Of late, there’s been a surge in airlines highlighting their flight attendants, like we saw with airBerlin’s weather girl on TV. And now, the most famous flight attendants of all – the Singapore Girls, are back at the forefront of a renewed Singapore Airlines brand strategy.

In advertisements released this month, there are no A380s. No business class beds. No gourmet food. No lounges. But just the Singapore Girl. I bet some of you would recall that in the late 70s and 80s, this was precisely the brand strategy for Singapore Airlines – something that set it a class apart from the rest. Here’s what the new ad looks like:

Of course, we were more than curious about the latest move, and managed to get an interview with the spokesperson at SIA. And here’s the interview, verbatim.
Interview with Nicholas Ionides, VP, Public Affairs, Singapore Airlines
Q: It’s refreshing to see the Singapore Girl being the center of SIA’s brand. What led to the re-think?
A: The Singapore Girl has always been central to SIA’s branding, and she …

Airlines sponsoring weather segments on the news is nothing new. We often hear “weather sponsored by…” or “today’s weather brought to you by…”, before or after the segment. What’s new is how airBerlin has started doing it.

German cable television news network N24′s weather girl now presents the weather wearing the full airBerlin cabin service uniform, including the trademark red gloves. If that wasn’t in-your-face enough, the map not only shows the weather of key German cities, but also weather at all airBerlin desinations – with the airBerlin logo on it too!

While some think that this is bad advertising, I’d say this is very creative and a good example  of brand placement. I’m sure airBerlin must be paying much more than just sponsoring the weather, but then again – it’s what it takes to get your destination map shown to all of Germany every hour isn’t it?
What do you think? Slick advertising, or over the top? Let’s hear it on Twitter (@simpliflying) and in the comments.

Recently, I discovered that Hainan Airlines of China has been awarded a “5 Star” status by Skytrax putting them in the same reign as Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways. While Hainan might be a decent airline, putting it in the highest category seemed out of context. And it wasn’t just me, discussing sprouted up around the web on this. Someone on Airliners.net said that Skytrax is becoming “Skytrash”. Someone else called it “Skycash” due to allegations that airlines need to pay big to acquire a new star level.

I feel rating Hainan as Five Star was the final nail in the coffin for Skytrax. Here are three reasons why I believe Skytrax is dead:

Irrelevant – If I’m a Kobe Bryant, then the only Business Class seat that’s Five Star for me is Oman Air’s – not Asiana or any other 5-star-classified airline. Because I can fit in there. Moreover, service and products differ dramatically for airlines on different routes and sectors. Hence, airlines ratings need to be relevant – which Skytrax is not.
Not real-time- Annual ratings are no longer desirable as airline service levels can dramatically change over a much smaller period of …

Most of us familiar with AirAsia X know their deep desire to fly in to Sydney, but they’re being hindered by the Malaysian government (Malaysia Airlines’ ex-CEO is in the govt). So to raise the tempo, what does AirAsia X do? They take a leaf out of Virgin Atlantic’s books. Take a look for yourself…. clever, I’d say


This is bound to get the message far-and-wide for AirAsia X, and hopefully they’ll be flying to Sydney sooner than later. It’s good for us, consumers

Why do rock stars have fans and companies have customers?

Over the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of time translating the developments in social media to how airlines and airports can drive loyalty, revenue and engagement – things that matter to the business – and hopefully answer the above question.

And the one big noticeable trend is the shift from the Customer to the Cult. The latter is essentially a much larger, often more influential tribe, than just those who actually pay to fly. So, why not leverage on them?

I know it might sound a little abstract right now, so I’d like to share with you my keynote presentation from the Points.com customer summit in Toronto. Points.com allows frequent travelers to trade miles between multiple programs, and also ultimately drives loyalty for airlines, due to better earning and burning.

I was intrigued by the Points.com model and highlighted to the audience the two paradigm shifts in travel and three ways to drive loyalty with those in mind.

And for the first time, I didn’t use any presentation slides, inspired from Chris Anderson’s talk at TED.

Enjoy the presentation, and I’d love to hear your feedback (click here if …

Great airline marketing strategies are built on the shoulders of smaller successess. Only when multiple niche markets are targeted well, does the airline fill up the plane well. For example, South African Airways targets Americans going to Zimbabwe for African safaris as a niche market for their New York – Johanesberg flights. Similarly, Air Arabia has some of its marketing campaigns geared towards family members of the South Asian labor working in the Middle East, so that they can visit often.
SAS = LGBT-friendly airline?
Now, SAS Scandinavian has targeted the LGBT community – a small, but often rich community, to showcase how friendly the airline is towards this specific group. The airline has launched a competition on a microsite where gay couples can share their love stories and win a chance to be the couple to get married on-board a flight from Stockhom to New York! Not only that, the couple will win a complete honeymoon package as well, which will also bring them to the US West Coast and put them up in luxury hotels. Now, that’s original!

Why I think this is a good …

This is a guest post by Jonathan Haysom, who is a respected marketer and business development strategist. Currently working for Australia’s number 1 telco and number 1 company by brand value, he is responsible for maintaining and growing a multi-billion dollar product portfolio focused on next generation products. He has recently received awards for innovation in marketing and accolades for his social media campaigns and brand strategies.

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Virgin Blue, after fighting hard as a “renegade” brand for a slice of the Australian carrier market is tipped to undergo a marketing face lift and re-invent itself as a full service brand. Some of the purported changes include the introduction of a new business class product, integrating the other brand properties (Polynesian Blue and V Australia) as well as the introduction of wide body aircraft on trunk routes between capitals.

(Image credit: ABC News)

Virgin Blue going upscale?
It is apparent from the changes the new CEO, Ex Qantas Senior exec John Borghetti is primarily going after the lucrative corporate segment of the market, one which Virgin Blue has traditionally struggled to break into due to Qantas’ having a …

I’ve spent the past week at the Farnborough airshow, where there are a ton of aviation suppliers decked out in their chalets. My interest was piqued when I saw the only airline chalet at the show – Qatar Airways’. Yes, it does well for brand awareness. But Qatar Airways already has a Boeing 777-300 on static display at the show. Hence, I got thinking why would Qatar Airways invest in a chalet at Farnborough? Here are some possible reasons I came up with.

To get all manufacturers coming to Qatar Airways’ chalet, than the QR executives going to the manufacturers
Increase brand awareness among suppliers
Invite the media to the chalet to share stories about the airline
Mr Al Bakar wanted one

For all the above reasons, I keep coming up with respective counter arguments..

Any suppliers trying to sell planes or services to QR would already have done their homework and go to Mr al Bakar anyway, hence negating the need for driving brand awareness among suppliers
The media is just as happy at press conferences as well as on-board the plane on static display,

So then why would Qatar Airways, or any other airline have a chalet at an Airshow? And how is the ROI from …

Virgin America created a splash today, by launching its first international destination, Toronto, on Twitter! They did not spend a cent on traditional advertising for this launch, and I personally think this is one of the smarter uses of social media I’ve seen by an airline in recent times.

The sweetener is that the first 500 people to book tickets using their Twitter ID would be able to redeem a 50% discount (still valid as of 2pm EDT, 20 Feb). If they’re not “following” the airline on Twitter, they will auto-follow. Even the official press release re-directed recipients to the Twitter URL.
“The first 500 Twitter followers who receive the airline’s expansion Tweet can score a 50 percent discount on flights to Toronto for travel June 23-November 17, 2010.*  Virgin America is the only airline based in Silicon Valley, and its inventive use of technology, social media and design has made it a favorite among tech-forward flyers.  For more: www.twitter.com/virginamerica”.
The press release was followed by a single Tweet. And that’s it. That’s a very simple route-launch for you.

What …

I saw this advertisement on four different websites today. So, Mexicana and OneWorld are doing a great job with banner advertising. But I’m not really sure whether it gets any points across the viewer. Why do I say that? Because an airline brand is no longer what you [the airline] say it is, it’s what they [the customers] say it is.

First impressions matter
When I first saw this advertisement, these questions would come to the travelers’ minds:

Why is Oneworld the “most important” alliance in the world?
And whose claim is that? The alliance itself? Or an independent third party?
Who is Mexicana? A new airline from Mexico? Or an old one?
Are they any good?
Do they fly anywhere other than Mexico?
Oh..and which of those logos is Mexicana? The first or the last… they both look similar!

None of those questions were answered. And from a marketing standpoint, what’s the “call to action”? Being the curious type, I clicked on the advertisement anyway, and I came to a “Promotions” landing page, which didn’t quite make sense.
Repetition doesn’t work anymore
The page I was led to repeated …