Today, I was invited to deliver an opening presentation at the SITA Air Transport IT Summit 2013, just outside Brussels. The session topic was “The Mobile Explosion” and I focused specifically on the connected traveller. My key point was that airlines and airports should stop using social media just for marketing. The Connected Traveller is a reality today, and there are multiple revenue and customer service enhancement opportunities.

The presentation, a photo, a video and tweets from the session are highlighted below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note to airlines from @simplyflying Get off social media unless you take opportunities to improve customer service, #ATIS2013 #paxex …

— Barbara Cockburn (@APEXbabs) June 19, 2013

#atis2013 Move booking beyond transactional. Make it emotional. Alaska Airlines social booking to see the cost to visit your friends

— Paul Byrne (@PaulByrne66) June 19, 2013

Interesting stat from @simpliflying at #ATIS2013 in Brussels: over half of OnAir's airline clients thinking about offering free WiFi

— Peter Myers (@PeterFelixMyers) June 19, 2013

Anyone not at #ATIS2013 & need some inspiration + energy, download Shashanks @simpliflying presentation. Brilliant. http://t.co/8zbRuLc6LV

— 15below (@15below_travel) June 19, 2013

The post [Presentation] How the connected traveller will help airlines drive ancillary revenues and real-time customer service #ATIS2013 appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shashank Nigam

CEO at SimpliFlying

Shashank Nigam is the CEO of SimpliFlying and a globally sought-after consultant, speaker and thought-leader on airline branding and customer engagement strategy. He is also the youngest winner of the Global Brand Leadership Award and has addressed senior aviation executives globally, from Chile to Canada and from Sydney to San Francisco.

Shashank's perspectives have found their way into major media outlets, including CNN Travel, CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg UTV, Mashable and in leading publications like Airline Business, ATW, Aviation Week, and others.

Shashank studied Information Systems Management and Business Management at Singapore Management University and Carnegie Mellon University. Hailing from India, he splits his time between Singapore and Vancouver, among other cities.

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The Director General of ACI World, Angela Gittens recently stated, “Airport leaders know the value of placing passengers first and consequentially have invested in facilities and woven airport business strategy around passengers.”

However, from the passenger’s perspective these efforts are often the airport’s best kept secret. Airports are often too busy managing operations and rolling out new initiatives, that they fail to invest in promoting the value and even the existence of these projects to the most important stakeholder – the passenger. 

State of Airport Marketing Report

The post Connected Traveller, Connected Airports – ACI World Annual Congress #ACIIstanbul appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

David McMullen

VP, Airports at SimpliFlying

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

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New plane launches do not happen very often. And when they do happen, the first flight is one of the most important. Today was one such important day in history, as Airbus launched the first A350 flight, ahead of the Paris Airshow. Like RedBull’s stratosphere jump by Felix Baumgartner, today’s first flight of the Airbus A350 was one of the best executed ones we have seen from a social media and online marketing perspective.

Go crazy with videos, photos and tweets!

What differentiated it from past plane launches was an increased focus on the Live sharing of the event that not only included a Live feed on YouTube that lasted well over 5 hours and featured live Facebook and Twitter updates, but also incorporated a brand new social network: Vine.

The usage of Vine was particularly significant since this social network can only function from a mobile phone that has to be used to record the short 6 seconds videos. This meant that the company could not professionally edit the video in any way and it had to dispatch a person with a mobile phone as close as possible to the event itself. The efforts paid off and its third Vine became one of the most widely shared links during the event.

On the “traditional” social media side Airbus used Twibbon to allow users to add a badge to their Twitter and Facebook profile image to show support for the maiden flight of the A350. On Facebook the main Airbus account was also used to create a dedicated Facebook event.

Before the event Airbus had also set up a dedicated microsite  to host the live feed and shared a hash tag for the event with its Twitter followers

Detailed analysis

In the following presentation you will find a full detailed analysis on the event including statistics and screenshots of the most relevant elements.

Room for improvement

One of the aspects that could have been improved is the responsiveness of the company’s accounts to tweets, and comments by users. We saw large number of users asking questions using either the live comment feed available on YouTube or mentioning directly Airbus on Twitter, but we could not find any answer to their queries. The Airbus US twitter account seemed a bit more active and even received a tweet from Boeing congratulating on the first flight. Perhaps, the core Communications team could have been bolstered by other teams to respond to queries, which weren’t always specific. After all, we’re supposed to have a dialogue on social media, which is two-way.

Having said that, Airbus Communications team has done a phenomenal job of creating lots of media, in real-time, for lots of sources. Taking traditional PR to a new level by complementing it with social media. Others like Bombardier should be watching with a keen eye, with their own CSeries first flight scheduled for later this year. Airbus has set the bar high for competition.

The post Airbus A350 First Flight on social media – an analysis of #A350FirstFlight appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Marco Serusi

Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying

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

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

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After publishing a hugely successful State of Airline Marketing Report last month, which was downloaded over 1000 times, we’re back with another free report, this time aimed at the good folks leading marketing at airports! 

Airport marketing is finally waking up to the immense opportunities in the age of the connected traveller. Airports are not just engaging travellers and providing customer service online, but also gaining real-time, location-specific customer intelligence, while driving revenues. Moreover, traditional, offline airport marketing campaigns themselves are becoming ever more creative and tuned-in to the needs of the Connected Travellers of today. 

Innovation across Marketing as well as Air Service Development

As such, airport marketing is fast shedding its traditional conservativeness. Marketers are seeking to fly higher and engage passengers with innovative campaigns, both online and offline. In this transformational age of airport marketing, apart from investing in experiential marketing campaigns that delight and surprise travellers, many airports around the world are equipping themselves with the tools and know-how to leverage the digital marketing revolution, experimenting with new social media platforms and launching mobile campaigns that link the online and the offline world. 

Importantly, airport marketing today is not only a function of communications. Instead, airports are increasingly competing to attract passengers from nearby airports as well as simultaneously improve their route network. This has led to a number of airports investing in innovative air service development initiatives, that seek to attract new passengers and, ultimately, new service. 

7 Key Trends with Accompanying Case-Studies

Our State of Airport Marketing 2013 report identifies the seven most important trends that define airport marketing today, and includes detailed case-studies with each trend that showcase how some of the best airports in the world are adopting a new approach to marketing their airports. If you can’t wait anymore, you can download the report right away by clicking below. If you want the wait to be worthwhile, however, read on for some great advance praise for the report as well as an exciting product announcement below. 

Testimonials

Here’s some advance praise for our reports and upcoming premium Benchmark Reports.

“SimpliFlying’s reports are simply a great way of keeping abreast of the trends and developments in aviation related social media and staying well informed. They provide a wealth of relevant and useful statistics for our business. The case studies are a great source of inspiration in what is a fast moving environment. “ 

Mandie Armstrong
Digital Communications Manager
London Gatwick Airport

“Athens International Airport’s  “ABCD”  Marketing Strategy is balanced among the three primary stakeholder groups : Airlines, Business partners and Consumers and it also focused on the “D” element, ie. the promotion of Destination Athens, interacting highly with the wider public. Athens International Airport, being the only airport worldwide that has been awarded 12 times during the last 9 years with the Routes Marketing Awards, is looking forward to Simpliflying Airport Marketing Reports; thus, we’ll be able  to benchmark ourselves against the most innovative and forward-thinking players in the airport sector, exchange marketing  ideas  and communicate and promote to our stakeholder groups our “way of doing business” in the most creative way.”

Marketing Team
Athens International Airport

Airport Marketing Benchmark 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. (If you’re from an airline, we already offer monthly Airline Benchmark Reports.)

Produced by SimpliFlying, the premium quarterly airport marketing benchmark reports are the answer to this challenge. Each report will contain a selection of the most innovative marketing and advertising campaigns launched by airports around the world and assesses their impact.

Here’s what an eager airport has to say about our upcoming report: 

“After successfully introducing the Airline Marketing Benchmarking reports, inspiring the aviation industry to move forward on engaging the connected traveler, now we are presented with the Airport Marketing Report. This couldn’t have come on a better time, since airports around the world are accelerating on customer engagement, conversation strategies and smart use of social and mobile media. Airports will find these reports extremely valuable since through inspiration, the industry is guided, moving us all forward.”

Eli Lejeune
Marketing Manager
Eindhoven Airport

For questions about the premium report and to subscribe to it, please contact David McMullen at david@simpliflying.com. 

The post [Free Report] The State of Airport Marketing: 7 Key Trends & Case-Studies 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

The reason behind the success of social networks however may not be the one that most people expect. While it is true that they are innovative communication channels, the real key to their success lies not in the technology but in the human nature. 

Social Animals

As Aristotle first stated, humans are social animals. As such we instinctively seek to interact with others. Our way of living, technologies, social structures and cities are all built around this concept, and the need to interact is so deeply rooted into our nature that it makes it almost impossible for us to live happily in isolation. Social media has not changed this but simply taps into this basic need and makes it easier for us to fulfil it. 

Understanding this is crucial for a successful marketing strategy since it shifts the focus from a platform and technology related approach to a social and relationship-based one. 

A shift in focus

Specific communication platforms like Facebook or Twitter may or may not be around in 5 years’ time but social networks, intended as connections between individuals, will remain and adapt to whatever communication system the technology will provide. For marketers this means that long term strategies should be based around the creation of relationships between their brands and their customers, optimizing tactics based on the specifics of each communication channel that is used. 

In aviation marketing what we have seen as a consequence of this “social media revolution” is the emergence of the connected traveller. Thanks to the increasing availability of internet both on the ground and in the air, travellers have not only started using social networks to communicate with family and friends but also with any brand or organization they come in contact with. 

This has important implications since travellers will not only be sharing in real time everything that happens to them (good and bad) but will also start to unconsciously perceive brands as part of the wider social world in which they live. Or in other words, brands will be increasingly perceived as just another social animal. 

As a consequence brands that interact with these connected travellers and are helpful will be perceived as friends, and some may even become best friends, while brands that refuse to join the conversation will be regarded as anti-social and will be marginalized. 

Building Affinity

To survive and successfully market to connected travellers, brands should strive to create a two way communication with their customers. While it may not be as easy as it sounds, in the presentation we looked at three ways in which the process of building these relationships can be started. (If you look carefully you will realize they are not very different from what you would do when trying to make friends with someone.) 

First of all, brands should try to make things easy for their travellers by solving a problem or just helping them find something they are looking for. Being responsive is almost a requirement for any social interaction and key in any social media strategy. Making people feel special is also a guaranteed booster for any type of relationship and in this case can be anything from a personalized gift to a simple personal reply to a comment or status update. 

Below you will find the full Prezi that I presented in Dublin at the Datalex  Travel Retail Experience conference. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at marco@simpliflying.com. 

The post [Presentation] The emerging retail experience in the age of the connected traveler appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Marco Serusi

Engagement Executive at SimpliFlying

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

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

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Last month, we published a free report on the State of Airline Marketing in 2013, which postulates 8 key trends (along with accompanying case-studies) that define the transformed face of airline marketing today. Trends range from Social Loyalty to Crowdsourcing to Experiential Marketing. It received a humongous response and has been downloaded over 1000 times already! If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can do so right away by clicking here.

For those who have already read the report, we bring to you, as usual, our premium monthly Airline Marketing Benchmark Report featuring the finest airline marketing campaigns from the month gone by. This month’s report has 15 new case-studies that airline marketers will not want to miss, as always.

The Monthly Airline Marketing Benchmark Report helps in keeping abreast of the most innovative airline marketing initiatives across the world. Comprising 15 fresh case-studies each month, this report is produced in partnership with our good friends at airlinetrends.com. This June report is the tenth in the series and if you haven’t subscribed yet, you’ve already missed out on over 150 great airline case-studies! (View past issues here.)

What’s in the June Report?

The June issue features 15 great campaigns from airlines such as British Airways, KLM, Lufthansa, and more! There are four categories of campaigns in the report, which begins with Experiential initiatives showcasing a number of great initiatives from British Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines and Air New Zealand! Notably, Delta is featured as well with its innovative Pop Up Terminal T4x concept. Further, we feature a number of great Social campaigns such as American Airlines’ tie-up with Klout to offer free lounge access to those who make the cut via their Klout score as well as Etihad’s tie-up with LinkedIn that helps map contacts.

Apart from these campaigns, you’ll also learn about a number of cool digital campaigns such as Aegean Airlines’ “Take me there” and BalticMiles’ “Burn the Miles”. And of course, there a number more!

If you’re already excited, you should go ahead and grab the report right away!

Testimonials

The Airline Marketing Benchmarking Reports have proven to be an effective resource for monitoring airline advertising and social media campaign trends. Airlines that consistently seek to differentiate, innovate and find new ways to connect with passengers will find these reports to be an invaluable tool for creative inspiration and benchmarking.

- Dan Neville, Regional Director, Airline Marketing, Boeing

“LAN Airlines has found these benchmarking reports very insightful when it comes to staying abreast of the latest marketing innovations. We have been able to use these case studies in our strategy meetings, to ensure we stay ahead of competition as the leading airline in Latin America”

- Emiliano Homps Borrajo, Director, International Marketing, LATAM Airlines Group

“SimpliFlying’s monthly benchmark reports are a great resource for Turkish Airline’s marketing strategy. In today’s world, where the flow of information is constant and overwhelming, these reports are designed to serve the most relevant and inspirational case-studies from the global airline sector. They fulfil our needs very well.”

- Neşet Dereli, Turkish Airlines Interactive Marketing Manager

About the Report

Jointly produced by 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. If you are a numbers person, you’d love our report too!

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

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.

The post The June 2013 Edition of the Airline Marketing Benchmark Report has 15 fresh case-studies from Etihad, Virgin America, Lufthansa & more! 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: Here’s another guest post by Peter Claridge of Unmetric, an exclusive aviation partner of SimpliFlying. Unmetric is a social media benchmarking company that helps brands analyse how well they’re doing on social media by including in-depth insights into numerous metrics as well as information on what kind of content “works” and how competitors are faring. Among Unmetric’s list of illustrious clients are Toyota, Subway and Cisco.

Social Media has been a great channel for companies to exhibit a personality, seem more approachable and to reach out to present and potential customers. As shown in our past articles on SimpliFlying, airlines in the United States, such as Jet Blue, American Airlines and Delta are heavily invested in this medium. But how about the rest of the world? Unmetric took a look at how airlines in the Middle East fared on Facebook and Twitter for the month of April. 

From the graph above we can see that Emirates has the highest number of fans on Facebook, standing at 1,572,324 fans for the month of April 2013. However, there is a bigger surprise when we look at the composition of the fans as only 12% of the fans come from UAE. The biggest chunk of fans comes from India, which has around 19% of the total fans. From the data below we can infer that Emirates caters to a worldwide audience on Social Media. 

The story on Nasair is also a bit deceiving. For a company based in Saudi Arabia, 36% of the fans come from Egypt which seems quite odd given that this isn’t where the company has its primary operations.

Engagement Vs Admin Posts

The highest engagement award goes to Emirates, with a huge engagement score of 411. This is double what the nearest competitor scored. Considering there were 27 posts for the month of April, less than one post a day, it just goes to show that fan engagement often comes down to quality over quantity. Of course, we can’t rule out that Emirates promoted their posts, but if they did, it shows that the airline is committed to making social media an effective marketing channel. 

Airlines such as Egypt Airways or Qatar Airways were not able to see high engagement, despite prolific updates. In the case of Qatar Airlines, they have double the number of posts as Emirates, but its engagement score is just a third of the UAE airline. 

Emirates’ content mainly consists of posts about itself and a little about aviation, which, given their sector leading engagement scores, is a strategy seems to be working really well for them. Gulf Air also stood out for receiving a formidable amount of engagement considering it only had 9 posts in April. 

The content strategy of Emirates is a mixture of Contests, Corporate Social Responsibility, Events, Questions and Brand News. Out of these categories, Brand News receives the highest amount of engagement. Most posts were in the form of questions, but received lower engagement than Brand News, which is unusual considering other sectors see a huge amount of success from asking questions as part of their content. 

The posts below are the two posts that received the highest engagement in April. 

Engagement Score: 918

Engagement Score: 921 

Growth Rate of Fans

The growth rate is usually low for brands that have a large fan base such as Emirates, which saw growth rate of 3.21% in the period analyzed. Etihad Airways saw the highest growth rate of 12.71%, followed by Nasair (7.31%) and Saudi Arabian Airlines (7.07%). Nasair is the standout airline here, growing at 7.31%, despite having a large fan base compared to the other Middle East airlines. In the graph above, 5 airlines have higher growth rates than the sector average with Etihad Airways seeing more than twice the growth rate of the sector average. 

Etihad Airways seems to have the fastest fingers in the East on Facebook, with an Average Reply Time (ART) of 331 mins. Gulf Air seems to have the slowest with an average reply time of 1992 mins – that means customers are waiting an average of one and a half days to get a reply. 

Some airlines are choosing not to let their fans post on their Facebook Timeline or if they do, choosing not to reply to fans. This strategy is at odds to the global trend in the aviation sector where airlines are investing more and more resources in to social customer service. 

TWITTER

Number of Followers

Saudi Arabian Airlines holds the torch in this category. @SaudiAirlines has a total of 115,482 followers on Twitter for the month of April 2013, followed by @qatarairways and @nasair, which have 72,645 and 68,005 followers respectively.

Surprisingly, given Emirates’ strong performance on Facebook, the airline is not currently active on this platform. 

Growth rate of followers

@nasair stands tall in this field with a growth rate of 17.33% which is high considering the fact they have the third largest follower base on Twitter. @Etihadairways places second with a growth rate of 7.99% and @flyegyptair places third with a growth rate of 6.20%.

Given the fact that @Etihadairways and @nasair have high growth rates on Facebook and Twitter, it could be inferred that they are investing heavily on their social media.

Average Response Time

@SaudiAirlines is the fastest to respond, with a response time of a 109 mins. This is followed by @nasair and @Royaljordonian who are neck and neck at 194 mins. However, taking over two hours to respond to a customer, who could be waiting at a gate or at the check-in desk, is possibly less helpful than not replying at all. @SaudiAirlines also had the highest amount of one of the highest number of replies, hence it is quite commendable considering they have the fastest ART amongst the Middle East airlines. 

Tweets Per Day 

@EtihadAirways is on top of the table in this metric, they have totaled to 734 tweets in April 2013. This was averaged down to 23 tweets a day. This was followed by @SaudiAirlines which tweets 21 times a day. Most of Etihad Airways’ tweets are hashtags or links which promote their services. 

Conclusion

Airlines such as Emirates have done very well on Facebook, but the data above shows that Emirates uses Facebook as a brand awareness tool and not one for customer interaction. While other airlines focus on Twitter and use it as a channel for customer interaction. 

Methodology

The Engagement Score calculation is based on the number of Likes, Comments, Shares and estimated impressions, so a page with a lower fan base can still have a better engagement score than a page with a huge fan base even if they don’t get as many interactions.

All data has been compiled and analyzed from the Unmetric platform, for the period of April 2013. 

Find out more about how Unmetric can help your airline benchmark its social media prowess here. Or drop us a line directly at unmetric@simpliflying.com.

You can see previous posts by Unmetric here. 

The post A Statistical Analysis of how major Airlines in the Middle East perform on Social Media appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Peter Claridge

Manager - Global Markets at Unmetric

Peter Claridge is the Global Marketing Manager for Unmetric, the social media benchmarking company. Even in his spare time he likes to create giant spreadsheets of data and pit rival brands in to epic social media battles. He believes that social media is the new mass media and big brands urgently need benchmarkable data to answer the question: “are we doing well?”

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Note: Rick Blatstein’s foresight into consumer trends and its ability to deliver innovative concepts has led to OTG partnerships with leading airlines such as Delta and JetBlue. More recently, OTG Management has opened its second ICRAVE designed ‘MinniBar‘ at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. Design inspired by Minnesota as the land of 10,000 lakes, the space is complete with 46 iPads for ordering food and browsing the web, and charging stations at every seat. Using OTG’s custom browser, travelers can order meals, log in to their Facebook, Twitter and personal email accounts, check their flight status, play games and watch the news – in the ultimate marriage of new media and culinary excellence. For sterling work with airport clients, OTG won the most number of votes for May’s edition of SimpliFlying Heroes. Rick was kind enough to respond to our request for an interview. An edited transcript of the SimpliExclusive interview follows:

1. Please tell our readers a bit more about OTG and how it works in the airports space. What is your primary focus, how do you partner with airports/airlines?

Our aim is to deliver the best customer experience available inside of an airport. We operate award-winning restaurants that just happen to be in airports; we integrate technology as a key component 
of the experience; and we create atmospheres that enable customers to unwind and recharge from the exciting pace of travel.

2. What are a few ways in which OTG is changing the current airport paradigm in engaging the modern traveller?

We focus on an immersive experience, with design and technology seamlessly integrating the offerings. Restaurants blend into the gate area, while retail blends into the restaurant. It is an approach that makes the offerings of a terminal accessible to the traveler, no matter where they are.

3. What are the implications, according to you, of the arrival of the age of the connected traveler? What implications does it have for airports and the experience they offer?

The connected traveler brings a wealth of opportunity. Where travelers were once left to their own technological devices and only a handful of electrical outlets, we are deploying thousands of iPads to airports and equipping all seating with power outlets. Just as we strive to create the opportunity for a unified and flowing physical space, we can bring the same concourse together in a technological space.

4. How important is building social technologies into your airport products/experience? What is your vision for the airport of the future?

Social is a major factor. It brings us closer together, and is part of the connected traveler we speak about. Whether it is interacting with our customers in real-time via social media, or exploring forms of entertainment such as social gaming, the airport of the future will be about how we connect everything and everyone.

5. What is the passenger response you have seen for your products? Do you try to focus on a particular emotion or need or technology while creating your products?

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, but we are still learning. As we evolve our current concepts, and create new experiences, we are listening to our customer.

6. How does OTG differentiate itself from its competitors in the airport space?

We determined early on that we could not play our competitors’ game. They are excellent at what they do. We are a boutique company, exclusively inside of airports, and we like to do things differently. By creating unique customer experiences we can set ourselves apart.

7. Please walk us through a typical OTG product-creation process from ideation to conceptualization to implementation.

A: It all revolves around the customer experience. Each program we develop is tailored for the traveler flying in and out of that city, that country, that airport. We value the fact that airports are the doorstep to their community, and we work tirelessly to ensure they represent the best of that region.

8. How do you measure success on your airport innovations? Do you track any usage/take-up metrics?

A: Metrics are very helpful in measuring success, but for me, the most important metric are the smiles on the customers’ faces. Having been in the hospitality industry for more years than I care to admit sometimes, I get the best sense of our performance by observing the vibe and emotions of our customers.

9. What is in store for 2013 with respect to OTG and its work in the airports sphere?

A: We are in the midst of the second largest consumer facing deployment of iPads anywhere in the world (only behind Apple) with 7,000 between LGA, MSP and YYZ. These three experiences are seeing a rapid phase in this year, and what is unfolding is truly spectacular.

10. Finally, what is the single most important trend/technology that will affect the airport experience over the next year?

A: The further advancement of mobile technologies will continue to dominate this sphere. It is crucial we as an industry are making the necessary investments to keep up with both the pace of innovation, and the expectations of our customers.

Know someone who’s worthy of being a SimpliFlying Hero?

Simpliflying Heroes are individuals recognized for outstanding social media use in the world of aviation. Do you know of somebody who uses social media effectively in their airline or airport to achieve specific business results? Or do you think you fit the bill?

Then go ahead and fill up the SimpliFlying Heroes nomination form. By filling out the nomination form, you bring them a step closer to being recognized by SimpliFlying for their efforts.

The post Rick Blatstein, visionary founder of OTG, is the SimpliFlying Hero for May 2013 in recognition of OTG’s innovative work with airports 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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“The social era may be frightening for an industry that has traditionally held firm control over marketing and operations, but it has also given airlines the unique opportunity to understand what drives customer actions better than ever before,” as Qatar Today Magazine picked out from one of SimpliFlying’s earlier articles.

This unique opportunity presented by the age of the Connected Traveler is the reason we continue to push for airlines to continue staying in the know for the latest marketing innovations and break out of their traditional comfort zone.

‘Focus’ has been one of the key themes that we drove during the keynote as Travel Distribution Summit #TDSAsia in Singapore earlier this week, and TTGAsia featured research insights from our Airline Social Media Outlook 2012/ 2013 to shed more light on this.

Below are articles where SimpliFlying has been featured in the media this month. Please enjoy reading!

SIA seeks to boost earnings amid global economic slowdown
Channel News Asia || 31 May 2013

Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier has been finding ways to boost earnings as profit margins continue to be squeezed by the slowdown in the global economy… Shashank Nigam, CEO of Simpliflying, said: “It really depends on what partnerships they strike. That’s going to be key for SIA because…” View the video interview below or read more here!

Airlines likely to raise social media budgets for 2013
TTG Asia || 30 May 2013
More airlines are clamouring for a slice of the social media pie, with more than 70 per cent of them intending to increase their budgets in this area this year – although many are struggling to do it right… Read more!

How travel marketing is changing in Asia
HotelMarketing.com || 28 May 2013
SimpliFlying’s Shashank Nigam shares his presentation at the Travel Distribution Summit in Singapore with lots of statistics from the Asian travel market and key observations and recommendations for travel brands targeting Asians… Read more!

Old-fashioned airline marketing tactics aren’t enough to engage the ‘connected traveller’ – here’s five reasons why!
The Aviation Writer || 27 May 2013
Airline marketing has entered an exciting, unpredictable and creative phase. In the words of Patrick Murphy, ex-chairman of Ryanair, “the biggest change that has occurred in the airline industry in recent years has been the use of social media”… Read more!

More coverage

Flying Digital
Qatar Today || March 2013 Issue
In a highly competitive market, airlines are increasingly embracing technology as a means to develop their brand and keep up with evolving customer expectations… writing in Airline Passenger Experience in late 2011, Shashank Nigam noted that whilst “the social era may be frightening for an industry that has traditionally held firm control over marketing and operations, but it has also given airlines the unique opportunity to understand what drives customer actions better than ever before.”… Read more!

If you would like to interview SimpliFlying or involve us in your next article, please feel free to contact us at media@simpliflying.com

The post SimpliFlying in The News – May 2013. Channel NewsAsia, TTG Asia, The Aviation Writer, Qatar Today appeared first on SimpliFlying.

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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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Note: Originally posted on The Aviation Writer, this article was written by Robeel Haq, author of the blog, and former editor of Aviation Business. Robeel is now working at Etihad Airways.

Old-fashioned airline marketing tactics aren’t enough to engage the ‘connected traveller’ – here’s five reasons why!

I’ve been having an interesting discussion with my friend Shashank Nigam, CEO of the global aviation consulting firm SimpliFlying, about the need for airlines to move beyond usual marketing tactics to engage the connected traveler.

In fact, I found the conversation so interesting that I cornered Shashank into writing about it for TheAviationWriter.com! You can find his ‘top 5’ list on the subject below, which is based on SimpliFlying’s latest Airline Marketing Benchmark Report… enjoy!

Top 5 reasons why airlines need to move beyond usual marketing tactics to engage the Connected Traveller

Airline marketing has entered an exciting, unpredictable and creative phase. In the words of Patrick Murphy, ex-chairman of Ryanair, “the biggest change that has occurred in the airline industry in recent years has been the use of social media”.

Unprecedented in the history of airline marketing, engaging today’s travellers requires airlines to move beyond the usual marketing tactics. Here are five reasons why:

1) The age of advertising is dead

There are over 200 airlines on Twitter today, and the space is cluttered. Too many airlines are trying to woo travellers in the same old ways. Mere contests and free tickets are no longer enough to drive engagement.

In fact, travelers will not respond to a constant stream of one-way marketing messages. It is all about two-way communication now.

2) A hybrid model involving online and offline spaces is necessary for marketing, and even for loyalty programmes

Today’s travellers are ever connected on their mobile devices, spending more time on Internet and social media than on TV, radio or newspaper. According to Gogo, 23% of passengers travel with tablets and 42% with laptops. The pervasiveness of Internet and social media users almost necessitates the adoption of marketing tactics that involve both the online and offline spaces.

In fact, a hybrid model is necessary not only for marketing, but also for loyalty programmes. In a joint study with Cranfield University in 2011, 72% of participants (who fly more than five times a year) said they would join a social loyalty programme, where they would get real-world rewards for online actions.

SimpliFlying helped Estonian Air and BalticMiles pioneer the world’s first social loyalty programme and crowd-sourced membership level respectively. Estonian Air’s AirScore rewarded fans with mileage points for liking or sharing relevant content on their social networks, and they could use these points later when they fly Estonian Air.

Within only 10 days, AirScore won over 1000 members, even going on to win the award for Best Social Media Campaign at the 5th Annual Mega Conference for Airline Loyalty and Ancillary Revenue Programmes, beating powerhouse Southwest Airlines who was competing for the same award.

3) The traditional three-stage travel lifecycle has been replaced with a five-stage cycle

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 – i.e. the Connected Traveller Lifecycle model (see below).

With this new model, developed by SimpliFlying, today’s traveller is guided by 1) dreaming of a destination, 2) planning, 3) booking, 4) travelling, and through these stages, 5) the act of social sharing. While booking is indeed the driver on which the airline ultimately depends, today it must be reached through the path that today’s traveller adopts.

A good example of SimpliPlan is Etihad’s Mapped-Out tool in collaboration with LinkedIn. It allows business executives on LinkedIn to search connections within two degrees of connection and have them displayed on a map, based on geographical locations or industries of interest. Helping to foster networking across boundaries, this tool is particularly useful for executives planning business trips.

In The Connected Traveler Lifecycle, ‘SimpliShare” is extremely important, because it exists in all four stages. As a matter of fact, SimpliFlying’s work with SpiceJet, for the launch of its Bombardier Q400 aircraft in the Indian market, can serve to exemplify ‘SimpliShare’.

SpiceJet wanted to convince Indians, who typically have not been keen to fly turbo-props, to overcome the entrenched mindset. In addition, there was a need to create destination awareness as SpiceJet was not flying these planes on major routes within India. Over a period of six months, SimpliFlying helped SpiceJet to specifically target niche segments through social media and leverage on a customer-to-customer education model, promoting sharing among users themselves. Within the first two weeks of launching Bombardier Q400 in India, SpiceJet achieved 88% load factor for five newly launched destinations.

4) The majority of airlines have increased their social media budget

In SimpliFlying Social Media Outlook 2012/ 2013 (a study conducted last year with 29 of the world’s most social-savvy airlines), the majority of airlines allocated up to 10% of their marketing budgets to social media.

When planning ahead, 75% of airlines then had set to increase social media budgets in 2013, indicating the growing role that airlines recognise in social media.

5) Marketers now have access to powerful social media tools to analyse their customers better

In the SimpliFlying Airline Social Media Outlook 2012/ 2013 report, 86.2% airlines claimed to have benefitted from social media data concerning customer insights, segmentation and targeting.

In addition, 65.5% airlines took a step further, using metrics attained from social media to develop new product strategies.

The bottom-line is that if you are not where your customers are, if you are not connected to them and tuned in to their behaviour, you are going to lose a lot of business. The usual marketing tactics are not enough to engage the Connected Traveller. Be transparent, responsive, and helpful online.

The post 5 reasons why airlines need to move beyond usual marketing tactics to engage the Connected Traveller 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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