While we’ve been releasing a great amount of research on how airlines have been driving results and engaging customer through social media, how airports do it has mostly been an enigma. The wait is over.

ACI Europe conducted a thorough study recently of all its member airports on the continent and found that 77% of all passengers travelled through a social media enabled airport and there has been 800% annual growth for Airports in Central Eastern Europe using these mediums. For more startling facts and stats, enjoy the infographic SimpliFlying has produced in partnership with ACI Europe.

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<br /> <a href=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png” _mce_href=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png”><img class=”size-full wp-image-7011 ” title=”Airports social media ” src=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png” _mce_src=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png” alt=”" width=”592″ height=”2659″ /></a><br /> Via <a href=”http://simpliflying.com” _mce_href=”http://simpliflying.com”>SimpliFlying</a>.<br />Grab your code <a href=”http://simpliflying.com/2012/infographic-airports-in-social-media-aci-europe-study/” _mce_href=”http://simpliflying.com/2012/infographic-airports-in-social-media-aci-europe-study/”>here.</a><br />

You can get more aviation infographics here.

Since recently returning from the American Association of Airport Executive’s (Great Lakes Region) National Air Service Conference, my mind is buzzing about innovative ways that social media can be used to enhance an airport’s air service development efforts.

At the conference I moderated a panel that was focused on the importance of communicating to the generations and how social media has infiltrated into the air service spectrum of the industry. It is now more important than ever for airports to understand that the ways in which our passengers are communicating and understand that that has evolved to include social media. It is no longer enough to simply market a new route through traditional mediums;  social media needs to be at the forefront of the minds of airports as they are working to enhance air service.
Social Promotions and Route Launches
During the conference session, Justin Meyer, Manager of Air Service Development for the Kansas City International Airport shared how social media is not only changing the way the airport is communicating to passengers of all generations, but also about their recent efforts to launch new service on Alaska Airlines from MCI to Seattle, WA.  The airport had a pre-existing …

Westjet in Canada seems to be just as well loved as Southwest Airlines is in the US. The airline recently announced plans to launch a regional airline to serve secondary and tertiary Canadian cities with non-stop service using new regional aircraft. Since then, there has been a flurry of smaller Canadian airports trying to woo the airline and start service to their cities.

Bringing Westjet to Penticton
One of the most innovative of those efforts has come from Penticton Airport in British Columbia, which has a bunch of kids at the airport dancing to “Send me on my Way” from Rusted Root to woo West Jet into considering adding Penticton to their expanding regional network.

In addition to the Youtube video, they’ve creatively  added a Facebook page entitled, ‘Bring WestJet to Penticton‘  and followed up with a Twitter hashtag too, #westjetpenticton, to demonstrate all the local support there is for the service. And the city Mayor is involved in the efforts too!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSpLNflxhkg[/youtube]

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/AndrewJakubeit/status/181862342185861120"]
Certainly something to make WestJet route planners to sit up and take …

Last spring SimpliFlying published an article on the Top 10 ways airlines are using location-based tools followed by a listing of Top 10 airports on social media; now we are taking it a step further to share four (fun and effective) ways airports can drive engagement through Foursquare. Consider this your definitive guide if you’re an airport marketer!

 
1. Check-ins to drive non-aeronautical revenue
Think of a large airport, with thousands of passengers connecting through each day, many with nothing to do after clearing security. Now think of the airport’s non-aeronautical revenue options (retailers, concessions). This is a prime opportunity to influence purchase decisions through a bit of social engagement.

Here’s your Airport “Non-aeronautical Revenue” Challenge: Set up Foursquare check-in venues at participating airport retailers to create a challenge for passengers, aimed at driving non-aeronautical revenues for the airport. The value of the check-in is that each time someone does it, they announce to their friends on Facebook, Twitter or other connected networks that they are at that particular retailer – it’s announcing brand choice, which is better than even net promoter score!

Informative and Fun: Creation of a scavenger-hunt-like game, complete with signage throughout the terminal and at each participating retailer to encourage …

“Pinterest?  The name sounds familiar, I must have heard it somewhere, but how exactly is it going to help our airline? ”
“I’ve heard of it too but I’m not really sure of what it is and, please, don’t tell me that we need yet another social network!”
We’re pretty sure that something similar must have gone through the minds of many airline and airport marketers over the past few weeks. According to some sources, Pinterest, the newest kid on the social block, is driving more traffic to company pages than “big” social networks like Linkedin or Google+ and people are spending more time on this addictive social network than just about any other platform except Facebook and Twitter.
 

But, what does it all mean ?

It could have simply been just another social network, or just another link sharing site that happened to be good at generating traffic while being visually appealing.  But luckily for us, it isn’t just that!

From a technical point of view Pinterest is a social-bookmarking website or, in other words, a website that allows people to highlight and share …

Whether you attended Routes Americas 2012 in Nassau, Bahamas last week and are now wishing that you could return to the sunshine and relive the conference or you missed attending this year and are hoping for a recap, this post is just what you were looking for. Our comprehensive roundup will make you feel as though you never left.

Two things that SimpliFlying loves to see are conference #hashtags and the use of social media to increase audience engagement. Both of these things were in full
effect at Routes Americas.

Leading up to the conference I quickly learned which of the socially tapped-in industry players would be attending, and was able to follow their arrivals and expectations through twitter and the #RoutesAmericas hashtag. Throughout the event many tweeters also seemed to be following along with the conference #hashtag from afar.
Sunshine and (Aviation) Matchmaking
When I arrived in Nassau, I learned that Routes also had the foresight to offer attendees a conference specific smartphone application – something that proved to be invaluable for keeping up with agendas and re-caps. Our sources at UBM Aviation Routes tell us that while the use of a Routes conference app debuted at …

As the newest member of the SimpliFlying team, the past month has already been a whirlwind and now I am about to jet off to Nassau, Bahamas for Routes Americas.

Routes Americas is a gathering of airlines, airports, aviation service providers and industry experts focused around air service development. With a constantly changing and evolving industry like aviation, the people in our great industry are always on the move, figuring out what direction to grow, what direction to stop growing and, quite simply, what to do next.

The focus of the Routes Americas event, and similar events that take place throughout the year, is often analogized with what common culture refers to as “speed dating.”  These meetings sometimes lead to new air service but most importantly allow airlines the opportunity to meet with multiple airports over the two-day period and to get a feel for what each community could bring to the table if the airline were to consider service.  Airports get the chance to wow the airlines with news and updates on their communities and even send the airline planning reps home with cool, memorable marketing trinkets.

As a former, small airport, marketing and development director, this will be the first …

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 …

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

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

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

ACI on Prezi

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
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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 …