I delivered a speech today at the Airline Retail Conference 2012 in Singapore, around the topic of driving revenues and engaging customers using the latest in-flight entertainment and connectivity technologies. The focus was around leveraging three key shifts:

1. Gadgets in-flight – personal and those supplied by the airlines
2. The connected traveler – and how to drive engagement and revenue
3. Learning from other retail models – in this case Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Tesco in Korea

Sharing here my Prezi presentation. The recorded video will be available soon too, so please do check back!

• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi
• Low cost airline brands get creative with ancillary revenues – lounges, shops and cargo!
• The buzz from #socialindia about our presentation on how airlines drive results from social media
• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement
• The evolving traveler lifecycle, and how airlines are engaging customers through the journey #smtravel11

I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation and a MasterClass at the ACI Airport Exchange in Abu Dhabi, on the road ahead for social media for airports around the world.

While I focused on key business goals like driving customer service and non-aeronautical revenue, I shared case studies from this year’s SimpliFlying Award winner London Gatwick and nominee Changi, among others. During the half-day MasterClass, I shared in-depth case studies and gave the participants a feel of how using free tools like socialmention.com and Geochirp.com can make their job easy when trying to engage customers.

I share with you here my Prezi presentation from the conference. A video recording will be posted up soon as well. Would love your comments on this.

 

ACI on Prezi

@simpliflying presentation was grand. #smartairports #Airportx

November 30, 2011 3:42 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@msjolund

Mattias Sjölund

#airportX interesting session on how social would revolutionize airport and airline revenue

November 30, 2011 3:09 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@Simillonpat

Patricia Simillon

Big crowd for @simpliflying Presentation @ #AirportX -a repeat of his stellar performance @ ACI EUROPE event in Lisbon! http://t.co/BhifmQzB

November 30, 2011 7:31 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ACI_EUROPE

ACI EUROPE

• Driving revenues and engaging customers in-flight – presentation from Airline Retail Conference #arc2012
• Airlines 2.0: Using technology for branding through the recession – webinar slides
• Thai Airways get hands on social media training to drive brand strategy for the airline
• Results oriented social media strategy for airlines and airports – keynote from Navitaire Customer Summit
• Keynote presentation from Sydney: How airlines can have conversations with customers on social media

It was an amazing day today, at the Social India Conference, in Bangalore, where my  presentation generated much appreciation and buzz. It was geared towards lessons learnt from the airline world, which can be applied to Indian context, as well as social organizations like Akshaya Patra, a beneficiary of the conference.

Sharing here my presentation (Prezi) and some of the tweets from the conference.

 

@simpliflying loved your presentation, especially the enthusiasm, energy and passion you have for your subject #socialindia

November 12, 2011 2:40 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@happiestkhan

Shahnawaz Khan

Indeed ;-) RT @Anomillie: Airline gyaan by @Simpliflying #socialindia rocks

November 12, 2011 2:54 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@LHInsights

Prasant Naidu

There was a problem with the blakbirdpie shortcode

Great presentation on social media for airlines by @simpliflying #socialindia

November 12, 2011 2:15 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@kapgup

Kapil Gupta

C2C education on social platforms more effective than B2C if done right #socialindia @simpliflying

November 12, 2011 2:15 am via UberSocial for BlackBerryReplyRetweetFavorite

@ACertainSen

sohini sengupta

Well done! RT “@simpliflying: We're pleased to announce that we'll be feeding 100 kids in India for a year w @akshayapatra #socialindia”

November 12, 2011 3:04 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@anish3075

Anish Kumarswamy

At #socialindia , most of them were talking about Shashank's presentation, its created with http://t.co/gywVTlZD @ http://t.co/BeU9amWP

November 12, 2011 10:22 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@SeoHelpz

SeoHelpz

• Driving revenues and engaging customers in-flight – presentation from Airline Retail Conference #arc2012
• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi
• Announcement: February will be “Indian Aviation Month”
• [Slides] Social Media Strategy for Lufthansa – how a legacy airline built a strong customer engagement model
• The evolving traveler lifecycle, and how airlines are engaging customers through the journey #smtravel11

Yes, you read that correctly. I did not write Web 2.0. Of course, that’s not because it’s not relevant – it’s terribly relevant – but because this newer term encompasses Web 2.0 and then some. So what exactly do I mean by Mobile 2.0 and why is it important? Cutting to the chase, here are some things we all know: first, ordinary feature phones are dying a fast death and smartphone shipments are rising as iOS and Android become increasingly popular with others, such as Windows Phone 7, hot in pursuit. Second, people are increasingly using their phones to do tasks they earlier used their laptops or desktops for: hotel search, ticket bookings, banking, emails, etc. Third, smartphones are creating an all new category of the always connected traveler – a web-savvy, social-networking geek who isn’t afraid to declare to his virtual networks what he’s thinking or doing.

The future is mobile

Given the rapidly changing interactional/behavioural habits of the traveler, it has become important for airlines to target them where they can be found. Close your eyes and think for a moment about what the word mobile phone means to you: I’m quite certain that most of the readers here will at once think of an iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry or a similar device. It seems that the growth of social media – Facebook and Twitter primarily – as a valuable engagement tool to drive business goals has only helped create a more complex landscape. The growth of iOS and Android (especially iOS which is not just available on phones but on iPods and iPads as well), coupled with the ability to create custom apps to target customers and offer them value-added services right on their cellphones has changed the way airlines are thinking about customer engagement and driving revenue, customer service etc. In the past we’ve illustrated how mobile has been an important part of various airline initiatives in the social era: travel distribution, social loyalty and location-based-service initiatives. However, this case-pack deals purely with how airlines have specifically created mobile apps (in particular, on the iPhone and iPad) to engage customers while driving revenue and customer service as well.

Before we move on to the case-pack, here is a checklist of ways in which airlines have tried to differentiate their apps while offering value to their customers:

1. Booking: Some airlines, such as Turkish Airlines, have made it ridiculously easy to book tickets from within the apps in a crazily small amount of time. Customers love it of course: the easier and quicker you make the booking process, the more likelihood that the sale will be completed.
2. Convenience: British Airways allows boarding by flashing the QR code powered boarding passes that can be shown directly from an iPhone. Way to go paperless!
3. Travel inspiration: Lufthansa and KLM have created apps that are excellent at making the users of their apps drool at the prospect of travelling to delicious destinations on these airlines.
4. Complimentary travel services: A number of airline apps now allow customers to rent a car, know the weather and do more at their destination that is not strictly airline-related.
5. Augmented reality: A new player but one with huge scope for engaging the customers who’re usually more than happy (and mostly fascinated) to use the service for things such as navigating an airport or finding places to redeem loyalty points (Qantas).

That’s it, for now! Enjoy the case-studies!

Do let us know what you think of this Top 10 case-pack. Comments, suggestions, brickbats are all welcome in the comments section below. Alternately, you can tweet us @simpliflying.

• Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines: Reinventing the booking cycle to drive revenue (from #eftamerica)
• The Always Connected Traveler – how mobile will transform the future of travel [Infographic]
• The Top 10 Viral Videos by Airlines (plus bonus videos)
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)
• Customer Service 2.0: Top 10 Airlines and Airports performing Customer Service through Social Media

Last week in Amsterdam, in addition to hosting the annual SimpliFlying Awards, I delivered a presentation on how the traveler lifecycle is evolving and how airlines and airports around the world are engaging travelers before, during and after travel.

I’m sharing here the presentation, with examples of how SAS Scandinavian gets their frequent fliers to start dreaming, how jetBlue helps plan and validate trip plans and how Estonian Air empowers travelers to share memories of their trips on Facebook. Enjoy!

• The Always Connected Traveler – how mobile will transform the future of travel [Infographic]
• Driving revenues and engaging customers in-flight – presentation from Airline Retail Conference #arc2012
• Keynote from IATA Commercial Symposium 2009 – Driving revenue for airlines from real-time customer insights on social media
• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi
• [PRESENTATION] How Airlines Dedicate Resources to Social Media – delivered at #omtravel in Miami (June 2011)

A couple of days ago we released an exclusive infographic on how The Future of Loyalty Programs will be powered by Social Media. Given the excellent response it has received on Twitter as well as the blogosphere, we thought we’d go ahead and offer some more detailed insights into the current loyalty game and how social platforms are becoming increasingly important to it. Before we move on to the presentation, I’d like to share a few thoughts on the state of social media with respect to loyalty programs and even vice-versa.

Navigating an increasingly connected world

The internet has ensured that the times we live in are constantly changing. Everything about the world, even the beacons we hold sacred on the internet are restless, dynamic, shape-shifting. At the heart of all this change lies the virtual socialization of human society: more than ever before we are interacting with each other and with businesses online. And the most important part of this change is the growth in two-way conversations instead of one-way advertisements; the instant and spontaneous back and forth between a company and its customers rather than force-feeding pre-determined messages; most of all, the ability of social networks to amplify a distressed customer’s voice has shaken up the historically cold company-customer relationship.

What has changed

Let’s get a few things straight before we move on to the presentation.

1. By now, there really should not be any argument about why loyalty is important. It is quite well-known that a loyal customer is worth more to a company (in this case, airlines) in the long-run than a new customer. For airlines, the future of airline loyalty is now a pressing question given the growth of social technologies.
2. Traditionally, loyalty programs have never been good at addressing the issue of how to drive loyalty. Sure, if you’re a frequent-flyer, you might want to fly your preferred airline and get lounge access etc. However, what if you’re not a frequent flyer but do fly occasionally all the same? Or what if you’ve flown only a couple of flights with a particular airline? Do traditional loyalty programs provide incentives to drive repeat business for most customers?
3. Increasingly, airlines are finding various ways on social media to drive loyalty. And, here’s the catch: they’re finding ways to make air travel more attractive and rewarding for even those who aren’t frequent flyers. As such, many airlines are now rushing to find ways of driving social loyalty. Some of these have been covered in our slide-deck on the Top 10 Social Loyalty Initiatives by Airlines.
4. Social loyalty becomes especially important once airlines realize that some of their most ardent flyers are also its most vocal brand advocates. Hence, it becomes easier for airlines to target the most high-value customers in terms of not only miles flown but also in terms of their social influence online: in other words, Cult Relationship Management. What does this say of future loyalty programs? Yep, it says Opportunity in all-caps.
5. Lastly, given the ways in which airlines can emotionally connect with customers and engage them on social media, we can safely say that the next generation of loyalty programs won’t be restricted to just coupons, reward points and cabin upgrades. In fact, given the instant fame social media can often provide, recognition might be a key feature of loyalty programs in the future (as they already are in some cases at present). So, is social loyalty the future of frequent flyer programs? It certainly seems so!

Given the growing importance of social loyalty programs, a survey of frequent flyers was done determining their social network usage behaviour, booking preferences as well as what makes them loyal to a particular airline and what they’d like to see in social loyalty programs.

We’re sharing detailed insights from it below and including those that made it to the infographic as well. Enjoy!

Do let us know what you thought of this presentation. We’re listening! Leave a comment below or tweet us @simpliflying.

• [Infographic] The future of loyalty programs will be powered by social media
• Redefining CRM – Cult Relationship Management is in, and how loyalty marketing can benefit – keynote presentation
• Randy Petersen of Flyertalk on social media and frequent flyers – Part 2 of 2
• [Infographic] How travel brands are using social media to achieve ROI
• [Video] Two Paradigm Shifts in Travel and Three Ways Airlines Can Drive Engagement – Presentation from Aviation Outlook Africa Summit

I had the opportunity to deliver the opening keynote at this year’s Navitaire Customer Summit, which is an annual gathering of the world’s leading budget airlines commercial and IT executives. And I spoke about how airlines and airports can drive results and ROI from social media – sharing tons of examples of airlines from around the world actually doing that. I also delivered a MasterClass at the Summit.

And as with all my presentations, I’m posting the presentation here for your viewing pleasure. Feedback welcome, and if you’d like to engage us to help you with your social media strategy or speak at your event – just drop us a note.

• Driving social media ROI for airlines, airports and travel businesses – Keynote presentation from #SMtravel11
• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi
• Presentation – How airlines can segment customers and target niche markets through social media
• Airlines 2.0: Using technology for branding through the recession – webinar slides
• Driving revenues and engaging customers in-flight – presentation from Airline Retail Conference #arc2012

If you still need proof of whether social media matters or not, you only have to look at the turnout for this year’s votes for the 2nd SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence. By the time voting closed after 2 weeks of stiff competition, more than 30,000 votes had been submitted from over 4500 cities. And this was after having shortlisted the Top Nominees from close to 60 nominations. The finalists for each category have been announced and they’ll face off in Amsterdam on October 10.

The innovations begin

When airlines initially began their adventure on the socialscape, it was all about about feeling their way about on the social platforms of their choice. The primary focus at the outset was first, discovering how to drive traffic and building a fan-base, followed by the more important aim of utilizing the platform for customer engagement and provide them a real-time medium of information-dissemination and customer service. Slowly, however, they realized that social platforms could also aid them in driving revenue. Flash sales, deals and contests became popular to attract more customers. However, the real innovations were still some time away.

A changing landscape

That time, it seems, has finally come. Airlines, more than ever before have realised that the social web can be utilized to change and influence the booking behaviour of patrons by incorporating their preferences, habits and social circles into the booking cycle. Slowly, we’re beginning to see the true emergence of the New Traveler Life Cycle which can be split into 5 parts: dreaming, validating, booking, travelling and sharing. Airlines have begun to recognize that the booking portion of the cycle alone might not be sufficient to draw customers to themselves. Hence, they’ve begun to incorporate the other portions, in various combinations, to their travel cycle. Our latest case-pack illustrates how airlines are effectively doing this.

Some key points about Travel Distribution emerging from this case-pack are:

1. Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are slowly losing ground as airlines increasingly attract customers to book through their own portals. eg. Delta’s Facebook booking engine is a neat “push strategy” to get customers to book without moving away from their favourite social network.
2. Immersive apps that aid in the dreaming, planning and booking process will not only be addictive travel planning tools but also great brand-builders by wowing patrons. eg. Virgin America’s chrome app.
3. Mobile (and tablet) apps are set to go huge. Whether it is managing bookings or redeeming frequent flyer miles or even checking in without a paper boarding pass, mobile apps will rule the next wave of social airline strategies. eg. British Airways’ cool iPhone app and Lufthansa’s iPad app.
4. Incorporating customers’ social graphs into the booking cycle could pay rich dividends by unleashing a “social multiplier effect”. Knowing which friends are in cities you could fly to (Alaska Air) and choosing seats alongside friends (Malaysia Airlines) are just some of the ways in which booking behaviour of customers can be influenced.
5. Flyers will always be deal hunters looking for the best (in other words, cheapest) fares. LAN Airlines’ Fall Sale, JetBlue Cheeps and Melbourne Airport’s cheap Twitter fares are prime examples. Also, even though the jury is still out on this one, Groupon type sales will continue to be effective in the short-term at least (ie, until they can be sustained).

Without further ado, here’s our case-pack on the Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines. Enjoy!

You can find more of our Top 10 case-packs here.

• Mobile 2.0 – The Top 10 Mobile Apps by Airlines
• Socializing the airline booking process – Germanwings follows Alaska Airlines’ lead
• The Best Airlines in Social Media: the Top 7 nominees for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)

Before we jump into the case-pack, here are a few takeaways from these categories:

1. Airports are keen to ensure that passengers who travel through them recognize that the “airport experience” is not the same as “airline experience”.
2. Once again, there is no substitute for being innovative eg. London Gatwick’s super-large realtime screen that serves as a customer service tool.
3. Emotionally connecting with passengers pays rich dividends in terms of getting them to speak to you, listen to you, respond to you, talk about you and even being loyal to you. eg. Changi Airport’s Millionaire Dance video.
4. Offering customers cutting-edge technology to make their airport experience better is a win-win for both sides in terms of driving engagement, buzz and ultimately, revenue. eg. Copenhagen Airport’s virtual reality airport navigation app.

Without further ado, here’s the case-pack. Enjoy!

• The Best Airlines Driving Revenue Through Social Media – Introducing the Top 5 nominees for the 2nd SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Nominations now open for airlines, airports and hotels
• The Best Airlines in Social Media: the Top 7 nominees for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Vote NOW for best airlines, airports, hotels
• Best airlines, airports and hotels in social media – SimpliFlying Awards Live from Amsterdam

I had the pleasure of presenting at the APEX 2011 Summit in Seattle this week. I was opening the social media Education Track with a presentation that aimed to set the tone for the rest of the day – and worthy speakers to follow. Hence, I focused on the road ahead for social media at airlines.

There were four key themes I highlighted on how social media will impact airlines in the coming months:

1. The availability of in-flight wifi to 200 million people this year would change customer engagement models
2. Loyalty programs would evolve to include social loyalty, where virtual actions lead to virtual rewards, like badges, rather than just free flights
3. Revenue and distribution would adapt to the social graph to skip the GDS, like the Malaysia Airlines Facebook booking app, or Alaska Airline’s FlyingSocial
4. Customer service will evolve where people expect to do all actions through social media, that they now do over the phone with an airline. Hence our partnership with InterGlobe Technologies to launch a social media call center

Check out these trends and more, in the presentation embedded below (Flash required).

• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!
• Socializing the airline booking process – Germanwings follows Alaska Airlines’ lead
• Is social loyalty the next phase of development for frequent flyer programs?
• Top 11 marketing and social media innovations by airlines in 2011
• Five (nearly) zero-cost solutions for low-cost carriers to reward loyal customers and drive loyalty