis situations.

During the recent heavy snow fall, handling agents worked closely with their communications team. The Twitter conversations provided information before the terminal teams were aware. Issues were addressed straight away and social advocacy from the 57k followers went up a notch, instead of a surge of complaints it was ‘well done @Gatwick_Airport team’.

Mandie’s  advice for airports new to social media is, “Don’t be afraid. Social media is about being innovative and trying new things”. She added, “The new Gatwick brand is now 3 years old, so still a really young brand. Digital media has been the best way of telling our passengers about the changing faces and values of Gatwick Airport”.

Check out the video interview to hear more about their multi-platform efforts from Gatwick’s award winning digital communications manager. 

The post [Interview] How London Gatwick Airport uses social media to connect with passengers at the airport appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

David McMullen

VP, Airports at SimpliFlying

David McMullen leads global airport engagement projects for SimpliFlying as VP, Airports. Following 5 successful years leading the award winning Routesonline platform, working with airports of all sizes in route development strategy and marketing communications, he joined SimpliFlying at the beginning of 2013. Assisting hundreds of airports to develop their online presence, David's career has taken him all over the world and he has been lucky enough to meet some of the most amazing people and work in some of the most inspiring places. He has a real enthusiasm for social networking/social media, plus all things digital. His passion for sport, travel and learning about new cultures has enabled him to practice snowboarding throughout Europe and qualify as an advanced scuba diver on the Great Barrier Reef. You can connect with David on Twitter, @SimpliMcMullen, or on LinkedIn.

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What all crises share in common: they catch brands unaware 

It’s often said that an airline or airport can never be fully prepared to deal with a crisis. When SimpliFlying advises its clients, we advocate for learning from others and being mentally prepared to ascertain similar crises – especially in this age of social media where information and opinion spread more rapidly than ever before, for better or for worse.

14 Case Studies of airline and airport crises, with SimpliFlying’s Expert Recommendations

To help airlines and airports recognize the risks and opportunities offered by the new playing field, SimpliFlying is publishing “Crisis Management, in the age of the Connected Traveler“. This ebook takes a look at five different types of real-world crises, namely 1) Accidents and Incidents 2) Terrorism and Sabotages 3) Natural Disasters 4) IT Failures and 5) PR Disasters. 

Throughout the 14 case studies presented in this e-book, we take a look at how the public reacts to each situation, what is to be expected, followed by recommendations on how such situations should be handled. Case studies include: 

• Qantas ‘Flight 32’
• Warsaw Airport ‘LOT flight 16’
• Vueling ‘Flight 8366’ 2010
• European Ash-Cloud
• Akron-Canton Airport Flooding
• Virgin America ‘A troublesome switch’
• Delta ‘Military Luggage’ 

‘Crisis Management, in the age of the Connected Traveler” will be a very useful resource for airline and airport executives on the know-how for dealing with crises. We hope you enjoy the eBook! Click any of the images below to download. 

For more information, please feel free to email us at letstalk@simpliflying.com.

The post [eBook] Crisis Management for Airports and Airlines, in the age of the Connected Traveler appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Marco Serusi

Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying

Marco is an Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying. He’s Italian, but has lived in several countries since he was 18, earning an Air Transport degree in the UK, a pilot license in Florida and an MBA in Spain. He now lives in Valencia, Spain where he previously worked as a Marketing Director.

You can talk to him in Italian, English or Spanish. You can also tweet him at @simplimarco, e-mail him at marco@simpliflying.com.

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As we enter 2013, the expectations from airlines and airports to live up to the new realities of an increasingly connected world are ever more. Passengers are more vocal and connected to their friends and family. They have higher expectations in terms of online engagement and interaction, and are not hesitant to instantly share a negative opinion online when displeased. On the other hand, rapidly evolving social technologies are enabling airlines and airports to reach and engage their customers in more innovative ways than before. As such, the potential for better customer service, speedier crisis management, building loyal online brand advocates and driving revenues has increased manifold.

Hence, while planning your social engagement strategy for 2013, you need a head-start. The 25 resources presented below, categorized for your easy reference, will give you ample inspiration and information to start swimming from the deep end of the pool itself! 

Engagement

• What your audience expects and what you should be doing to engage them. Or risk falling behind your competition (read here).
• Creating an immersive brand experience for your airline (read here).
• How airlines and aiports can use Pinterest to engage customers through visual cues (read here).
• How COPA Airlines drove 50x ROI via a Facebook app (read here).

Strategy Planning and Research Reports

• Presentation – Driving results from Customer Engagement. The road ahead for airlines on social media (get the presentation here).
• Airline Social Media Outlook 2012-13: Research based on a survey conducted with the 30 most social-savvy airlines on issues such as staffing, budgets and ROI (get the report here).
• Monthly Airline Marketing Benchmark Reports – Produced every month by SimpliFlying in partnership with airlinetrends.com, this report has 15 fresh case-studies covering the most innovative marketing campaigns by airlines across the world (get the latest report here).

Case-Studies

• Top 30 Airline Social Media Case-Studies featured on SimpliFlying in 2012 (read here).
• Re-branding Royal Brunei Airlines – the journey behind-the-scenes (read here).
• Ryanair learns the power of social media. Profits dip 29% despite a 600% increase in marketing budget (read here)!
• Local pages and hyper-localization on Facebook (read here).

Social Customer Service

• Q and A – How brands can perform real time customer-service on social media (read here).
• Lessons from customer service in social media (read here).
• Statistics and Charts – How US Airlines are providing customer support on Facebook (read here).
• Two tales of customer experience – AirAsia X vs Kingfisher Airlines (read here).

Crisis Management and Handling Bloopers

• Why Korean Air’s #primitiveenergy campaign angered Africans and how they could have managed the crisis better (read here).
• How Royal Brunei Airlines handled the emergency landing of their plane superbly on social media (read here).
• Southwest Airlines finds out whether a campaign can be too successful for its own good  - A cautionary tale for those looking to run competitions (read here).

Social Loyalty

• A New Era in Airline Loyalty – The Rise of Social Loyalty Programs and Social Advocacy (read here).
• Free eBook – How Airlines Can Drive Loyalty on Social Media (read here).

Expert Insights

• Interview – Jonathan Pierce, Director of Social Communications at American Airlines sheds light on how social media drives results for American Airlines (read here).
• Interview – Azran Osma-Rani, CEO of AirAsiaX talks about how the low-cost, long-haul modeal can be made to work in Asia Pacific (read here).
• Podcast – Mary Kirby, Editor-in-Chief of APEX Magazine sheds light on a industry in flux (click here).
• Interview – Heidi Brauer, Kulula’s Marketing Head tells us why Kulula is the world’s funniest airline (read here).
• Interview – Gary Wicks of Boeing shares how Boeing’s commercial airplanes division takes the social media bull by the horns (read here).
  

Revenue

• Mango Airlines CEO attributes 50% growth in revenues to social media (read here).

Airports

• Airport Social Media Outlook 2012-13: Research based on a survey with over 50 of the most social-savvy airports on issues such as staffing, budgets and ROI (read more).
• Presentation – How Airports can Engage the Connected Traveler (read here).
• A 4-part special series on how Airports are engaging the Connected Traveler in a number of ways – from crowdsourcing to social customer service (read here).
• The Road Ahead for Airports in 2013: Why Real-time customer service and non-aeronautical revenues will be the keys to success (read here).

[Write to us at engage@simpliflying.com if you wish to learn more about how your airline can profitably engage the Connected Traveler in 2013.]

The post 30 Essential Resources for Airlines and Airports to Effectively Engage the Connected Traveler and Drive Results in 2013 appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shubhodeep Pal

Head of Operations and Innnovation at SimpliFlying

Shubhodeep Pal is the Head of Operations and Innovation at SimpliFlying and has been leading Product Development, Marketing and Business Development since December 2010 from the headquarters in Singapore. His writings have appeared extensively on SimpliFlying as well as revered industry outlets such as Tnooz, Airlinetrends and Loyalty360. He has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having also conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies and has previously interned at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well. His wide range of interests include startups, programming, economics, geopolitics, film-direction/criticism and literature. His first collection of poems, Interruptions was released in 2009. He can be reached at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

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It’s that time of year again. An exhilarating year makes way for the next. A journey ends, only for a newer, re-invigorated one to begin.

As the holiday season blossoms and the year comes to an end, both companies and individuals start their customary review of their year and make plans to make an even greater impact in the new year.  As the year draws to a close, we  take a look back at the best case-studies we have published in our Top 10 case-packs this year. 

The best 30 have been collected in a single slide-deck that includes case-studies covering all stages of the Connected Traveler Lifecycle as well as the best Plane Launches, Crisis Management case-studies and Airport initiatives. From KLM’s social seating initiative to Schiphol Airport’s “Share your Food” campaign to South African Airways’ virtual safari to how American Airlines handled a terror threat, find a wealth of social media case-studies published over the last year. We hope this recap inspires and spurs into action not only our regular readers but also those who have been too busy to read all of our Top 10s. We hope you find inspiration in the New Year and plan initiatives even better than the ones covered. 

For the very best initiatives we have also included additional links to the in-depth case studies that are available on our website. Please click the button below to download this special, year-end case-pack. 

SimpliFlying can help your airline or airport super-charge your social media strategy and get ahead of your competition. Feel free to contact us directly at engage@simpliflying.com. We offer a number of specialized services designed to help Airlines and Airports engage their customers profitably. This year we have also launched a number of new Topical MasterClasses, including one for agencies. We also offer Monthly Airline Marketing Benchmark Reports to help airlines monitor the best initiatives from around the world and stay ahead of competition.

The post [Rewind] Top 30 Airline Social Media Case-Studies Featured on SimpliFlying in 2012 appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shubhodeep Pal

Head of Operations and Innnovation at SimpliFlying

Shubhodeep Pal is the Head of Operations and Innovation at SimpliFlying and has been leading Product Development, Marketing and Business Development since December 2010 from the headquarters in Singapore. His writings have appeared extensively on SimpliFlying as well as revered industry outlets such as Tnooz, Airlinetrends and Loyalty360. He has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having also conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies and has previously interned at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well. His wide range of interests include startups, programming, economics, geopolitics, film-direction/criticism and literature. His first collection of poems, Interruptions was released in 2009. He can be reached at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

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Customer service, guest relations, passenger experience; No matter what your specific airport calls it, it is a major component of airport operations. This segment of this Simpli-Airports Series focuses on Customer Service and how your airport can benchmark against what others are doing in the social space and use that information as a guidepost for future social growth.

While more than half of the airports surveyed for the recent SimpliFlying Social Media Outlook Report are unsure about the specific return from their social media investment, most airports have mapped the value of their social media performance to business goals. The top goals were Brand Engagement, Customer Service and Revenue. 

92.7% of the airports surveyed noted that Customer service is a prominent business driver when it comes to social media. 

The biggest challenge faced by airports surveyed for in the afore mentioned study is the insufficient allocation of resources to social media. The next biggest challenge is the lack of budget, which often go hand-in-hand.  So how does an airport that is aiming to increase customer service through social media obtain that goal when resources are seemingly lacking? 

Resource Identification + Allocation = Social Customer Service  

Some of the airports that are currently dedicating resources to social media with a focus on customer service include the Portland International Airport (PDX, Portland, OR) and the Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ, Toronto, ON). Both have taken customer service and social media to a new level with call centers and guest service stations filled with trained and dedicated ”Tweeters.” These airports are working to train (current) guest relations and call center staff to respond real-time to customer service issues that come in through the Twitter channel, just as they would to a call from a guest on the phone. These two airports represent a sampling of ways in which social customer service is finding its way into airports of all sizes and how airport are using existing resources to meet these social customer service needs and goals. 

Are traditional airport call centers becoming a need of the past?  As more and more travelers begin to Tweet, Facebook, and post recommendations and questions on social channels, more and more airports are beginning to take up the responsibility of responding to Tweets just as they would to phone calls.  In this Simpli-Airports segment, we will be exploring a case study specific to the Port of Portland/Portland International Airport. 

Simpli-Airports Series: PDX Social Customer Service

After working with a few airports on integrating social media (namely Twitter) into their customer service response plans, I was quite intrigued to hear Donna Prigmore from the Port of Portland and PDX Airport speak at the recent AAAE Social Media Summit. 

Donna Prigmore shared how the Portland International Airport launched an airport Twitter program after hearing of the affects of the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Tornado. In the midst of this crisis, Lambert-St. Louis’s airport Twitter handle grew by over 4000 followers in just one hour.  Mobile phones were the only way for people to communicate with the airport, and many travelers and loved ones went right to Twitter.  This prompted Prigmore and her team to work develop a system and program for a fully functioning “Tweeting Call Center.” 

Since that time, Donna and her staff have turned a 14 member customer relations department into a “Tweeting call center” with real-time coverage from 6am-11:30pm daily.   The attached case study showcases the way in which they have structured and defined how and when Twitter is used within their organizational structure and what the protocols are for responses. 

With the implementation of Twitter assessment tests, she was able to both train and test all of her staff for Twitter competency and know-how (as well as interest).  Ten of the 14 call center staff members Tweet, with shifts set up to include one Twitter “Lead” and one “backup” to monitor and respond to customer service tweets as they come in. This team setup has Donna’s team Tweeting with the expectation that the typical airport Tweeter is expecting an immediate response.  The team has a goal of 5-10 minute response times. 

We are delighted to share Donna’s presentation below, in hopes that more airports will see the possibilities that can come from training current support staff to help with real-time social customer service. 

Other great examples of Real-time customer service in airports include: 

 London Gatwick Airport

• Live twitter screens within the airport to display an ongoing and current Twitter feed.
• Integrated Twitter presence in that not only the airport is responding to passenger questions, but passengers and guests also answer one another’s tweets. (Crowdsourcing customer service efforts 

Mumbai International Airport

• The airport has programed a tool to pick up on keywords such as: toilets, bags and delays so that tweets are monitored regularly, and response time is down to minutes. 

In the remainder of this Simpli-Airports Series, we will continue to explore case studies around airports that are using social media to drive specific goals and also take a look at how they are allocating resources and budgets to these areas: 

• Week 2: Surprise and Delight
• Week 3: Social Interest and Photo-Sharing
• Week 4: Social Crowd Sourcing

We look forward to conversing with you on how you can improve your airport social media program in each of these focus areas. 

Join us next week for the second segment of this Simpli-Airports series when we take a deeper look at a case study put together by Ryan Hollingsworth, Communications and Social Media Manager at the Akron Canton Airport (CAK). Ryan will be sharing some CAK insight  with us on Surprising & Delighting fans by creating social media content that is meant to entertain and inspire.

Do you have an interesting airport case study that you would like us to share with our readers? Write us at: airports@simpliflying.com.

Featured image: Courtesy of the Port of Portland

The post [Case Study] How Social Media is Enhancing Airport Customer Service appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Elizabeth Cecconi

Head of Airport Engagement at SimpliFlying

Elizabeth Cecconi headed the airports practice at SimplFlying as the company's Airport Engagement Executive from January to November 2012. She has worked in the Aviation industry for over 8 years, most recently heading all marketing and air service efforts at the South Bend Airport, in Indiana, USA and, prior to that, as a member of the Akron-Canton Airport (Ohio) marketing team. When she is not leading global business development (airports) for SimpliFlying, she can often be found boating on Lake Ontario at her home in Western NY State, or off traveling and skiing.

You can find Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

In late August, the Spanish low-cost airline Vueling hit the headlines when the news of a possible hijacking spread like wildfire. Luckily, for both the airline and those on board, it was just a false alarm. However, their slow response on social media prompted us to write a detailed analysis of what happened and how the airline could have managed its response better.

The analysis, published by our friends at Tnooz, offered several suggestions on how the airline could have improved its response. Essentially, it centered mainly on the need to be responsive on Twitter to stop the news from spreading, and replying to various stakeholders, in multiple languages.

A bird strike? The Twitter bird to the rescue.

Today, we were impressed to see that the airline has considerably improved its response on social media during a crises. To the point that we could hardly believe it was the same airline.  This time the incident was a bird strike that forced one of their aircraft to land in Barcelona to perform the mandatory safety checks.

A Busy Weekend

The news broke on the 21^st September but the bulk of Tweets were received on the 22^nd and 23^rd, a Saturday and a Sunday respectively.  Despite the weekend, the airline was able to send over 330 replies to users who talked about the issue, even when the tweets were not directly addressed to the airline.

Replying to key influencers and the public

Some of the replies were sent directly to bloggers and  the media who were reporting the incident. Moreover, they were sent in several languages.  The positive effect of this informative action quickly became evident as several users replied to the airline thanking it for the information it was providing.

We’d like to congratulate Vueling on their effective handling of the situation – their response serves as both a testament and a case-study for airlines that wish to know how crises can (and should) be handled on social media. In short, transparency and speedy responses are of paramount importance.  And Vueling kept both at the top of their agenda. Kudos to them!

To find out more about best practices and case-studies, do not forget to check out our Crisis Management MasterClass and the Crisis Management Top 10 case-pack we published a few months ago.

Featured Image: Planespotters.net

The post Vueling Wins over Critics and Customers with Enhanced Social Media Crisis Management Skills appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Marco Serusi

Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying

Marco is an Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying. He’s Italian, but has lived in several countries since he was 18, earning an Air Transport degree in the UK, a pilot license in Florida and an MBA in Spain. He now lives in Valencia, Spain where he previously worked as a Marketing Director.

You can talk to him in Italian, English or Spanish. You can also tweet him at @simplimarco, e-mail him at marco@simpliflying.com.

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In an industry whose purpose is moving people and things, staying in one place might seem like a paradox. But it is an everyday reality for an essential part of the aviation industry: airports.

Changing Times

Unlike airlines, airports do not have the flexibility of adapting their network based on the market’s demands and are entirely dependent on people who are willing to travel to or from their local area. Furthermore, with the ever increasing liberalization that is taking place in the aviation industry, competition has intensified among airlines and subsidized routes have almost completely disappeared.

In this new environment, many airports have started to realize the importance of marketing themselves both as destinations for incoming travelers and convenient friendly environments for local and transit travelers.

Interesting initiatives

In this month’s Top 10 we’ll have a look at how a large airport like Amsterdam was able to help children in need while at the same time helping its restaurants get noticed and Gatwick airport found a way to keep its youngest travelers busy using a sound based social network.  Furthermore you’ll also discover the power of crowds with Helsinki Airport, how Dublin takes pride in its identity and much more. (You can also view the 2011 edition here.)

The post The 2012 Guide to the Top 10 Airports Engaging Customers Profitably on Social Media appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Marco Serusi

Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying

Marco is an Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying. He’s Italian, but has lived in several countries since he was 18, earning an Air Transport degree in the UK, a pilot license in Florida and an MBA in Spain. He now lives in Valencia, Spain where he previously worked as a Marketing Director.

You can talk to him in Italian, English or Spanish. You can also tweet him at @simplimarco, e-mail him at marco@simpliflying.com.

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As airlines equip themselves with the tools and know-how to conquer the Digital Marketing revolution, we are witnessing increasingly innovative campaigns from airlines around the world to engage their customers and drive results from social media. More ostensibly, we are witnesses to an ever-more competitive arena where brand-conscious airlines are utlizing the power of digital media to build unique brands and develop strong online customer engagement initiatives.

About the Report

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 fear not, with the launch of our Airline Marketing Benchmark Reports, help is finally at hand!

Jointly produced by airline branding specialist, SimpliFlying, and industry and consumer trends research agency, airlinetrends.com, the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report analyses a wide range of airline marketing case studies each month.

The monthly report contains a selection of the 15 most innovative marketing and advertising campaigns launched by airlines around the world and assesses their impact.

How will it help you?

This monthly report is indispensable for airline executives, specifically in marketing and communications, who wish to understand how their organizations are performing with respect to competitors and can perform better.

Creative agencies working with airlines (or looking to pitch to airlines) will also find this monthly report useful for staying on top of the latest trends and best practices in airline marketing.

Pricing and Sample Report

• USD 4950 per year  | Annual subscription  - 12 issues, starting from the month of order.
• USD 495 per month | Monthly subscription - Same as above, but charged monthly.
• USD 550 per report | Single monthly issue  – For a one-time purchase

Get the latest report

The September issue is out now. It features 15 great campaigns from airlines such as JetBlue, American Airlines and more!

Questions?

Click here if you have any questions about the report.

You can also contact Shubhodeep Pal directly at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com for queries regarding the reports.

A free sample report is available here.

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Author information

SimpliFlying

At SimpliFlying, in everything we do, we believe in thinking differently about aviation marketing. Having worked with over 30 airlines and airports across 5 continents, we understand the intersection of aviation and marketing better than anyone else. We have the most experience. The most clients. The most success.

SimpliFlying.com is one of the Top 2 blogs on aviation, and the Twitter handle (@simpliflying) is one of the Top 5 most influential on airlines, with over 12,000 followers. If you're keen to tap our expertise, email us at helpmesoar@simpliflying.com

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Can a promotion, an offer or a social initiative ever be too successful? Instinctively, it would appear that the more successful a campaign is, the better. Let’s take, for example, an airline that has 3 million followers on Facebook and launches a discount code for its audience. It seems logical to assume that the “dream” outcome of every marketer would be seeing the page’s followers use the code in huge numbers as quickly as possible, right?

Well, yes… and no

It seems that it depends on how well your IT system can take it. Southwest Airlines recently discovered just how bad things can get when a campaign like this goes wrong. However, it also gave the world a perfect example of how a crisis situation can be successfully tackled on social media. What unfurled is a fascinating chain of events that provides a stellar case-study for any airline (or even airport) on social media.

Here’s our analysis of what happened

The post [Presentation] Can a campaign be too successful for its own good? Southwest Airlines finds out the hard way appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Marco Serusi

Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying

Marco is an Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying. He’s Italian, but has lived in several countries since he was 18, earning an Air Transport degree in the UK, a pilot license in Florida and an MBA in Spain. He now lives in Valencia, Spain where he previously worked as a Marketing Director.

You can talk to him in Italian, English or Spanish. You can also tweet him at @simplimarco, e-mail him at marco@simpliflying.com.

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At SimpliFlying, we help airlines build profitable customer engagement strategies. That means also helping their agencies to help them soar.

Delivering measurable initiatives that drive business goals

For an airline, the business behind flying involves so much more than just flying passengers. The airline business is a uniquely sophisticated one that switches between product and service. It is one whereby customer engagement matters greatly way before the booking, after the transaction before the flight, during the flight and even after the flight. This is especially true given the rise of the Connected Traveler.

If agencies understand the state-of-play and processes behind this business, they can deliver advice and ideas of greater quality and relevance to their clients.

Getting down to what really matters for airline clients

To make the agency-client partnership a rewarding one, SimpliFlying has developed a MasterClass to help agencies help their clients soar. Starting with a compelling crash course on the state-of-play of social media in aviation, the MasterClass will help agencies identify business goals that matter to their clients as well as corresponding opportunities in the Connected Traveler Lifecycle. Because the real challenge of an airline is its competitors, not the customers (who can, instead, be classified under “opportunity”), the MasterClass will also address how agencies can help their clients benchmark and deliver ROI.

Targeted at account managers and above, the SimpliFlying Masterclass will take participants through a unique curriculum comprising over 50 case studies, high-level frameworks, discussions and simulation exercises.

Whether it is for a current airline client or a new business pitch, this MasterClass will prove extremely useful for agencies.

“We engaged SimpliFlying during a communications pitch for Air New Zealand. Not only were they great to deal with, their insights into the airline sector and consumer trends were stellar. We subsequently went on to successfully win the confidence of the airline.

I would recommend SimpliFlying to anyone interested in gaining insights into how social media and technology impacts airline marketing, and more importantly how to identify opportunities for real innovation and success.”

- Peeyoosh Chandra, Digital Planning Director, Saatchi & Saatchi

For more information, download the brochure below or contact us at masterclass@simpliflying.com.

The post MasterClass for Agencies – Understanding and delivering what matters appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

SimpliFlying

At SimpliFlying, in everything we do, we believe in thinking differently about aviation marketing. Having worked with over 30 airlines and airports across 5 continents, we understand the intersection of aviation and marketing better than anyone else. We have the most experience. The most clients. The most success.

SimpliFlying.com is one of the Top 2 blogs on aviation, and the Twitter handle (@simpliflying) is one of the Top 5 most influential on airlines, with over 12,000 followers. If you're keen to tap our expertise, email us at helpmesoar@simpliflying.com

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