Editor’s Note: This article is featured in Low Cost & Regional Airline Business (April 2013 Issue), contributed by Shubhodeep Pal, Senior Innovation Officer at SimpliFlying. To download a soft copy of the full article, please see here. 

Billboards are no longer enough to attract well-connected travellers. Social media and the internet have moved the goalposts – and airlines need to be far more savvy, writes Shubhodeep Pal, head of operations and innovation at consulting firm SimpliFlying.

If at first it is not apparent, look again: there’s a tectonic shift under way. Airline marketing is undergoing a phase that’s exciting, unpredictable and creative. Debatably, this new and constantly evolving state of airline marketing is unprecedented – in terms of its ingenuity, its previously unseen empathy for the customer and its exceptional brand-building capabilities.

A number of factors have contributed to this renaissance. So, before moving on to what airline marketing really looks like today, it would be useful to consider what exactly is different about it now.

Firstly, the age of advertising is dead. Quite simply, it is no longer reasonable to expect travellers inundated with one-way marketing messages to respond to “because people need to fly”. Such tactics no longer sit well; we’ll see why in a while.

Secondly, effective airline marketing today employs a hybrid model. The pervasiveness of the internet and social media almost necessitates the adoption of marketing tactics that involve both online and offline space. Notably, even Ryanair – the fine fellows who are not known for their customer care – ran an online initiative to offer ticket refunds to their customers through a game called ‘Play and Win’.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, airline marketers now have access to powerful tools to run efficient campaigns that could not have been dreamt of even five years ago: think crowd-sourcing, location-based campaigns and the like. This is the time to be creative and to dream big.

RIP, traditional travellers

Easily available access to the internet, coupled with the mind-boggling popularity of social networks and smartphones, has led to the rise of a new socially savvy traveller who is ever-connected on a mobile device. This traveller – both characteristics and behaviour – has important implications for airline marketing strategy.

The travel cycle itself has changed. A three-stage lifecycle – namely planning, booking and travelling – has arguably been replaced by an evolved five-part cycle. In the Connected Traveller Lifecycle model developed by SimpliFlying, based on empirical observation and analysis, it seems that airlines need to look beyond booking. While booking is indeed the driver on which the airline ultimately depends, now it must be reached through the path today’s traveller adopts.

Sharing the secret 

Nowadays, travellers conduct extensive research on search engines, travel websites and online travel agencies (OTAs) before they actually make a booking. Now here’s the point: why should airlines let the fate of a passenger’s ticket depend on an external party? What can airlines do to pull potential customers to a decision to buy? Two things: make sure customers dream of flying to an airlines’ destinations before they have even made a conscious decision to travel (the dream stage). Vueling, for instance, asked users to create an Instagram image of a Vueling destination and share it using the hashtag #vuelingairgallery in order to win free flights and have their image featured on the exterior of a special Vueling plane.

In the next plan phase, airlines can make it easy for travellers to finalise their decision and move to the booking phase. Cebu Pacific promised a free flight to their fans on Facebook to the first group of 150 people ready to travel to the same destination.

While booking is still largely handled by traditional means (online booking systems), some airlines have chosen to use social media to spice up the booking process. JetBlue, for example, clears inventory through a dedicated Twitter account @JetBlueCheeps that sells cut-price tickets.

While the pre-booking phase of the new travel cycle differs from traditional models when it comes to achieving the booking, there is a radical difference in how the connected travellers and the traditional travellers behave once they start the journey – because the former, through their smartphones and social networks, automatically become a conduit for messages, photographs, thoughts and emotions that go out to a potentially large social network, where the impact of the content can be multiplied manifold. Hence, it becomes incredibly important for airlines to consider the travel and share phases of the connected traveller lifecycle and provide not just effective ‘social care’, but encourage sharing in a way that enhances the online brand. Witness how easyJet encouraged its fans to create a full-blown ‘Memory Maker’ holiday video about its destinations and share it on Facebook. Each week, the most voted video won prizes. 

Today’s travellers are no longer content with just accepting whatever good or bad the airline dishes out to them. They are extremely tuned in to the power of social media, as citizens of a virtually connected world. An airline brand can no longer be ‘controlled’ by the management and corporate speak. Today’s airline brands are moulded as much by management direction as by the goodwill of social advocates.

The bottom-line: if airlines are not where their customers are, if they are not connected to them and tuned in to their behaviour, they stand to lose a lot of business. The bad news is the flow of online opinion cannot be controlled. The good news is that customers are happy (and, in fact, want) to engage with brands and spread a good word. Being transparent, responsive and helpful online will go a long way.

Making it fly

Over the last six months, SimpliFlying has published its Airline Marketing Benchmark Report, in partnership with airlinestrends.com. Across the near 100 innovative marketing initiatives that were featured to date, SimpliFlying has identified eight trends through which Airline Marketing 2.0 can be defined. 

Arguably, the biggest traditional function disrupted by social media has been customer service. The speed, transparency and interactive nature of social platforms make them a boon for customers, as well as an effective channel to disseminate information far and wide for airlines. Given that good customer service is an excellent marketing and branding exercise, the importance of social care cannot be overstated. Many airlines have accepted this new reality. Consider how AirAsia has done away with its phone-based contact centre and now performs customer service wholly on social media.

The second biggest achievement of new media campaigns has been their ability to leverage positive emotions and spread good cheer among customers and audiences, thereby engendering a happy association with the brand. Examples range from kulula’s wacky “most South African flight ever”, to JetBlue’s humourous take on the Mars rover landing by offering “flights from 2052 or later”, to Southwest Airlines giving away free $1000 gift cards during their holiday season contest, ‘12 Days of LUV’. Such feel-good initiatives do not just pique interest in the brand but also help drive loyalty. (It is worth noting that even when the real initiative happens offline, airlines, more often than not, depend on their online audience to spread the buzz.) 

Last but not least, an increasingly connected world has made the flow of ideas freer than ever before. And airlines have been quick to leverage this in order to improve their own products and services. Many airlines have used crowdsourcing as a great way to achieve several business objectives at once: to engage customers and build the brand; seek new, innovative ideas for products and services; drive revenue or bring down costs; drive brand loyalty by involving customers in the brand; increase brand reach; get more people interested in the brand; and gain new customers. Consider how WestJet claimed to have saved over $10 million by crowdsourcing ideas from employees on how to reduce costs. Ryanair, on the other hand, ran a memorable crowdsourcing campaign to find new ideas for ancillary revenues.

The fun, of course, has only just begun. While airlines spent the last couple of years getting their foothold on social media, we are finally at a mature stage where they can come into their own and leverage the true power of social media (beyond just fans, followers and likes), while combining them with the power of traditional and experiential campaigns.

Airline Marketing Benchmark Report is a monthly report that assesses the effectiveness of a selection of 15 of the most innovative airline marketing campaigns from around the world. For more information, contact shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

The post The New Wave (Featured in Low Cost & Regional Airline Business) appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Li Guen

Li Guen heads the communications and marketing functions at SimpliFlying where she drives corporate branding efforts and industry research initiatives. A PR enthusiast, Li Guen returned to SimpliFlying after a stint with Weber Shandwick working with clients including Rolls-Royce, Changi Airport Group and P&G. In her free time, Li Guen likes trekking mountains in Asia. You can tweet her at @SimpliGuen or email her at guen@simpliflying.com.

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Last night, BalticMiles, the multi-partner loyalty program associated with airBaltic, and a SimpliFlying Client, was awarded the Global Innovation in Technology Award at Loyalty 2013 for its BalticMiles Brainstorm initiative. This loyalty program was the world’s first to have a membership tier that is crowdsourced from ideas received on social media via the Facebook app Brainstorm.

If you missed the winning presentation delivered by Annika Davidsone, Marketing Director at BalticMiles, we have embedded the slides here for you.

A soaring partnership between BalticMiles and SimpliFlying

SimpliFlying was first engaged to help BalticMiles modernise its loyalty program by leveraging on social media. BalticMiles sought to boost confidence of its multipartner loyalty program from both frequent and non-frequent flyers.

Through case studies of airline loyalty programs around the world, we helped our client become acquainted with the latest innovations in this space, and facilitated internal brainstorm sessions for ideas that would effectively leverage BalticMiles’ advantage as a small program to achieve big feats.

The BalticMiles Brainstorm program was conceptualized under the guidance of SimpliFlying, and actualized on Facebook in June 2012 through a world-class application developed by Napkin labs.

The feat is BalticMiles’, and the glory is ours to have worked with such an amazing client

By the end of the campaign, BalticMiles Brainstorm saw over 420 new ideas and 6,000 comments – with BalticMiles announcing its first fan-inspired project three months after the campaign. A rewards project that guaranteed bonus points to all loyalty members who visited 5 merchant partners within a period of time, this crowdsourced fan-idea helped to raise awareness of BalticMiles’ merchant partners and also encourage shopping across the network.

We extend our heartiest congratulations to BalticMiles on winning the Global Innovation in Technology Award at Loyalty 2013.

If your airline is looking to explore ‘social’ loyalty programs to effectively engage the Connected Travelers of today, please contact us at letstalk@simpliflying.com.

A comprehensive case-study of our consulting work with BalticMiles can be downloaded here:

The post [SimpliClient] BalticMiles wins Global Innovation in Technology Award at Loyalty 2013 appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Li Guen

Li Guen heads the communications and marketing functions at SimpliFlying where she drives corporate branding efforts and industry research initiatives. A PR enthusiast, Li Guen returned to SimpliFlying after a stint with Weber Shandwick working with clients including Rolls-Royce, Changi Airport Group and P&G. In her free time, Li Guen likes trekking mountains in Asia. You can tweet her at @SimpliGuen or email her at guen@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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Editor’s Note: This article was featured in Loyalty Management Magazine by Loyalty360 (July- September Issue), contributed by Shubhodeep Pal, Senior Innovation Officer at SimpliFlying. For a soft copy of the original article, please see here. 

There’s a fundamental shift underway.

Whereas traditional airline loyalty programs were essentially intended to reward those already loyal—by dint of them being frequent flyers for various reasons—we’re now seeing airlines explore a truer meaning of loyalty, in terms of making those who travel loyal.

Think about it: traditional loyalty programs typically reward only those who are already flying like crazy (one free ticket typically requires at least 25,000 frequent flyer miles). In such a scenario, an occasional flyer might join the loyalty program as a formality (or even, to be fair, for some trivial boarding pass privileges) but no real hope of ever redeeming more than a couple of tickets in his/her lifetime. Today, however, airlines are keenly aware that loyalty, or rather, affinity, can be inculcated even in those not flying frequently.

A Welcome Shift in Philosophy

It is no longer news that there has been a paradigm shift in the market. Information, opinions and candid product reviews can be shared easily on social networks. This has made many airlines realize the immense underlying potential. Engaging customers, empowering them to be social advocates, and subsequently mining social data born out of online interactions could help promote and increase loyalty to the brand. Forget the days of yore. Even airlines with traditional loyalty programs have started toying with the idea of driving loyalty by engaging customers online. Offering real-world rewards for virtual actions creates brand champions: People who think highly of the brand and are willing to gladly promote and recommend it. American Airlines, for example, recognized the need to have a critical mass to engage online. Hence, in their Mystery Miles contest last year they invited people to “like” their Facebook page and walk away with anything from 100 to 100,000 miles for the AAdvantage loyalty program. While the first two weeks since the inception of the Facebook Page had seen fans grow to more than 2000 in number, this campaign saw fan numbers gallop to over the 200,000 mark in just over 50 hours!

Compare this to the past where the airline brand was tightly controlled and all decisions were essentially one-way traffic thrust upon a consumer hardly able to effect any changes or improvements nor considered worthy of being a part of the process. Today, loyalty comes with the price of proactively engaging customers and including them in the decision-making process.

Gamification and the Virtual Ecosystem

The most relevant example of such a shift is seen in BalticMiles’ recent effort—the World’s First such initiative—to create the world’s first crowdsourced loyalty tier. Through a Facebook app called Brainstorm, BalticMiles invites members to suggest partners for the scheme as well as the benefits they’d wish to receive in that tier. Suggestions with the most ‘likes’ will translate to mileage points for members, who will be invited to help develop their ideas with the BalticMiles team. With 14 days still remaining in the month-long campaign, already 380 ideas have poured in, with 13 receiving over 100 likes each. For a sphere of airline activity that used to be tightly controlled by the airline, this marks a surprising (and welcome) change from how loyalty executives are now thinking.

“There is a lot of untapped creativity out there that can help a company further its business goals,” says Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying. “BalticMiles recognizes this potential to drive meaningful conversations with its customers and we are excited to have helped them with the creation of the world’s first crowdsourced membership level.” At its essence, this is what gamification for driving business goals is all about. What is a game after all? A fun activity with the some inherent rewards for those participating in it.

Witness the success of Estonian Air’s social loyalty Facebook app AirScore (again the first initiative of its sort in the world). The app rewards virtual advocacy (eg. writing a review, sharing photographs) with points that can be redeemed for real-world rewards. Contrast this to the traditional mode of loyalty points (or miles) redemption that typically involves redeeming a flight in exchange for collected miles. Here, in a diagonally opposite move, customers fly in order to redeem their rewards (eg. lounge access). For those who swear by numbers and measurement, the initiative was a dream come true. After it was launched, AirScore saw the activity and engagement on Estonian Air’s Facebook page scale dizzying heights.

Within 10 days of being launched, 1040 members enrolled as “Estonian Air Ambassadors”. Moreover, 1,340,000 wall impressions were received. In comparison, Estonian Air flies about 800,000 passengers a year! If you’re someone keen to think about this initiative’s monetary worth, here are some stats to impress you: given that 4.8 million impressions were served, this would translate to a value of $48,000 assuming a standard CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) rate of $10 CPM.

Viral acquisitions, by referral, amounted to 1,105 members, which would imply a value of $11,050 given a standard rate CPA (cost per action) of $10. Unique visitors numbered 87,000. Assuming a standard CPC (cost per click) rate of $.50, this amounts to a value of $43,500 in advertising spend. These dollar-values are what Estonian Air, in fact, didn’t have to spend.

Tracking Loyalty through Location-Based Apps

Allow me to put forth a rather flippant question: How do you know your pet dog is loyal to you? The simplest answer is that he’d return to your house even if he were let out for an evening stroll on his own. Do you have a favorite café you frequent with your colleagues? Is there a particular restaurant you always take your family to? Do you, to bring us back to the topic, always prefer to fly a particular airline? I can speak for myself and admit that the answer to all of these questions is yes. But, to flip over to the other side of the fence, let’s ask some questions a bit differently. Do the café and restaurant know that you frequent them? Does the airline (or airport) know you’ve been frequenting it? Even if the airline does, via its loyalty program, is it doing anything to personalize your experience or know you better in a way that compels you to pay for its product again?

KLM, which understood the need to do this very early, managed to drive loyalty through their popular KLM Surprise campaign. When passengers arrived at security checkpoints and gates, flight attendants would be there to greet them by name and give them a personalized gift—something that the passenger could use on his or her trip, or enjoy when they returned home.

All these gifts were carefully chosen after researching the passenger’s social profile (the passenger, of course, would be randomly identified via a tweet or check-in they might have made). For instance, a woman who was going hiking in Rome was given a watch that tracks distances and walking speed. Needless to say, this delighted passengers. Moreover, it is estimated that the initiative earned KLM over 1 million Twitter impressions.

Location-based services are perhaps best equipped to track loyalty in terms of repeat visits as well as social advocacy. Air New Zealand’s Foursquare Mayors initiative aimed to do precisely this—by rewarding Mayors (people with the most number of Foursquare check-ins) of certain terminals with free access to their Koru Lounges.

Across the Pacific, when Virgin America’s flights started operating from the brand-new Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport, plenty of virtual “check-ins” happened during its grand opening ceremony. This was because Virgin cleverly set up a social scavenger hunt for guests to discover T2’s innovative features, guided by Foursquare “check-ins”.

By virtually “checking-in” at various spots in the airport and announcing their presence on social networks such as Facebook and
Twitter, participants earned badges redeemable for prizes. It was quite a sight to see grown men and women running around in a bid to see their names on the leaderboard set up in the main hall.

Needless to say, this is just the beginning of the evolution of a fascinating new landscape. As more airlines find value in driving loyalty via social initiatives, traditional loyalty programs themselves might get shaken up. While most airlines, for now, are keeping their social and traditional loyalty initiatives separate, Gabi Kool, the CEO of BalticMiles is optimistic that the future will be integrated. “I’m not fully convinced yet that a social loyalty program has to exist next to a regular loyalty program. I think they can very well be integrated.” That future, you may safely assume, is not far.

The post A New Era in Airline Loyalty (Featured in Loyalty360) appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Li Guen

Li Guen heads the communications and marketing functions at SimpliFlying where she drives corporate branding efforts and industry research initiatives. A PR enthusiast, Li Guen returned to SimpliFlying after a stint with Weber Shandwick working with clients including Rolls-Royce, Changi Airport Group and P&G. In her free time, Li Guen likes trekking mountains in Asia. You can tweet her at @SimpliGuen or email her at guen@simpliflying.com.

Twitter

The big day is here at last! Earlier today, the winners in each category of the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2012 were announced at the EyeforTravel Summit in Amsterdam. Amidst a lot of fanfare, excellent presentations and a glittering awards ceremony, five deserving winners walked away with sparkling trophies that marked their triumph in their respective categories.

This was the culmination of a long and arduous journey. We began almost two months ago by opening nominations in 5 categories – three for airlines and one each for airports and travel solution providers. Over 50 high-quality nominations were received, of which overall 21 candidates across 5 categories made it to the shortlist. These finalists went on to compete for public votes - of which about 30,000 poured in – while also impressing our judges who scored the finalists on presentations submitted privately to the judges. The winners were chosen based on the combined scores from the votes and judges’ scores.

Today, the ultimate winner in each category was announced. As usual, we have some usual suspects who scored big. Nevertheless, there are some pleasant surprises as well. (Please click on the category title to see the finalist presentations.)

Best Airline on Social Media

KLM has stood out by consistently being one of the most innovative airlines on social media with multiple world-renowned initiatives. Their commitment to engaging the connected traveler is unparalleled and the persistence has paid off well.

Best Airport on Social Media

Helsinki Airport’s emergence, as noted by one of our judges David McMullen, has been one of impact and delight. Their creativity has definitely shined through and we anticipate more from them in the sphere of airport engagement.

Best Use of Social Media to Drive Customer Service

American Airlines stands out with its sophisticated strategy and execution, especially on the customer service front. A lot of thought has been put into service and customer engagement, and it shows. We look forward to seeing them continuing to push this frontier.

Best Use of Social Media to Drive Revenue

WestJet was able to cleverly show how viral content can be used to drive an airline’s bottom line. The presentation and statistics in the Kargo Kids campaign used was strong and impactful. They truly have established themselves as an innovative leader in using social media to drive revenue.

Best Social Media Solution Provider for Travel

Satisfly has enabled a better and smarter traveling experience for the customers by choosing seating zones and seat buddies, while also benefiting the airline’s bottom line. It’s a real innovation and we look forward to seeing it push the frontier.

Surprise Category: Most Popular Airline on Social Media 

Nasair managed to get the most votes for the awards, across all categories. For shouting from their rooftops asking for votes, and getting 7610
votes in two weeks, Nasair gets a special recognition for being the “most popular airline on social media”.

Thereby ends the journey of this year’s awards. We’ve been awed, enthralled and sometimes even exhausted by the sheer scale of the awards process. The number of quality competitors keeps on increasing year upon year and we hope to see an ever greater turnout and even stiffer competition during next year’s awards.

We hope you enjoyed this year’s coverage. See you in 2013! Meanwhile, keep flying. SimpliFlying.

Here are some more photographs from the event.

The post The Best Airlines, Airports and Travel Solution Providers in Social Media – Winners of the 3rd SimpliFlying Awards, held at Amsterdam 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.

LinkedIn

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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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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The SimpliTravel phase of the Connected Traveler Lifecycle is undoubtedly the oldest and more easily understood part of the lifecycle. It refers to the period when the customer is actually traveling. However, this is also a challenging stage because, even though users carry with them an ever-increasing number of devices, the availability of internet connection is still an issue, especially during international travel. (Previous Top 10s have showcased initiatives during the SimpliDream, SimpliPlan and SimpliBook stages of travel for today’s Connected Traveler.)

Beyond the traditional element

Most airlines and airports have traditionally regarded this phase as “the” point of contact between them and their customers. As a result, a lot of attention has been given to designing better user experiences trough interior design, crowd management, and employee-training techniques. It is important, however, to stress that while the “traditional” personal experience represents the bulk of the user experience in this stage, mobile and social technologies are increasingly in demand and do have the potential to significantly enhance the experience.

In this Top 10, we take a look at the best ways in which airlines have attempted to engage today’s increasingly connected and socially-savvy travelers during this phase of travel. We hope you’ll enjoy it :

Featured Image: Courtesy KLM

The post SimpliTravel: Top 10 Airline Initiatives to Engage today’s Connected Traveler during the Travel Stage appeared first on SimpliFlying.

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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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While over 80 per cent of frequent flyers remain dormant in their Frequent Flyer Programs, a study conducted by SimpliFlying and Cranfield University last year revealed that 72 per cent of Frequent Flyers said they would join a social loyalty program. This suggests a huge opportunity for airlines to incentivise them for being online advocates, as part of the loyalty program.

Moreover, airlines can also target those who fly less frequently through social loyalty program. Among them may be strong online brand advocates who can help the airline spread positive reviews about it. On two occasions, SimpliFlying has helped airlines reach out to these target audience. We helped Estonian Air set up AirScore, the World’s First Social Loyalty Program and also helped BalticMiles create the World’s First Crowdsourced Loyalty Tier.

Today, SimpliFlying is launching its Loyalty MasterClass to help airlines and airports refine their loyalty programs for the Connected Travelers of today.

With over 20 case studies plus the latest tools and methods to understand customer expectations, the L/yalty MasterClass emphasizes the need for a clearly defined social loyalty strategy that is result-oriented, not just ad-hoc social initiatives that are buzz- focused. Moreover, traditional loyalty programs need not be perturbed yet – these solutions can easily co-exist with preo-exist with previously established loyalty programs.

Download the brochure here or contact us to find out more at masterclass@simpliflying.com

The post Driving Loyalty from The Connected Frequent Flyer – SimpliFlying launches new MasterClass appeared first on SimpliFlying.

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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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Lufthansa has seized this new opportunity in the Foursquare ecosystem to create official Lufthansa venues (including over 9000 flights named in the format “Lufthansa Flight LH 400″) where users can check-in virtually to get special badges, ranks and rewards.

For instance, once connected with Foursquare and Facebook, you can earn badges such as the “Early-Bird-badge” by checking in before 6 in the morning. There are more virtual goodies as you fly more on Lufthansa (and, of course, remember to check-in to their official locations).

One of the undeniably attractive features of the app is that its written in HTML5 which allows it to be accessed from almost every platform – desktop and mobile – with ease, without being confined to a closed app ecosystem (such as iOS or Android).

An increasingly “gamified”  and location-aware world

As you move up the ladder, you’ll find that the badges and ranks (similar to mayorships) are increasingly targeted towards frequent flyers. Lufthansa believes that this customized experience by offering special virtual badges in recognition for flying the airline will “open a whole new dimension of social travel experience for frequent flyers who can not only track their countries and airports they’ve visited with the app but can compete with their friends to become the “Expert Pilot” on a route between two cities.” This rank is given to the person who has travelled most between two destinations – independent from the Lufthansa flight he took or airport of the city he travelled to.

This app is, in fact, the latest in a series of app-based initiatives by airlines that are looking to drive specific business goals by gamification of the social ecosystem. Not just that, linking these apps very closely with location has made it possible for airlines to track and drive loyalty in customers by offering rewards for virtual actions. At its essence, this is what gamification for driving business goals is all about. What is a game after all but a fun activity with some inherent rewards for those participating in it? Witness the success of Estonian Air’s social loyalty Facebook app AirScore (the first initiative of its sort in the world). The app rewards virtual advocacy (eg. writing a review, sharing photographs) with points that can be redeemed for real-world rewards.

So how does Lufthansa’s app seek to make a difference? Essentially, the gamification aspect of this app lies in its having leaderboards for those who fly it the most. Given that being a frequent flyer (especially for business) can be a thankless experience, offering customers a reason to be proud of their flying so much, is a smart move. In a way, it seeks to make Lufthansa’s passengers more involved with the brand when they fly. But most importantly, it will probably make customers want to keep flying Lufthansa just to get badges only a few can flaunt as well as to see their names displayed on a public leader-board on a widely used social-network.

Now, that’s a SimpliFantastic way to drive loyalty if there ever was one!

Disclosure: Lufthansa is a past client of SimpliFlying, having taken our MasterClass last year, which focused on building loyalty and the future of location-based technologies .

The post Lufthansa's "Blue Legends" app aims to bring Frequent Flyers closer to the brand appeared first on SimpliFlying.

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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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Top 3 reasons you need to have this eBook

1. 10 great case-studies: From Estonian Air’s award-winning social loyalty programme to Qantas’ Augmented Reality app to Virgin America’s tie-up with TopGuest, this eBook covers a global range of impactful airline initiatives that have helped drive loyalty.
2. Move up the learning ladder: Beginner and wish to explore more? Don’t fret. This eBook takes you from Beginner to Pro over 10 case-studies. Already a Pro and wish to go to the next level? This eBook is perfect for you, letting you explore a number of different technologies and techniques to capture the loyalty of customers online.
3. Three-pronged analysis: The eBook follows a three-pronged technique of analysing each case-study, clearly stating the Objectives, Execution Technique and Results Achieved by each airline. At the end of each case-study, a special box reiterates these three points in short, memorable sentences.

Click here to download your free eBook.

Additional Resources

• Special 3-part series on Low-Cost Carriers and Loyalty (downloadable pdf)
• How Airports can track passengers throughout the evolving Traveler Life Cycle (Presentation)
• Tero Taskila, Estonian Air’s CEO, talks about creating the World’s First Social Loyalty Program for Airlines (Profile)
• The Business of Loyalty. Gabi Kool, CEO of BalticMiles speaks on the changing loyalty landscape (Interview)
• What the future of airline loyalty looks like (Article)
• Why the future of loyalty will be powered by social media (Infographic)

Do write to loyalty@simpliflying.com to learn more about how your airline too can unleash the potential of social loyalty.

The post [eBook] How Airlines Can Drive Loyalty on Social Media | FREE download 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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