What a fabulous journey it has been! To say that the 2nd SimpliFlying Annual Awards for Excellence in Social Media were a success, would perhaps be an understatement. Right from sowing the seeds online to reaping the rewards offline in Amsterdam on October 10, this year’s SimpliFlying Awards journey has been exhilarating and extremely rewarding.

Behind the Scenes
In more than a year of being with SimpliFlying in various capacities, helping get the Awards machine up and running has been by far the grandest enterprise I’ve been involved with. The first and most immediate challenge that faced us was to ensure that we received a fairy representative roster of nominations. In this we succeeded most handsomely, getting almost 70 nominations over 4 categories.

Then came the greater challenge: actually getting votes for the top nominees. In this endeavour, we pursued three diverse methods: first, we constantly promoted #SMAwards on the SimpliFlying Twitter channel that has close to 8,000 followers. By means of numerous retweets and mentions on Twitter, we reached a wide audience. Second, we used our SlideShare channel to promote the top nominees in each category by producing 4 …

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 …

After receiving over 30,000 votes in just two weeks from airline, airport and hotel fans all over the world, we announced the finalists for the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence, to be held at the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit on Oct 10 in Amsterdam.

Now, we are announcing a panel of distinguished judges who will preside over the 10 minute presentations by each of the finalist hotel, airline and airport. These judges will take a decision on the winner after viewing the presentations Live in front of the full conference audience!
Raymond Kollau – Airlinetrends.com

Raymond Kollau is founder of an independent industry and consumer trends research agency airlinetrends.com. Airlinetrends.com monitors the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing consumer behavior. Having been part of leading consumer trend firm trendwatching.com since its inception, Raymond founded airlinetrends.com to focus on trends and innovations in the global airline industry.

Raymond holds a Master degree in Business from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and also studied International Relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. His …

After receiving over 30,000 votes in just two weeks from airline fans all over the world, we are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence, to be held at the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit on Oct 10 in Amsterdam.

The most voted category was the “Best airline in social media”, with over 7,200 votes. This was followed by the best airline use of social media to drive customer service (6800+ votes) and revenue (6600+ votes). The best airports category received over 5,000 votes and the best hotels category received over 4,400 votes, thanks to our partnership with the Hotel Marketing Strategies blog.  

One representative from the Top 3 most voted in each category will 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.

A distinguished panel of judges (to be announced shortly) will determine the winner after the presentations and they will be declared on the evening of Oct 10.

Congratulations to all the finalists, as …

Yesterday, we posted a case-pack on the Best Airlines in Social Media. Today, completing our roundup of the top nominees in the airlines/airports category of this year’s SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence, we’re bringing you the Top 5 Airports in Social Media as nominated for the awards.
We’ve already recounted how the response to these awards has been huge and humbling at the same time: over 30,000 votes from 4500+ cities is a good enough reason to make our hearts swell with pride.
But today is special: it’s the last day of voting so if you haven’t yet voted for your favourite airline or airport, now’s the time to make amends. Voting closes at 5 pm PDT today.
You can also go through our other case-packs on the Best Airlines Driving Revenue and the Best Airlines Driving Customer Engagement and Crisis Management.
Meanwhile, you can check out the latest standings and vote for this particular category below:

Best Airport in Social Media
Before we jump into the case-pack, here are a few takeaways from these categories:

Airports are keen to ensure that passengers who travel through them …

Would you believe it? Only a few days ago, while releasing the case-pack for the Best Airlines Driving Customer Service and Crisis Management we had reported that the total votes for the 2nd SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in Social Media had crossed 12,000 in just about a week! We also mentioned how votes had been received from more than 2,500 cities across the world. But today, we have updated figures for you, and we request you to hold your breath!
With about a day still to go for voting (and trust us, a lot of votes come in on the last day), the total number of votes has already crossed 30,000. Moreover, votes have come in from 4500+ cities across the world. How incredibly awesome is that?
Yes, while you gather words and your breath to answer that, this would be a good time to remind you that only a day is left for voting so you can still vote for your favorite airline if you haven’t done so. Do vote if you care about the airline you love! Meanwhile, you can check out the latest result for the current category below. All voting closes September 15….

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 …

The buzz is palpable! After a heady round of nominations (69 nominees in 10 days) we’re down to the fun bit – the real voting to shortlist the Top 3 who’ll be invited to Amsterdam on October 10th for the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in Social Media. Amazingly, we received more than 5000 votes in the first 36 hours from more than 1400 cities across the world. Huge, huge numbers! And they’re growing astronomically each day!

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 …

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 …

Update, 30 Aug 2011: Voting is now on for the awards at http://bit.ly/SMVotes

Airlines have taken to social media like a fish takes to water. Well, almost. Over the last few months we’ve shared with you over 60 case-studies that have revealed how airlines have used the predominant platforms of customer engagement. And you must be aware of stellar campaigns like Air New Zealand’s viral videos, AirAsia’s route launches and Delta’s Social media lab.

To honor the cream of the crop, the Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence are back for a 2nd year. Last year, we received over 141 nominations and 12,000 votes in just a week! This year, not only have we added new categories for honoring Best Airports in Social Media, we have partnered with Hotel Marketing Strategies blog to launch a Hotels category too! The awards will be held in Amsterdam on Oct 10, 2011 at the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit.
Important dates and awards process

18 Aug: Announcement of awards, and nominations open on SimpliFlying.com and Hotel Marketing Strategies
26 Aug – Nominations close
29 Aug – Top 5 Finalists announced for each category and voting starts
15 …