First, a bit of history. Social seating goes back a long time at SimpliFlying. We were actually the first to point out that choosing potential seating partners via an intelligent social seating system in an airplane would ultimately go mainstream – that was a product powered by our good friends at Satisfly. This was way back in 2009 – almost three years ago! Then in 2010, we discussed incorporating social media in the flying experience – and showcased Twitter seating charts.

Then, last year, there were significant indications of things to come with Malaysia Airlines allowing customers to sit next to their Facebook friends. However, a couple of months ago KLM announced that they would launch the first “truly” social seating system for airlines matching customer’s social profiles with those having similar profiles or interests.

So far, given the lack of details about how the system would exactly work, the announcement was both welcomed as well as met with trepidation by the online community. Some claimed they’d love to try this new system, saying that it would spare them long hours of boredom on their flights, to  the outraged reactions of people who thought it would be an unjustifiable invasion of privacy and could lead to in-flight harassment to unwilling seat-mates.

Today’s the real deal!  At KLM`s headquarters in Amsterdam, the world will witness the announcement of something different, radically innovative but also, controversial: allowing passengers to choose seat mates based on information about their shared interest taken from their Facebook profiles!

Let’s move on now to what’s really happening at Amsterdam.

Click here to view the embedded video.

KLM’s Meet and Seat – Live!

Follow the live-blog below to get blow-by-blow updates as the new product is unveiled (the blog will be updated as soon as the press conference starts)

Photo credit: @polledemaagt

[1.30pm] Social Seating will be launched on flights between Amsterdam and San Francisco, Sao Paolo and New York City.

[1.40 pm] We’ve learnt that passengers will be able to share information from their Facebook or LinkedIn account and will be to see who else is traveling on a particular flight and has shared relevant data. Everyone can decide which data they want to link with their flight. This information can be used by passengers to choose a seat-mate.

[1.45 pm] KLM President & CEO Erik Varwijk said that KLM has always strived to be cutting edge in social media and it’s latest revolutionary initiative will be fun and useful for people with similar interests to connect.

[1.50 pm] Meet & Seat will be can be reserved 90 days to 48 hours before departure on all intercontinental KLM flights via ‘Manage My Booking’.

[2.00 pm] We’ve managed to secure the very first look of what Meet and Seat will be like.

[2.15 pm] Essentially, after booking your KLM flight, choose what Facebook or LinkedIn profile details you want to share. Subsequently, view the profile details of fellow-passengers to find like-minded people or business partners. After evaluating such details you can choose to sit beside a person whose profile you find interesting. Of course, once you’re tuned into the social seating game, the potential is limitless as you could later choose to have a coffee at the airport or even share a taxi with the person you sit next to.

• 5 Ways to Incorporate Social Media Into the Flying Experience, and leverage on your “followers”
• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!
• How an intelligent seating system can bring ancillary revenues, and is great for the airline brand
• Three ways the Cathay Pacific brand can come alive by infusing social media into the People site
• Virgin America’s online community – bull’s eye, or a flop?

It might seem like an anxious start to the new year for AirAsia X, which recently announced that it would be introducing a daily KL-Sydney service and terminating all its flights to Europe and India. Far from being in the doldrums, it’s all part of the airline’s strategy to refocus and strengthen its brand, as its CEO Azran Osman-Rani shared with SimpliFlying in our latest airline strategy podcast.

Listen to the exclusive podcast below.

(c) 2012 SimpliFlying Podcasts

Note: The HTML5 player above should work with most modern browsers including those in mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone. However, if you’re having trouble playing the file, please use the flash player at the bottom of this post. Please also note that the podcast above has only a snippet of the interview with Azran. To delve deeper into the mind of an industry stalwart and gain some exciting secrets to the success of AirAsia and its future plans, click the Buy button above and get our premium podcast at an introductory price of only $19. You can get the free, significantly abridged, SimpliFlying Podcasts on iTunes as well!

When AirAsia X began its operations in 2007, you could practically hear the skeptics sharpening their knives as they waited – and waited – for the long-haul budget carrier to fold.

No doubt those knives were whipped out once again when the airline recently announced that it would be terminating its services to London, Paris, New Delhi and Mumbai – flights to Europe and New Delhi will cease in March while operations to Mumbai ended in January.  Despite all the I-told-you-so’s, chief executive Azran Osman-Rani remains unflustered. In fact, he maintains that the long-haul, low-cast business model is one that can work – if done right.

Of Scale and Profitability

While Europe’s weak economy, high fuel prices and taxes, as well as the visa restrictions imposed by the Indian and Malaysian governments ultimately prompted the airline to halt services to those destinations, Osman-Rani says that markets such as Australia and China are proof that AirAsia X’s model is one that can, with the right scalability and economization, turn a profit.

“The model can definitely work but the ingredients to build that success require scale. What we have proven is that in markets [where we] have built sufficient scale, they have been very profitable. In fact, [our] profit margins are higher than even some of the disclosed profit margins of the leading full-service airlines in Asia.”

Indeed, despite the disruptions caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, the airline’s performance remained steady, netting it an on-site performance rating of 88 percent, which according to Osman-Rani “is much higher than some of the leading full-service airlines in the world.”

“Our engineering reliability rates [are] just about higher than everyone else…and if you go to the Skytrax website and look at the customer satisfaction scores for AirAsia X, we’re the highest among any Asian LCC and comparable to some of the top so-called 5-star airlines in Asia,” he continues. “We’ve developed a product that is very popular. It’s operation-sound and we can make it work and deliver profitability when we have scale and market.”

The Art of Strategizing

If there’s anything that the airline’s European and Indian sojourns have taught it, it’s that one has to prioritize. “If we want to compete, we have to let go of markets that are weak,” says Osman-Rani, adding that the airline will not be entering any new markets for the next two years but will instead focus on building up its brand and customer engagement platforms in Australia as well as Japan, Korea and China either by adding new cities to its network or increasing flight frequencies within its existing markets. “We’ve deliberately chosen the markets where we have a [strong] market leadership position and scale, by which we mean having multiple destinations in the market and strong frequencies that will connect well.”

However for many observers, it will be interesting to see if AirAsia X can maintain that position, especially when Singapore Airlines’s new low-frills carrier Scoot takes to the skies in June. The latter’s announcement that it would be operating direct Singapore-Sydney flights certainly played a significant role in putting pressure on the Malaysian government, which had been safeguarding Malaysian Airlines’ (MAS) interests up till then, to relax its restrictions on the Sydney route so that AirAsia X could be the first Asian LLC to operate to and from the Australian city starting April 1.

But what does he make of the competition? “The best way [of viewing the situation] is to look at what happened in 2004-2005,” says Osman-Rani philosophically. “Air Asia was a much smaller airline then and the entry of Jetstar and Tiger Airways into Southeast Asia made us wonder what’s going to happen to AirAsia with more competition and choice.” Fast forward seven years and it’s clear that those fears were largely unfounded.

That said, what’s going to determine which airline dominates the market isn’t a matter of who has the strongest network leadership. “The strength of the brand’s reach to customers is going to be the defining factor and it’s ours to lose if we can’t maintain that leadership position.”

In addition, there’s also the question of how fierce a rival budget airlines such as Scoot and Jetstar will turn out to be in the long run, given that much of the focus of AirAsia X’s growth will be on the north and south of Southeast Asia, which puts it in competition with larger full-service carriers such as Etihad Airways.

Entertaining Global Ambitions

Apart from strengthening the airline’s network and brand platform, Osman-Rani has grander ambitions as well and these include ideas for what he considers to be a truly global airline network hub. “The only model today is the global alliances – Skyteam, One World et cetera – and it isn’t a very strong consumer one because no one is going to say they’re going to fly SkyTeam. Everything’s still associated with the individual airline brand,” he explains. “In our model, what we’ve seen is the opportunity to create a global model anchored on one single brand – the Air Asia brand – and one single platform – AirAsia.com.”

Apart from AirAsia’s landmark tie-up with MAS, which will see both airlines capitalizing on each other’s resources in areas such as catering, ground handling and maintenance, Osman-Rani also points to AirAsia X’s collaboration with Japan’s ANA as an example, he points to how an airline can build on the same common brand platform rather than just having a loose alliance and code-sharing. “In this respect, one of the unique things that AirAsia is pioneering is how to roll this out globally. LCC is pretty much regional whereas the difference with AirAsia is AirAsia X. It is the trunk that can provide the link between the regions. For example, if AirAsia Japan establishes a very strong short-haul network, it provides AirAsia X the opportunity to come in to provide long-haul routes from Japan.”

Keeping His Eye on the Bigger Picture

For AirAsia X, 2012 is going to be a crucial one in terms of strengthening the foundations for its network, and that according to Osman-Rani means completing the task of reassigning the 30,000 passengers affected by the European and Indian flight cancellations, adding frequencies to “a couple of other existing routes” and making sure that the Sydney service goes off without a hitch.

More importantly, he is also hopeful that if everything goes according to plan, the airline won’t have to wait too long to file for an IPO. “I think if we succeed in [what we’ve set out to do] and hopefully with global equities picking up, we’d love to carry on with our plan for an IPO hopefully later in the year.”

When that happens, you can be sure the critics will be eating their words yet again.

In case you weren’t able to listen to the HTML5 version above, or if you wanted to listen to the podcast after you read the article, here it is for your listening pleasure in Flash.

(c) 2012 SimpliFlying Podcasts

Note: This is the free version of the podcast and contains the latest industry updates followed by a small snippet of the interview with Azran. If you want to listen to the full interview with Azran and gain some exciting insights as well as secrets to the success of AirAsia get our premium podcast at an introductory price of only $19. Just click the button below and you’ll be listening to it in minutes! The premium podcast also entitles you to a free copy of the complete podcast transcript. Just email us at podcasts@simpliflying.com to get it.

• AirAsia X: a brand with a huge potential, but remember, “you’re only buying the flying”
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• Pillars of Aviation – sneak peek into the future of aviation, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• How AirAsia is rocking it in India, and how airlines in India can leverage their entry
• Estonian Air crowdsourcing ideas to engage travelers as Tero Taskila takes over as new CEO

Note: Earlier this month, we announced a revamp of the SimpliFlying Heroes initiative, giving our readers a greater say in whom we choose by adopting a transparent voting system. In a keenly contested round that saw about 3000 votes pour in over the course of a week, Pooja Dua of SpiceJet emerged the winner, having received almost half of the total votes submitted! Read more about SpiceJet’s excellent social media initiative led by Pooja below.

Even though India is the world’s fastest-growing domestic market in aviation, it is not yet known for airlines that are superstars in engaging or offering customer service via social media. Or at least, until now. Last year, SpiceJet, a leading domestic low-cost carrier in India, launched the Bombardier Q400 in a market that’s traditionally sceptical and scared of flying turboprops (popularly classified as the “planes with fans outside”).  What’s more, they chose the untested waters of social media for propelling their route-launch and tasted tremendous success, achieving over 88% load-factor in the first two weeks itself. Moreover, they also earned countless new fans, followers and increasing engagement manifold on their social media channels. So how did they achieve this? We reached out to Pooja and she was gracious enough to give us more details about SpiceJet’s initiatives, the story of its rise in social media, its plans for the future and advice for those looking to taste similar success on social media. It’s worth noting, however, that SpiceJet has a great history of meticulous brand execution, unique positioning and clear brand strategy that have been previously covered by SimpliFlying.

The road to superstardom

Pooja admits that one of the challenges on social media was the specific nature of the target audience. She believes the Indian audiences interacting with brands through social media are extremely enthusiastic. However, at times, there could be a bit more mature behavior while interacting. There are times when the audience can get extremely personal which makes the interaction more challenging. Also, most fans interacting with brands through social outlets belong to a younger demographic and it appears that they are largely interested in freebies and deals. They also seem to be less open to dialogue and resolution as compared to their western counterparts.

At SpiceJet, while digital marketing was active, the preparation to plan and embrace social media was started by commissioning ORM activities. The ORM presented the team with an idea of what the customers thought about SpiceJet’s product and services. This insight led into developing the overall strategy for SpiceJet’s social media. At the time of launching their social media initiatives, Facebook and YouTube were big in terms of the user base. They chose to target Facebook since Indian audiences were spending more hours on it as opposed to YouTube. Though Twitter arrived soon after, it still didn’t have the required user-base numbers (in terms of an Indian audience) required to reach out and engage a mass audience. Hence, Facebook became the de-facto primary channel as it provided lot of flexibility with scope for customization and custom interactions.

Internally, SpiceJet put together a cross functional team that manages various channels across social media and includes members from different departments such as Marketing, Corporate Communication, Human Resources, Customer Services  working together with their digital agency. The Marketing team defines the objectives, defining a role for the each member of the team and ensuring brand synergies.

Given that measurement is crucial to evaluation the success of social media strategies, SpiceJet has adopted several metrics to measure various parameters. In Pooja’s words, they “use an internal rating grid system for each of the parameters which is qualified on a monthly basis. Some of the core parameters measured are levels of engagement, happiness quotient, and of course translation into sales. There are custom scripts running that provides insight on traffic coming from social media and the resulting sale. Social Media is a significant contributor to direct bookings on the brand site.”

The Bombardier Q400 launch initiative

As part of its expansion plan, SpiceJet inducted a fleet of Bombardier Q400 aircraft. The fleet expansion was targeted to cater to short-haul regional sectors. The entire promotional campaign on social media spanned over 2 months. The launch was touted as the most sensational and effective launch campaign as observed by industry and marketing experts. Testimony to this is the fact that the launch delivered 88% load factor within first two weeks of operations. Here’s how SpiceJet achieved success:

Name the Plane Contest

SpiceJet has a naming convention for its aircraft – named after spices. In order to create a brand connect, fans on Facebook were invited to recommend names for the Q400 aircraft that were being deployed. This activity received over 100,000 impressions in a matter of few days and an an equally overwhelming response with hundreds of name suggestions. Apart from having the opportunity to name the aircraft, the winner was also invited to ‘Cut the Ribbon’ of the inaugural flight.

Q400 | Feature Orientation and Destination Awareness

Once the ‘Name the Plane’ activity concluded, the follow-up activity was designed to introduce Q400‘s salient features along with making the audience aware of the Q400 destinations. This was done through the aid of an app and a contest. The community was sensitised of the features through questions posted daily.

The respondents with the right answer were provided with a numeric digit – which eventually at the end of the contest helped the fans crack the launch destination. The numeric digits / keys acted as the clue which revealed the Pin / Zip Code of the launch city when put together in the correct sequence.

This contest received close to 350,000 post impressions, along with 29% increase in the number of fans and 33% increase in post feedback.

The making of Q400 contest | Post Launch

Once the operations commenced, fans were presented with a poser – a random array of visuals which captured the different progressions of the aircraft assembly.  Fans were encouraged to sequence the visuals in the right progression.

The contest received about 400 entries with over 375,000 post impressions. There was 42% increase in the number of fans and 46% increase in post feedback.

This activity was followed by releasing the official video of ‘The Making of Q400’.

The brand’s bottom-line was impacted positively with a load factor of 88%. The Social Media campaign for the Bombardier Q400 Launch was picked up by the media (Huffington Post and AFAQs), demonstrating the impact of the idea and execution. In addition, the campaign also made it to the second position in the “Top 11 marketing and social media innovations by airlines in 2011” published by Simpliflying.

Looking at the future and the success formula revealed

Pooja says SpiceJet’s biggest bet for 2012 is to strengthen and expand customer support on social media. SpiceJet has been carefully studying the patterns of customer interactions and has found social media to be a critical channel for redressals along with being a guiding light for customers through booking and travel planning. Internally, SpiceJet chalks out plans for each quarter in advance. This provides the required flexibility to accommodate both platform changes as well as aligning to objectives & goals.

Tips for those looking to taste success? Pooja says the following are essential:

1. Channel Selection – there exists a plethora of options, but it is always critical to select channels that are apt for your business model and geography. Also, the ability to sustain something you start is crucial.
2. Being transparent and honest – Address any customer issues openly in the respective forums and your audience will appreciate it a lot.
3. A well-defined objective, planned in advance, is critical.
4. Content Strategy is Key – Avoid the temptation of using these channels as a corporate communication tool. Pooja recommends having a  unique content strategy for each of the channels you wish to engage.

Pooja signs off by saying that  ‘consolidation’ will play a big role in the near future. There are new technologies emerging everyday: With internet connected televisions becoming popular, building social experiences leveraging Twitter, Facebook and Youtube on mobiles and tablets around video content will become preeminent. At SpiceJet, they’re “waiting and watching” and expect the coming phase to be a huge leap that will support their expansion plans.

Let us take this opportunity to congratulate Pooja and SpiceJet once again. We look forward to many more exciting initiatives from them in the months to come!

Disclosure: SimpliFlying worked with Bombardier on the social media strategy for this project, which was fabulously implemented by the talented Marketing team at SpiceJet and their agency – iVista Solutions.

Loved what SpiceJet did? Thought they could have done anything differently? Tell us in the comments below or tweet us @simpliflying.

• How SpiceJet launched Bombardier Q400 in India through social media and achieved 88% load factor
• Results announced: The SimpliFlying Hero for January 2012 is Pooja Dua of SpiceJet!
• A revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative – Vote for the Jan 2012 Hero now!
• [Video Tour] Bombardier CSeries cabin and cockpit setting new standards at Dubai Air Show #avgeek #dxb11
• Top 11 marketing and social media innovations by airlines in 2011

Update: The campaign has been featured on Facebook Studio and also shortlisted for the Shorty Awards!

Airlines these days are chasing the elusive return on social media. And while the number of “likes” or “followers” and video views are all the rage, it’s ultimately the return on investment (ROI) that matters the most. About a year ago, AAdvantage ran possibly the most viral Facebook campaign for an airline – fans grew almost 100X in just 54 hours. But ROI numbers were not necessarily as impressive.

Now, COPA Airlines from Panama has numbers to prove a 50X ROI from their recent Facebook app – an effort for which Diego Quesada Grimaldo, their eCommerce Director, was nominated for the SimpliFlying Heroes Award last month!

Pasaporte America to promote destinations

To promote its network in the Americas, COPA recently held a Passport America sweepstakes, asking the public to tell the airline which 10 destinations they’d like to visit first if they were the winner. Participants could explore each of COPA Airlines’ 59 destinations on the map, and then select their favourite 10. One person won a trip for two to all of COPA’s 59 destinations.

The Facebook-centric campaign (app no longer online) also featured a campaign page and emails to Copa customers were sent.

The objectives of the campaign were to engage fans and increase the number of fans, increase brand awareness among the friends of fans, and increase direct sales of tickets on copaair.com. Participants were encouraged to share to increase their chances to win by liking COPA on Facebook and by booking travel on COPA.com.

The Results

In just 10 weeks, 279,000 participants registered for the campaign (33% of the registrants are referrals) and 1.3M invitations were sent, and COPA obtained 133,000 new Facebook fans. According to the airline, the campaign resulted in additional sales that resulted in an ROI that was 50 times the cost of the campaign, which was executed by COPA’s digital agency, Nobox.

As a result, COPA is now also among the top airlines worldwide with the highest Klout score, which measures a person’s or brand’s influence across their social network.

What did you think of their effort? Isn’t it the simplicity of the effort that ensured the great results? Would love to hear your feedback on Twitter (@simpliflying) and in Comments.

• What makes COPA Airlines one of the most profitable airline brands in the world? Interviews with two senior execs
• A revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative – Vote for the Jan 2012 Hero now!
• American Airlines’ AAdvantage Facebook Fans grow 84 fold in 54 hours. The most successful campaign ever by an airline?
• Lufthansa shares love with their 100,000 Facebook fans by giving miles
• [PRESENTATION] How Airlines Dedicate Resources to Social Media – delivered at #omtravel in Miami (June 2011)

Finnair has been in the news over the last few months. First, they rebranded to a new, clean livery. Then they launched the Singapore route by having an Angry Birds competition on-board, which went crazy-viral.

And now, the airline that prides itself in providing the shortest flying times between India and North America has gone a step further, with a dance crew surprising passengers after boarding of a Finnair flight to Delhi to celebrate India’s Republic Day on January 26th 2012. Just imagine blonde flight attendants dancing to Bollywood tunes right after you board a flight! And that’s exactly what happened.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dancing flight attendants better than flashmobs?

Lots of airlines are following the example of Cebu Pacific’s flight attendants, who danced while performing an in-flight safety demo and became a worldwide rage. Air New Zealand, of course, has been leading the pack with refreshing safety videos, which often garner millions of views online.

Though what Finnair has done is unique – it’s a form of cultural branding, since it appeals to a certain segment of travelers that are important to the airline. It’s not yet another funny safety video, and it’s something that’s certainly a refreshing change from the norm, now that flash mobs are getting over-done. Enjoy!

• Cebu Pacific creates a safety demonstration to rival the rapping flight attendant at Southwest!
• Now, Pegasus Airlines creates an irresistible safety video, featuring cute Turkish kids
• Viral videos on Youtube as airline marketing strategy – lessons from Air New Zealand
• Angry Birds to fly Finnair from Helsinki to Singapore – innovative route launch marketing!
• How Air New Zealand is using social media to create waves globally, online and offline [Video]

In marketing, we often talk about the value of brand associations, of being at the top of the mind of consumers and having the brand instantly connect with a feeling, memory etc. However, putting all this into practice is probably one of the hardest things in the industry. According to researchers, there can only be 3 brands in of a consumer per category… don’t believe me?

A short brand-recognition exercise

Let’s do a little exercise: name 3 brands of Cola.

Now let me guess: The first one that you thought of was: Coca Cola? And maybe the color red? The second one was: Pepsi, perhaps? And the third one?  Maybe you struggled a bit with this one, but probably it was the top selling “white label” brand from your local supermarket

Let’s do one more:

Think of good times (or more specifically, the recent holiday season) and name a brand of soft drinks.

I guess that you probably thought of something similar to the image below:

One last test:

Can you think of the holiday season and an airline/airport in the same breath?

Having troubles? Well it’s understandable since no airline brand has managed to “own” this idea yet, at least not in the minds of the general public. However some have managed to execute some “wow” campaigns aimed at associating their brands with positive emotions such as the ones associated with the holidays and Christmas seasons. As a result, they have ended up delighting customers, driving brand engagement and building loyalty.

In the spirit of the holiday season just gone by, with this Top 10, we have shown how some airlines and airports have spread smiles and goodwill amongst their customers.

• Top 10 Route Launches: How Airlines and Airports engage customers in new destinations through social media
• Toronto Pearson Airport sings you a Christmas carol if someone tweets you’re flying out – and they sang one for me
• Five airlines (and an airport) that surprised passengers this Christmas with Wow campaigns
• Oman Air’s re-branding effort – worth it?
• Vueling Business Class drives awareness creatively: The cloud that fell from the sky

Since taking over the helm seven months ago, Estonian Air CEO Tero Taskila has been the driving force behind the airline’s makeover. But as he shares in our inaugural marketing strategy podcast, the changes that we’ve seen so far are just the beginning.

Being placed in charge of a company that has been losing money since 2005 isn’t exactly the kind of dream job that most people have in mind. However Tero Taskila has always relished a good challenge. After all, the Finn, who was previously the Chief Commercial Officer of Latvian competitor airBaltic, lives by the motto: “I want to have frustration and excitement in good balance.”

There’s certainly been no shortage of both and since assuming the position last June, Taskila has been busy overseeing the restructuring of the airline and introducing initiatives to increase the number of routes that it serves and the frequencies of its flights. And while there are plans to introduce long-haul services in the future, for now, Estonian Air is concentrating its efforts on becoming a leading regional airline and establishing a strong network in the Baltic States, Nordic countries and Russia.

Changing the Rules of Engagement

Among the initiatives adopted by Estonian Air last year, one of the most successful has been its AirScore loyalty program, which not only brought a fresh spin to the concept but also piqued Southwest Airlines’ Rapid Rewards to win a Mega Award for the world’s best social media marketing program.

What makes the AirScore loyalty program unique is that it rewards subscribers for spreading the word about the airline – they do not have to fly with the airline to participate in the program at all. Subscribers can earn points simply by signing up for the Facebook app and sharing the information published on its wall. Furthermore, they also earn points when their friends join AirScore and participate in the program as well. These points can then be redeemed for flight discounts as well as other airline rewards such as free lounge access, depending on the subscriber’s level of membership.

The response has been turning heads, to say the least. Within the first 10 days of its soft launch, it had recorded two million impressions, a feat which Taskila admits was “not something they could even expect or dream about”. Among the other features it plans to implement in the future is one that allows it to integrating analytics so that it can be used as a sales tool as well.

Small and Innovative Wins the Race

In many ways, being a small airline has been a boon for Estonian Air. For a start, it’s given it the courage to go where bigger airlines fear to tread. “As a small airline, you always have to do something different and innovative to be noticed,” says Taskila, adding that one of the benefits of being headquartered in Estonia (or the land of Skype, as the country is fondly known) is that they are situated in a hotbed of talent and innovation.

And ‘innovation’ is clearly a key part of the brand’s credo. Among the other initiatives that it has introduced are the Chefs on Board campaign, which was launched last summer, and a Skype check-in service for passengers traveling to Moscow. In the case of the former, what distinguished it from the culinary programs adopted by bigger airlines was the fact that it actually hosted a chef from a leading Estonian restaurant on one of its flights every month. The menu served on that flight was then served on its other flights for a month after its launch. For the airline, apart from improving the flight experience, it was also a way to promote the country’s cuisine and produce. So popular was the program that at one point, its Net Promoter Score (NPS) was higher than that for the iPhone 4S.

Though the latter is still in its early testing phase, the Skype check-in video service it is offering to travelers heading for Moscow is another example of how the airline is hoping to improve the convenience of its customers’ flight experience. Not only do they get to beat the queue they also have the option of talking to a real airline representative to ask questions about their flight.

Looking Ahead

Things certainly look promising for Estonian Air. Not only is it based in one of the most financially stable countries in the European Union, it is also one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe. Taskila is quick to add that there is nothing artificial about this growth. “It was the result of Estonian businesses being more successful globally and also the attractiveness of Tallinn as a destination. We don’t see any slowing down in demand in that respect so that’s a very good starting point for us.”

While it may be tempting for an airline to join an alliance to strengthen its network and brand, Taskila tells us that Estonian Air has no plans to do that just yet. “I’ve always said that if you want to get married, you need to get pretty first,” he jokes. “Although we are very pretty a bride already, we are also a bride with our own ambitions and those are not ready to be piped out. We still have a lot of things we want to achieve before joining an alliance.”

Among other things, Estonian Air plans to introduce a new aircraft to its fleet as well as a new plane livery this year in its bid to improve its overall customer experience. “To be more successful in 2012, we need to get things out of the door faster, be more flexible and be closer to customers.”

But how does an airline maintain that close relationship with its customers when it needs to expand in order to keep up with the competition? There’s no easy answer to this question but for now, Estonian Air is focusing on delivering on the promises it’s made to be the most convenient, innovative, trustworthy and “positively surprising” airline in the region.

Taskila has already said that he will be pushing his team to work even harder this year and he has high hopes that the results will outweigh their efforts. “The benefit of being small is that we can be extremely fast and flexible. We have a very low cost base and a team full of passionate people who want to see results immediately. With a small airline, they are able to do just that.”

To listen to Tero’s full interview, please play the podcast below.

[Flash player for those having difficulty with the HTML5 player above.]

• Estonian Air drives revenue from Facebook through a reverse auction, by simply posting on the wall
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• Estonian Air crowdsourcing ideas to engage travelers as Tero Taskila takes over as new CEO
• [Infographic] The future of loyalty programs will be powered by social media
• Three keys to making loyalty programs work for the airline brand of the future

We promised we’d make the New Year exciting for you. And here we are – delivering on the promise we made! After creating quite a buzz with our revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative that saw almost 3000 votes pour in over just a week, we’re back with something even more exciting. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show that we’re bringing you today (and every fortnight hereon)!

Today, we’re launching SimpliFlying Podcasts – a brand new product that should excite our readers, most of whom are travel marketers. Starting this Wednesday, SimpliFlying will be releasing Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. Each podcast will have great insights on the latest in marketing from the best minds in aviation.

Why you should listen to the podcasts

Helmed by Shashank Nigam, the CEO of SimpliFlying, every fortnight we will interview a well-known face from the world of aviation (mostly CxO level). The in-depth interviews will be followed by a detailed discussion of insights into the latest in airline and airport marketing by SimpliFlying staff.

The podcasts will be available in two versions – a shorter, free version, lasting about 20 minutes, will have only the interview (you can listen to them below); the longer paid version, lasting about 40 minutes, will have the interview as well as the insights along with a detailed pdf transcript. Each premium podcast will be available at an introductory price of only $19 per podcast!

Listen to the first episode!

Our inaugural podcast has Tero Taskila, CEO of Estonian Air as the guest. Estonian Air, as you know, has been featured previously in our Top 10 case-packs for their innovative social media campaigns involving some rather interesting techniques to drive revenue such as reverse auctions on Facebook.

In recent months, the airline’s major claim to fame has been that it has developed the world’s first social media based loyalty program on Facebook. The app, Airscore, helps Estonian Air provide real-world rewards for virtual actions such as online brand advocacy. The social loyalty program has been path-breaking in terms of how it rewards loyalty and has won a number of awards as well. To learn more about Estonian Air and its great initiatives straight from their CEO, listen to the podcast below. You can subscribe to SimpliFlying Podcasts on iTunes as well!

Hope you enjoyed listening to our free podcast! Our premium version has 20 additional minutes of discussions on the hottest trends in the travel market with a focus on aviation. Burning issues such as social loyalty, measuring ROI on social media, opportunities for location-based services etc are discussed in detail by Shashank and Marco Serusi, our Community Engagement executive based out of Valencia, Spain. What’s more, if you’re not patient enough to listen, you’ll have access to the complete transcript of the 40-minute podcast as well. We’re offering all this, as we mentioned earlier, at a great introductory price of only $19!

This is just the beginning. Watch out over the next few weeks for a couple more exciting new products from SimpliFlying!

Full disclosure: SimpliFlying helped Estonian Air build their social loyalty program.

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• Can AirAsiaX make the low-cost long-haul model work with focus on Asia-Pacific? Interview with CEO Azran Osman-Rani
• Size doesn’t matter. Interview with Estonian Air CEO Tero Taskila reveals a grand vision for the future
• SimpliFlying is “aviation website of the week” (and more accolades)
• SimpliFlying, in the news…and more!
• High Flying Tweets: 11 of the best airline or aviation bloggers / journalists to follow on Twitter

SimpliFlying has become known for its thought leadership in the aviation marketing space – from our Top 10 Case Study packs to our infographics and presentations at industry conferences. And this year, we’re looking to carry on the streak with the introduction of podcasts, webinars, eBooks and a major expansion into airport marketing! To accomplish this, we need to work with great minds and it’s with great excitement and pride that I introduce to you two new members of the SimpliFlying family who have joined us recently.

Marco Serusi, Valencia, Spain

Marco Serusi  joined SimpliFlying in November 2011 as Community Engagement Executive, based in Valencia (Spain). He specializes in creating content related to airline marketing strategies and in maintaining our thought leadership in this area through upcoming initiatives like eBooks and podcasts. In the short time he’s been with us, he’s already launched SimpliFlying on Google+ and re-launched our Facebook fan page.

Before joining SimpliFlying, Marco worked for Aeronova, a Spanish charter airline, where he started as an intern and, within a year, became the youngest director of the company, taking up his former position of Marketing and Development Director at age 23. Marco has a passion for travelling that is well represented by his curriculum. After leaving Italy aged 18, he graduated in Air Transport in the UK, and then moved to Spain where he earned his MBA and specialized in Marketing. He is fluent in three languages (Italian, English and Spanish) and he’s studying two more (French and Polish).

You can connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Plus.

Elizabeth Cecconi, Rochester, New York

Elizabeth Cecconi joined SimpliFlying in mid-Jan 2012 as the Community Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying, with a special focus on airports. She will be leading business development for airports globally for SimpliFlying, including providing strategy consulting for our clients, delivering MasterClasses and building thought leadership in the airport marketing field.

Elizabeth has her over 7.5 years of aviation marketing and air service development experience, having recently led all marketing and air service development initiatives at the South Bend Airport (SBN) in Indiana, and before that serving as the Marketing Manager and a key part of the three-member core marketing team at The Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) – one of the pioneers in using social media at airports. Elizabeth has a Bachelors in Science in Aviation Business Administration from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Elizabeth was the co-founder and former president of the Michiana Chapter of the Social Media Club, a member of the Aviation Association of Indiana Outreach Committee and a charter member of the American Association of Airport Executives Next Generation Leaders Council. In her free time she can usually be found Skiing, traveling or boating.

You can connect with her on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ as well.

With Elizabeth leading execution on the airports side of things, Robert Cook, who led our charge in airports over the last year or so will be moving into a new role as one of the Board of Advisors at SimpliFlying, still advising us and sharing his immense expertise in the airport business.

A Twitter-only hiring process

The amazing thing is that both Marco and Elizabeth were hired purely through Twitter! We had sent out a couple of tweets saying that we’re hiring. The word spread across our 8,500+ followers and even made it to LinkedIn and Facebook. We had received over 20 applications in less than a week, which is when the shortlisting process began.

We shared the detailed role descriptions with the candidates and asked  each candidate  of them to submit a “creative” cover letter as to why they qualify. We received Youtube videos, Prezi presentations and even full-fledged websites from across the world (very, very impressive!). Those who were shortlisted were then given a task to perform, something they’d do in their role, like marketing an infographic. The top five performers were then interviewed and we finalized the positions not to long ago! It was a lot of fun for all of us.

To get a glimpse of what it is like working for a cubicle-less startup, do read Shubhodeep’s story, who’s been with SimpliFlying for over 18 months now.

Meanwhile, we’re all very excited about the expanding family and look forward to enriching your lives with airline and airport marketing goodness over the upcoming months and years!

• Announcing the judges for SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in Social Media
• Airlines rush to get brand pages on Google+, but why? 7 questions to ask before you join a new social media platform
• SimpliFlying wins the 2011 Gold Magellan Award for being the Best Online Travel Blog
• What makes COPA Airlines one of the most profitable airline brands in the world? Interviews with two senior execs
• SimpliFlying now helping airports take-off: announcing SimpliFlying Airports

When thinking of marketing and advertising one could hardly imagine two more different customer experiences than the ones provided by the so called “wow” campaigns we’ve seen over holidays season, and the leaflets that are often handed out to passengers while walking through the terminal, or on the streets.

“Wow” campaigns and leaflets hand-outs do not mix. Right?

After all “wow” campaigns are something that everyone talks about for a long time, while a leaflet is just something we normally throw away without even looking at it. Right? And of course nobody would ever think that the two concepts might even remotely be compatible.

Now watch the following video ….

Handing out leaflets in Barcelona

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yes, right, obviously in the video we see a campaign were an airline representative is handing out leaflets, so just a common leaflet-hand-out campaign, like the one we mentioned before…  but wait a minute this guy isn’t being ignored, everyone is staring at him, they stop by, have a chat, read their leaflets carefully…

Of course, one might be mistaken to think that this is indeed one of those “wow” campaigns, after all the person handing out the leaflets is indeed moving around on a cloud, and, it seems to be piloting it with his mind…so what is it?

Most importantly even, what is going on in the minds of the people that appear in the video? apart from the “oh, where is my phone, I really need to record this” and things like “how is that thing moving?”…

Curiosity is a natural instinct for humans

What you are looking at is Vueling’s idea of a leaflet hand out, and its way to promote its business class product. As to what we should call this type of campaigns I’m not really sure about, the only thing I do know is that I wish I had come up with the idea…

The idea for this campaign came from the collaboration between the company and the advertising agency OMD who came up with the idea of hiding a Segway underneath a three dimensional model of vueling’s famous cloud, and place an actor dressed as a businessman on top of it.

By using this simple, but creative mean of transport the campaign’s creator made sure that people did not ignore the campaign, and that the “businessman” would be able not only to hand out leaflets, but also to explain the benefits of Vueling’s business class in great detail. In fact what the campaign created was little short of a miniature sales pitch…

Furthermore, to make sure the experience continued even after the “cloud” was out of sight, made the leaflets to look like boarding cards and included a promotional code to try out for free a product designed exclusively for business customers.

• The Top 10 Viral Videos by Airlines (plus bonus videos)
• [Interview] Singapore Airlines brand strategy goes back to the basics: Singapore Girl in focus
• Six Brand Leadership Lessons from Air New Zealand, and the flatbed seat in Economy Class
• So, what does SimpliFlying really have in common with Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell?
• The essence of SimpliFlying: aviation, branding, travel, airlines and social media (Plus: What’s new in 2010)