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

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)

10. Social seating: Have you read about the Malaysian Airline initiative that led the airline to create a much talked about Facebook booking engine that allowed people to sit with their friends on the airline’s flights?

9. Airports in social media: In the ninth place we have a Top 10 case-pack, an initiative helmed by our Senior Innovation Officer Shubhodeep Pal, on how airports have driven engagement trough social media.

8. Blockbuster social initiative: Next, in 8^th place we find one, if not the, most successful social media campaigns of 2011, the AA Advantage “mystery miles” campaign that hit the headlines in February by achieving an 84 fold growth of its Facebook fans in 54 hours.

7. Airline Twitter initiatives: In the seventh place we find another Top 10, this time focusing on the use airlines made of Twitter, one of the fastest growing social networks of the year.

6. Social media ROI: The second half of our roundup us opened by keynote presentation made by our CEO Shashank Nigam at the Social Media Travel Summit earlier this year. The keynote focuses on a much talked about and little understood topic, the ROI of social media.

5. In fifth place is one of our most popular infographics, focusing on the resources that airlines dedicate to social media.

4. Airline Facebook initiatives: Our Top 10 case-packs have been one of the most viewed resources on our website and in the fourth place of this roundup we find another one illustrating the best examples of Facebook contests run by airlines.

3. 6X Model of Airline Branding: In third place we present a long standing favorite of our readers, the Airline Branding Whitepaper. This much praised paper was written by our CEO Shashank Nigam back in 2008. Yes, light years away in social media time, and was also selected and re-published by Brandchannel.com in the summer of the same year. Three years later it is still extremely relevant and, as this roundup shows, one of the most visited pages of our website.

2. Future of loyalty programs is social: In the second place comes one of our best infographic to date, highlighting the social future of loyalty programs and the new tendencies of the connected frequent flyers.

1. A380s and sales problems: In the first position, we have an article that was the most read in 2011, even though it was actually written in August 2009. We are talking, of course, of our famous piece on the Singapore Airlines’ A380 Suites and the sales problems that followed their introduction.

That said, if you have read this far you clearly have an interest in us. Similarly, we too are interested in our readers. We’d love you to use the comment box below to tell us what you would like to see (or not see) on SimpliFlying in 2012.

Thanks for reading SimpliFlying! Have a great New Year and here’s wishing you a fantastic 2012!

• A revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative – Vote for the Jan 2012 Hero now!
• [Infographic] How travel marketers calculate ROI on social media and why the future is mobile
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of February 2011 – Finnair vs Delta Air Lines vs Malaysia Airlines
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• A Brand New SimpliFlying – from airline branding pioneers to leading customer engagement at airports and airlines

The innovations begin

When airlines initially began their adventure on the socialscape, it was all about about feeling their way about on the social platforms of their choice. The primary focus at the outset was first, discovering how to drive traffic and building a fan-base, followed by the more important aim of utilizing the platform for customer engagement and provide them a real-time medium of information-dissemination and customer service. Slowly, however, they realized that social platforms could also aid them in driving revenue. Flash sales, deals and contests became popular to attract more customers. However, the real innovations were still some time away.

A changing landscape

That time, it seems, has finally come. Airlines, more than ever before have realised that the social web can be utilized to change and influence the booking behaviour of patrons by incorporating their preferences, habits and social circles into the booking cycle. Slowly, we’re beginning to see the true emergence of the New Traveler Life Cycle which can be split into 5 parts: dreaming, validating, booking, travelling and sharing. Airlines have begun to recognize that the booking portion of the cycle alone might not be sufficient to draw customers to themselves. Hence, they’ve begun to incorporate the other portions, in various combinations, to their travel cycle. Our latest case-pack illustrates how airlines are effectively doing this.

Some key points about Travel Distribution emerging from this case-pack are:

1. Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are slowly losing ground as airlines increasingly attract customers to book through their own portals. eg. Delta’s Facebook booking engine is a neat “push strategy” to get customers to book without moving away from their favourite social network.
2. Immersive apps that aid in the dreaming, planning and booking process will not only be addictive travel planning tools but also great brand-builders by wowing patrons. eg. Virgin America’s chrome app.
3. Mobile (and tablet) apps are set to go huge. Whether it is managing bookings or redeeming frequent flyer miles or even checking in without a paper boarding pass, mobile apps will rule the next wave of social airline strategies. eg. British Airways’ cool iPhone app and Lufthansa’s iPad app.
4. Incorporating customers’ social graphs into the booking cycle could pay rich dividends by unleashing a “social multiplier effect”. Knowing which friends are in cities you could fly to (Alaska Air) and choosing seats alongside friends (Malaysia Airlines) are just some of the ways in which booking behaviour of customers can be influenced.
5. Flyers will always be deal hunters looking for the best (in other words, cheapest) fares. LAN Airlines’ Fall Sale, JetBlue Cheeps and Melbourne Airport’s cheap Twitter fares are prime examples. Also, even though the jury is still out on this one, Groupon type sales will continue to be effective in the short-term at least (ie, until they can be sustained).

Without further ado, here’s our case-pack on the Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines. Enjoy!

You can find more of our Top 10 case-packs here.

• Mobile 2.0 – The Top 10 Mobile Apps by Airlines
• Socializing the airline booking process – Germanwings follows Alaska Airlines’ lead
• The Best Airlines in Social Media: the Top 7 nominees for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)

To acquaint you better with the nominees in each category of the awards, we’ll be posting case-packs on our SlideShare channel for each of the 5 categories of awards detailing what makes each nominee so special and why they’re in the final list of nominees (the initial list had over 60 candidates!). The campaigns that clinched each airline its position of prestige will be illustrated in detail. We hope you enjoy going through them and revelling in the reflected brilliance of their innovativeness, cleverness and sheer chutzpah.

The first case-pack has 5 case-studies, each illumninating the campaigns of Top 5 nominees in the category “Best use of Social Media to drive Revenue”. As you’ll see, some, like Virgin America jumped onto the latest trends and technologies to make a killing, while others such as Estonian Air were just plain clever in employing social media to drive revenue. Similar flattering things can be said of the other nominees: Air Asia, airBaltic and Malaysian Airlines. But it would be best if you experienced them yourselves. Enjoy!

You can see the current poll results below. Hurry! Voting closes on 15th September.

• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Nominations now open for airlines, airports and hotels
• SimpliFlying-Airline Business Awards for Social Media Excellence for Airlines – Vote now!
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Vote NOW for best airlines, airports, hotels

Make sense of the chaos

Now, to add to all the hullaballoo, it really doesn’t help that social technologies are not just adding newer features regularly, but new social technologies themselves are being launched a dime a dozen (any takers for Google+ in airlines?).

So if you’re an airline marketer and thinking really hard about which social technologies to adopt apart from the usual suspects, we have the perfect remedy for your troubles. In fact, even if you’ve figured out which social platforms to adopt, you might still be wondering how best to use them or which business goals you might drive best through them. Well, we have the perfect panacea for you.

The SimpliFlying Social Media Cheatsheet is intended to help airline marketers choose social platforms based on the goals they actually want to drive. And this has been put together after surveying 25 of the best airlines on social media globally!

Drive business goals with ease with this cheatsheet

How do you  use this cheat sheet? Elementary: just choose one of the goals you’d like to drive eg. revenue, loyalty etc. Once you’ve chosen a particular goal (via the columns) you simply have to look at the corresponding rows to see which social platforms drive these goals the best. To help you choose better where multiple platforms drive the same goal, we’ve indicated the optimal platforms by means of three “likes” or thumbs-ups. For the least optimal, but still workable, platform, we’ve gone with a single like. Two “likes”, obviously, indicate a platform that’s between optimal and workable.

We developed this matrix-like cheatsheet based on insights gained from working with our clients, through feedback on our blog and by requesting 25 of the world’s top airlines to answer a short survey.

Some key observations:

1. Facebook is the most used social media tool among airlines
2. Twitter and Groupon are best in driving revenues
3. If you have a small team and looking for maximum impact, just do Facebook and Twitter right. Then expand efforts to YouTube and Foursquare
4. Engagement, followed by customer service and PR are the most well addressed business goals

Here’s the cheat sheet for you to download and print/distribute.

• [Infographic] How travel marketers calculate ROI on social media and why the future is mobile
• [Infographic] How travel brands are using social media to achieve ROI
• Social CRM for Airlines – Managing the Cult and driving true value (Plus: upcoming webinar)
• How airlines can drive and measure ROI from social media (Plus: Free passes for webinar)
• [Presentation] Why the future of loyalty programs will be social-media based

Contests to engage and develop advocates

As an engagement strategy, I believe that contests are far underused, given that they require targeted customers to opt in, take action, and when employed strategically, turn those customers into brand advocates. Given that airline analysts can easily predict what capacity goes unfilled, and the contest can be restricted to giving away those seats that would likely leave empty anyway, airlines can get a great return without giving away much. After all, what is the incremental cost of a butt in a seat that would otherwise go empty—ten, twenty dollars, tops?

I was a huge fan of Cathay’s “Why I Love Japan” contest. They also had an innovative contest where participants submitted dessert recipes, with the winning concoction actually being served on board. Now, they have launched another innovative contest to celebrate/amplify the launch of their newest destination—Chicago.

A contest for launching a new route!

As Hong Kong boasts among the most unique and iconic skylines in the world, Chicago also prides itself on its amazing modern architecture. Playing off this synergy, Cathay has launched a “Blending Borders” contest through Facebook, which gives participants the very broad, open-to-interpretation task of “blending these two iconic cities into one.”

While the instructions drop photography, sculpture or illustration as hints, the contest welcomes any medium, and suggests that “the options are as wide as your imagination.”

The winning prize? Two tickets to Hong Kong, a cultural Feng Shui architectural tour (courtesy of Hong Kong’s tourism board), a feature on Cathay’s Facebook fan page, and finally a display at some airports.

By incorporating Facebook, Cathay is building its influence online and reaching a potentially wider audience than through its e-mail list. By partnering with the Hong Kong Tourism Board, it is adding relevant incentive and value to the promotion without having to spend anything, simply by leveraging its brand. And by using what will undoubtedly prove to be a pretty impressive display of art online and at its airports, Cathay is getting creative work that would otherwise be done by an agency for the cost of a few tickets! You think global ad agencies take on projects for just a few thousand dollars? Not hardly.

So, overly “cautious” airlines out there…pay attention to what Cathay Pacific has been doing, and take notes! This far underused engagement tactic could very well help you build invaluable, potentially viral, brand advocacy and ultimately lead to—yes—more butts in seats.

What do you think? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments, or over on Twitter (@simpliflying or @airticulate)

• Cathay Pacific unveils new Business Class seats and staff uniforms!
• Experience Cathay Pacific without stepping on the plane
• SPECIAL FEATURE: An exclusive look at Cathay Pacific’s new Business Class seats
• Cathay Pacific wants you to create a dessert on Facebook, and serve it in-flight to you!
• Is Cathay Pacific Business Class the best way to get from New York to Hong Kong?

A small airline makes a big splash

Estonian Air just held its first ever reverse auction, by merely posting on the wall latest prices for flight tickets for two persons on assigned Estonian Air flights with fixed route and dates. To announce his or her intention to buy the Facebook fan had to post: “I buy” or in Estonian “Ostan” on the wall post. That’s really as simple as it gets!

According to Gunnar Mägi, the Development and Marketing Director of Estonian Air, the social media channels are used as very effective information channels, but also as the sales channel. “Our social media channels are becoming as ideas laboratory, where we try new solutions and sales opportunities. Estonian Air will continue launching unique offers in its social media also in the future,” added Mägi.

And all this, within a month of launching a crowdsourcing campaign to improve the airline. Looks like the new CEO, Tero Taskila’s arrival has infused a new vigor in the airline.

The beauty lies in the simplicity of the reverse auction..

Take a look at some of the screenshots we compiled and you’ll understand that it’s the simplicity of the auction that makes it so attractive.

Competing airlines keenly observing

While the first auction may not have brought in a ton of revenue for Estonian Air, it showed that distress inventory can be cleared through mediums like Facebook and Twitter without setting up complicated back-end system, while at the same time engaging customers – almost 200 comments received in this auction! And this has competing airlines watching too.

Martin Wassborn, Director EuroBonus Analytics and Communication at SAS Scandinavian also recognized the high potential in using reverse auction for Eurobonus point bargains. “Estonian Air was successful today and we are considering matching the challenge.”

Exciting times indeed! What do you think of Estonian’s efforts? Is this something that’s worked for your airline too? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments section or over on Twitter (@simpliflying)

• Ancillary revenues and airline branding webinar slides (with video!)
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• How COPA Airlines drove 50X return on investment from a Facebook app
• Three reasons why JetBlue’s eBay store is a genius move and why other airlines will follow
• Size doesn’t matter. Interview with Estonian Air CEO Tero Taskila reveals a grand vision for the future

It is now fitting that we take a look at how airports are managing their social engagement models. Our latest Top 10 presentation brings to you 10 11 case-studies that showcase the best airports from around the world in terms of how well they’re evolving and adapting to newer technologies of driving customer engagement.

The Invisible Wall

No, this is in no way related to Harry Potter and Platform 9 and 3-quarters. What I refer to here is the seamless airport experience that leads most passengers to view the airport and airline as the same entity. Most airports would now like their passengers to be able to identify the invisible wall that delineates the airport experience from that of the airline.

This is important primarily because of two reasons:

1. Individuality: Most passengers probably see an airport as a means to an end ie, just an inevitable funnel that leads to the actual part of travel. Airports wish to change that and bring to their customers’ notice that an airport can offer an experience that the passenger will always remember – whether by means of retail outlets, food courts or something disruptive like the famous Changi Airport slide.
2. Engagement, Revenue and Branding – A great airport brand starts by engaging, entertaining and making the passenger comfortable. On the way, an airport that is suitably engaging its passenger will drive retail (in simple words, revenue) as well. I personally know a number of people who choose to transit via particular airports simply because of great retail and entertainment options on offer. These spread especially quickly through word of mouth.

How are airports engaging on social media?

Among social media platforms, Twitter seems to be the preferred social media platform for most airports looking to engage their customers. Airports are certainly using social media, with 200+ airports using social media, either Twitter or Facebook. Some airports seem to have created some ‘buzz’ with their programs.

As with the airlines, the case-studies include some fine examples of how airports have driven revenue, engagement, loyalty, crisis management and customer service via social media. Some have gone one step further and have created some truly radical things such as virtual reality apps for airport navigation. Awesome, isn’t it?

We’ve also seen that Twitter has been successfully used as a customer service tool due to the instant, real-time responses that can be sent out to customers. When the ash clouds appeared in Europe, it has also proved remarkably helpful in handling crises.

The social runway ahead

The challenge we’ve seen in airports using social media, is how to extend this communication channel to more than just broadcast mode. Executives handling social media for their airport should now think about how to engage the passengers to the point of creating a positive customer experience. Hopefully, some of the initiatives we’ve featured here inspire other airports to do more too! Enjoy the case studies.

Agree with our list of Top 10 initiatives? Know of others?  Leave a comment about what you thought of these case-studies and how you think we could do these better. The best comments could be featured in the first SimpliFlying Top 10 eBook out this Summer!

Special thanks to Robert Cook (SimpliFlying Airports Lead) for sourcing a large majority of these case studies.

• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• Driving revenues and engaging customers in-flight – presentation from Airline Retail Conference #arc2012
• What do travelers buy most at airports? Chocolate! Infographic reveals top purchases at Changi Airport
• The Top 10 Twitter Initiatives by Airlines
• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi

Halfway through my flight from Washington (IAD) to Seattle last week, I received a special surprise along with my ginger ale…a napkin that doubled as the most useless piece of marketing communication I’d ever received:

Umm…well, I don’t really need any more friends, thanks.

It must have been my lucky day, because after I spilled my drink and grabbed my napkin to clean up, I found the second most useless piece of marketing communication I’d ever received on the back!

Why? Are you going to help me play the stock market?

Innocent though it may be, this United napkin is a classic example of communication without a point. Without making any effort to communicate a single benefit the passenger will receive in exchange for following the call to action, it goes beyond my reason why any passenger would rush to turn on their smart phones upon landing and become a UA Facebook fan, or start tweeting UA (which, I might add, they may not even be able to find since this doesn’t specify United’s Twitter handle). To that last point, could you imagine the potential PR disaster that could happen if a passenger tried to “stay in touch” on Twitter, and ended up communicating with a United detractor (or someone who was simply unresponsive) instead?

While UA has @UnitedAirlines, think of how many alternatives are out there (@United, @UnitedAir, @UAOfficial, etc.) that United has NO control over. At least this napkin may have added a few followers to Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand’s Twitter stream (which, for the record, is the first handle that shows up when you search for “United” in Twitter). This is like putting a photo of a telephone on a poster, with the phrase “call me” next to it, and nothing else. You wouldn’t sit next to the phone expecting it to ring, would you?

145 million impressions gone to waste?

Keep in mind, United flew 145 million passengers last year. That’s nearly 400,000 impressions these simple napkins can make every single day. If you had a simple message to convey to that many people, wouldn’t you go to painstaking lengths to make sure you got the message spot-on right?

There are two simple lessons this awful napkin brings to light:

If you are going to make a call to action, 1)  at least make an attempt to communicate a user benefit for answering that call, and 2) make sure to provide clear instructions of exactly how to follow the call to action.

Hope to see United (if not other airlines), buck up! What do you think?

Steven Klimek is an airline strategist who has previously held commercial and marketing positions with Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and ATPCO. He will be a regular contributor to Simpliflying, and can be found online at http://airticulate.com or on twitter at @AIRticulate.

• Southwest vs. United: Why Authenticity Wins, Even In TV Advertising
• Meet the new Chief Marketing Officer of United Airlines – Dave Carroll. He sings and plays a guitar!
• Rohit Bhargava feels that United Airlines lacks a brand personality. Is he right?
• Three ways for airlines to create a lasting first impression
• [INFOGRAPHIC] How Airlines Use Twitter – customer engagement done right, or gone wrong?