Over the last year, SimpliFlying went pretty big with infographics. Big both in terms of the issues we tackled and the buzz we generated. We scored especially huge hits with our social future of loyalty and resources dedicated to social media infographics, apart from the regular Monthly Airlines on Twitter Report published in partnership with Eezeerdatalab.

And now, we’re kicking off the New Year with a bang as we present a new infographic, in partnership with our friends at Eyefortravel, on a burning issue that airlines and travel marketers in general will be looking to tackle over the next twelve months. Two questions in particular are addressed in this infographic:

In what direction does the industry see social media evolving?
What business goals travelers are driving and if they’re calculating ROI

While we do seem to have a consensus on the answer to the first question – the future is certainly mobile – uncertainty remains about how to measure ROI on social media. (We’ve tackled this briefly in a previous infographic as well). The uncertainty looms large primarily because while there are divergent ways in which people do measure ROI, there is also a section that questions the need to …

 

Some food for thought…

In my MasterClasses, I often ask, “How long is your brand engagement with a can of Coke? How about with Starbucks?” The answer is about 5 mins for Coke and about 90 mins for Starbucks.

Now, if I were to ask you how long is your brand engagement with an airport? How about an airline? The answer can range from at least two hours to over 24hrs! So why is it that our time spent in an airport (especially after security) is the most boring? How is it that airlines have 24 hrs with their customers captive, and yet service recovery is an issue if something goes wrong? It’s because the old rules of branding that would apply to Coke and Starbucks don’t necessarily apply to airlines and airports!

When we released our white paper on airline branding and introduced the 6X model, the premise was that branding for airlines and airports is different due to the length of brand engagement. What would Coke pay to have a brand engagement of two hours? How much more profit do you think Starbucks would make if the customer sat …

 

Yes, I said it: branding!

The benefits of crowdsourcing, and its effectiveness for problem solving, are well-known. The power of the social web is being harnessed by airlines more than ever (in fact, a cargo-carrier has recently got into the game as well). Crowdsourcing initiatives are now being used not  just to engage customers but also to find ways to improve their product and services, as well as at the same time building their brands. Hence, “crowdbranding”.

With today’s Top 10 case-pack we would like to highlight some of the best examples of airline crowdsourcing. At the same time, we also invite our readers to have a look beyond the surface and into the deeper strategic goals that drive each of these strategies. In some cases it will be clear that the end game was indeed solving a problem or finding an innovative way of addressing existing issues, but in others it will also be clear that the stated goal of the crowdsourcing campaign wasn’t the only goal.

Most of the airline examples included in this Top 10 used crowdsourcing to solve problems related to visible parts of their product such as in-flight meals or routes, and did so in …

 

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

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

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/happiestkhan/status/135245627306151936"] [blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/LHInsights/status/135248990504615936"] [blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/Thilak/status/135250466736050176] [blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/kapgup/status/135239383958818816"] [blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/ACertainSen/status/135239178349842432"] [blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/anish3075/status/135251624716288000"] [blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/SeoHelpz/status/135361896248377344"]

 

Update: Winners announced!

And the results have been announced. Some usual suspects taking home the prizes while some smaller players claim an emphatic victory. Click on each category name to see the campaigns that were so keenly contested for these awards.
Best Airport in Social Media

 
Best Hotel in Social Media

(CitizenM Hotels)

 
Best Airline driving revenue via social media

 
Best Airline driving customer service and crisis management via social media

…And finally the big one!

 
Best Airline in Social Media

 
Moments from the Awards ceremony
[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="5" orderby="ID"]

The wait is over!

Live from Amsterdam, we’re bringing you the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in social media – honoring the best airlines, airports and hotels in the world.

It has been a riveting contest. After 134 nominations and over 31,000 votes, we’re in Amsterdam for the final reckoning. The final shortlisted nominees are geared up to deliver their final pitches. Our three esteemed judges are ready with their marksheets and pencils. You can follow all the live action from …

 

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

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

 

SimpliFlying is back with the  Monthly Twitter Report for airlines (in partnership with Eezeer) for August 2011 in continuation with our coverage and analysis of the dynamic social media landscape for airlines.
After close to 6 months of reporting monthly on how airlines are using Twitter, we can safely say that apart from Facebook, Twitter is the social media platform of choice for most airlines. The number of tweets sent and received has been rising in general for months in a row. Airlines have also become more forthcoming as well as responsive.
This month, while the usual suspects (Delta and JetBlue) are once again on the list of top engagers, Cebu Pacific absolutely storms into the list. Not only is it placed second on the list of airlines receiving the most number of public tweets, it also scores the highest in the Global Satisfaction Score with a score of 106.7. (For more details, see the infographic.)
A number of facts are immediately clear from this report:

As we’ve mentioned, Cebu Pacific is second on the list of airlines receiving the most number of public tweets with more than 11,000 to its name. However, Delta Air Lines is once …

 

Well, well, well! This year’s race for the 2nd SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in Social Media is heating up like never before. Our awards are not just featured on the homepages of Malaysia Airlines and Air New Zealand but have gained huge traction on the web as well. Just about a week into voting, the total number of votes has already crossed 12,000!

Votes, as we mentioned in the previous slide-deck on the Best Airlines Driving Revenue through Social Media, have come from around 2500 cities across the world. We promised recently that we’d regularly post case-packs illustrating the fabulous campaigns that have led the final nominees to be shortlisted. And we’re back this time with another 5 great case-studies on how 5 of the best airlines in the world have used social media to drive Customer Service and Crisis Management.

This would be a good time to remind you that voting is still ongoing so you can vote for your favorite airline until 15th September. Do vote if you care about the airline you love! Meanwhile, you can check out the latest result for the current category below.

Best use of social …

 

Let the voting begin!
After 10 days and 69 nominations (!!) for the best airlines, airports and hotels in social media, the SimpliFlying team and Hotel Marketing Strategies blog has shortlisted the top five finalists for each category for the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence. The “Best Airline in Social Media” had so many high-quality submissions that we just couldn’t bring it down to five.

Anyone on the web is free to vote once in each category and give their favorite airline a shot at glory! Airlines, airports and hotels are free to request for votes through their social media sites, by emailing their frequent fliers and staff or through any other means.

One representative from the Top 3 most voted in each category will also get a free pass to attend the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit on Oct 10 in Amsterdam, and a 20% discount for their colleagues.
The process

The voting begins immediately, and polls auto-close on 15 Sept, 2011
The top 3 voted in each category will get to make a 10 min presentation …

 

One of the bigger marketing challenges airlines face is to fill up the seats as quickly as possible, when launching a new destination. Typically, it takes over six months to reach a level where a flight is profitable. And this is after receiving marketing help from tourism agencies and also from airports – press releases to billboards in the terminals.

But as as we have long suspected, the traditional press release is rather dead and buried. Granted, it’s not dead in the truest sense of the word; however, it is undeniable that social technologies have morphed press-releases beyond recognition. Gone are the boring, wordy releases that used to accompany every major announcement in the industry. Welcome to the new age of social engagement!

Social media for route launches
Airlines these days have begun smartly leveraging the power of social media while making new product and route announcements. Forget the one-page release announcing the nature and benefits of the new route. These days, there are dedicated campaigns being run by airlines (as well as airports) to draw attention to their new routes and planes.

Witness the wide-ranging strategies adopted …