Morgan Johnston leads JetBlue's social media efforts

JetBlue’s first jump into social media was after the ice-storm of February 2007 when they needed to address their customers to talk to them about lessons learned from an operational failure. They made the decision to address customers directly through YouTube and learned very quickly that establishing a direct relationship with customers through these channels was appreciated – and also provided an invaluable resource to learn more.

On the road to greatness

When Twitter began to gain additional prominence in March, JetBlue recognised the opportunity of the real-time nature of the medium. Because users were posting their experiences as they happened, the airline could talk with them as they were travelling. This offered amazing customer recovery opportunities

Morgan admits that while he loves the communities they’ve built, and the audience they’ve developed, the best aspect of their social strategy has nothing to with their accounts. The most important thing JetBlue did was use the networks to listen to what their customers were saying about them, and using that information to affect change internally.

While JetBlue doesn’t release information specifically on the revenue generated from social media activities, there are a number of metrics they watch regularly to measure success. One metric that they spend a great deal of time on is the engagement and sentiment of their customer base. NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a core metric at JetBlue and “the ability to refine what we know about our service through surveys, emails, and social media monitoring is incredible. Particular to social, our ability to track how online sentiment and knowledge is changed depending on our ability to communicate with the online audience is incredibly useful.”

Social Media and the Art of Crisis Management

When asked about the recent crisis with the indisposed pilot, Morgan says that like any carrier, JetBlue has plans developed for any number of situations. However, the specifics around the diversion of flight 191 to Amarillo, TX was a new and unexpected scenario for them.

It’s interesting to note that the first indication that this wasn’t a standard medical diversion came from a customer’s Tweet from the plane when it landed. Many of JetBlue’s plans anticipate customers tweeting from the scene, and they plan the scale of public responses as needed.

“Suffice it to say, there was a lot of interest about what happened to Captain Osbon, so we knew we needed to move fast. However, while we needed to move fast, we also take the responsibility of reporting only verified information very seriously, and also need to respect the privacy of our crewmembers and customers.”

A JetBlue pilot captain Clayton Osbon, is removed from the plane after erratic behavior forced the crew to land in Amarillo, Texas. Source: WINA.com

Their initial blog post – and the subsequent updates were all done with a desire to balance the established goal of transparency, and the customers’ desire for information, with the responsibility to be sensitive and accurate with information. As Morgan says, “… trust we have built over the years went a long way to make our customers more understanding of the situation.”

As for internal policies regarding what employees can utter online, Morgan says that JetBlue asks their crewmembers to be responsible with their communications online, be transparent about their affiliation, and put disclaimers where needed, and above all make it clear they’re accountable for what they say, and the promises they might make to customers in online spaces. “Past that, our social network policy boils down to, “don’t be stupid.” – and we’ve had pretty good success with that to date.”

Building a co-ordinated, responsive team

JetBlue’s Social Media team is lead by representatives from their internal teams representing Marketing, Corporate Communications, and Customer Commitment. They all work together on initiatives. As the advertising team works with their ad agency on campaigns, they also work to incorporate the social components of those into their strategy.

A distributed team handles their social media strategy. The front line of their monitoring and engagement is the Real Time Recovery team. This team consists of 21 part time crewmembers based within their Customer Commitment team in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. The team has responsibility over a number of things within their operation including answering customer emails, working with operations on real time customer recovery, working with special needs customers preparing for flights, and the 24/7 monitoring and customer engagement through social media.

The Real Time Recovery team is augmented by the Corporate Communications and Marketing teams that jump in when larger issues present themselves, or when particular messages need to be presented to customers. These three teams work together with equal authority over our strategy, keeping proper checks and balances in place.

JetBlue was one of the first companies to start actively using CoTweet when it came onto the scene, and have enjoyed being part of their evolution into SocialEngage. Morgan says that the integration of Twitter and Facebook into a dashboard that allows tracking, assigning, tagging of customer comments, and tracking of effectiveness of posts is perfect for their multi-unit social team. For Facebook, they also use Buddy Media and other third party app developers where appropriate.

The importance of experimenting, adapting and talking to customers

Social media is all about the conversation. Pitches and promotions, give-aways or contests, Morgans says, are all fun, but they can be done anywhere and they’re not necessarily social. The real advantage of social media is the ability to talk with your customers, learn from them and earn their trust by showcasing your employees’ humanity.

That trust is the real opportunity. It builds the good will you may need one day, and it builds the advocates and evangelists that will fight on your behalf and share your messages to their audiences.

“We made the mistake of pitching without first earning the trust, and our messages fell on deaf ears. It wasn’t until we asked our customers what they wanted of us, that we started building the relationship that would be the foundation of our social strategy.”

As for those looking to build their own social initiatives, Morgan has some handy tips. Collaborate with your customers to come up with the product that’s right for everyone. You have ideas of what you’d like to see for goals, and they’ll most certainly have ideas on what they’d like to see. Talk it out, experiment, adapt, and never get too attached to any one particular “right answer,” it may change overnight.

Well said, Morgan! We can’t wait to see more from JetBlue this year!

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.

• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of April 2012: bmibaby vs JetBlue vs Virgin Atlantic
• Five ways airlines can tame Twitter – Jesse Engle of CoTweet shares his expertise
• How does JetBlue build a strong digital airline brand?
• Getting up, close and personal with the customer – three airline case studies
• Perfect storm: JetBlue versus Southwest on Twitter – real incident

With these words Vueling’s CEO, Alex Cruz, responded to a question on the Spanish airline’s future social marketing strategy during this month’s Simplifying Podcast that featured him as a guest.

In keeping with our usual format, the podcast is composed of a 10 min introductory section where we take a look at  the latest trends in aviation followed by a 25 min interview with our guest, Vueling’s CEO Alex Cruz.

In today’s introductory section we review the importance of response times in social media and the ongoing debate over in-flight Wi-Fi and its different business model. During the interview with Alex we analyzed the following subjects:

• Critical factors behind Vueling’s success (11:30)
• Spanish market : The collapse of Spanair, high speed railways and Iberia’s new low cost subsidiary (13:40)
• Vueling’s Spanglish advertising and its cloud (22:00)
• Strategy: Hybrid, but only if cost leader (24:42)
• Vueling’s marketing channels (26:50)
• Alex Cruz’s view on social media (28:40)
• Social media ROI for Vueling (29:50)
• Rapid fire round (35:00)

(After you fill out the short form below, you will be taken to the podcast. If you wish to download it, please right-click on the player and chooose Save As/Save Link As)

 

• Episode 3 of SimpliFlying Podcasts: Industry news roundup and exclusive interview with KLM’s VP for eCommerce
• CAPA’s Airlines in Transition conference, and what I learnt from five airline CEOs about the future
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• Episode 4 of Simpliflying Podcasts: Exclusive insights into the world of airline loyalty & Interview with Gabi Kool, the CEO of Baltic Miles
• Vueling Business Class drives awareness creatively: The cloud that fell from the sky

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.

European Airports in social media

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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.

• [Infographic] How travel marketers calculate ROI on social media and why the future is mobile
• [Infographic] How Airlines across the world are dedicating resources to Social Media
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)
• [Infographic] How travel brands are using social media to achieve ROI
• [Exclusive Videographic] How airlines dedicate resources to social media marketing

Royal Brunei Airlines Boeing 777-200 flight number BI098, from Dubai to Bandar Seri Begawan, on 15 April 2012, made a precautionary landing in Mumbai, India following an aircraft system alert ‘AFT Cargo Fire’ that necessitated the flight to be diverted to the nearest airport at that time.  BI098 landed safely at Mumbai at 19:24 (GMT +5:30). Royal Brunei Airlines can confirm that no passengers were injured.

Flawless crises management, supported by social media

While such a statement and a press release is only to be expected after any incident, their blog, Facebook page and Twitter account was not just abuzz with regular updates, there was ample two-way interaction too.

First, generic updates were put out, then messages directed toward the stranded passengers were posted and then once relatives of passengers learnt that’s where they could get the latest information, the airline staff actively engaged with them too. Very soon, some of the stranded passengers themselves started asking questions and getting personalised answers themselves. And all this on a Sunday!

To our passengers in Mumbai:Please be assured that we have been working on rearranging your onward journeys.... http://t.co/QBwVi3aq

April 15, 2012 5:35 am via FacebookReplyRetweetFavorite

@RoyalBruneiAir

RoyalBruneiAirlines

@RoyalBruneiAir thanks for the prompt reply and reassurance.

April 15, 2012 7:44 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@activrightbrain

Dean Johnson

@RoyalBruneiAir It's good to see that u've improved. When I was stranded in Dubai for 3 nights, we were not given info, internet, int calls!

April 15, 2012 9:47 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jpangable

jances

Not only did this active engagement right after the crisis go a long way in calming nerves of the passengers and the relatives, anyone watching the conversation as an observer would be impressed by how well the airline has been taking care of the passengers (free wifi, laundry, international calls, meals etc) and also communicating so actively. It shows flawless execution on the part of the Corporate Communications team and we can clearly see that social-media activation was part of the standard operating procedure during a crisis.

Even if someone has not flown Royal Brunei Airlines, such incidences help establish trust for the future, more than any advertising campaign ever can. After all, isn’t it a rule of PR, that you should put your best foot forward when the world is watching you? Like in times of a crises?

Our recent Top 10 Case Studies on Airline Crises Management covered the best airlines in the trade. Royal Brunei certainly would make the cut the next time we put this deck together.

Meanwhile, be impressed by some of the screenshots of the interactions led by the Royal Brunei Airlines team.

• [Video] The best holiday greetings from airlines this season
• Top 10 Crisis Management Case Studies: How Social Media Can Help Airlines Deal With Their Worst Nightmares
• Crises Management for airlines and airports in the age of social media- Presentation from ACI Europe
• Exclusive Interview: How Eurocontrol battled the ashcloud crisis through social media
• Simpliflying Hero, May 2010: Aurelie Valtat from Eurocontrol

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 relationship with the carrier, which led to a member of  the staff being invited to fly out on the inaugural flight and tweet about the new service and cool promotion they were running.

Partnering with your airlines to help market a new route is not a new concept for airports, but using social media to enhance the reach is an area on which airports are beginning to place more of a focus.

So what are a few simple ways that an airport can use social media to leverage new or existing routes and possible help to develop new air service for their local communities?

Three ways to revolutionize airport marketing

1. Awareness through a Game – Leverage local community partners to spread the word of destinations through Facebook checki-ns.

   Click here to view the embedded video.

Take a look at what Air China recently embarked on to increase awareness in the Sweden of all the cool Asian destinations they serve.

In order to increase awareness in the Sweeden of the airline’s multiple Asian destinations, they partnered with local Sweeden businesses. While scope and location are always a factor before jumping into a strategy, we feel that airports can learn from this example and could benefit from a similar program.

2. The use of social media to push seat sales for both new and existing markets.
   Your airline partners are already doing it, so why not partner up with them to share the news with your local social followers and fans?  A quick email off to the marketing departments of each airline that serves your market, letting them know that you want to push specials, news, and deals through your social mediums can get an airport started on the right track to social success. 

   The Melbourne Airport created a special Twitter handle just for pushing seat sales. While the account is not very “interactive” with its followers, @MelbFlightDeals has given the airport a channel to share relevant information and deals with followers who are looking for deal specific information.
   

3. The use of social media to run social-based surveys aimed at route development.
   JetBlue recently showcased a fine example of communicating with travelers on how route decisions are made.  The social savvy team posted a simply survey, asking followers to vote of favorite destinations and paired it with an informative blog post about how the airline chooses cities. 

   Air service surveys are tricky, as the airport can not be certain if the info will be taken to heart by the airline they are hoping to woo, however, community engagement and participation are not to be taken lightly. Airports are often found in the position where they must work to convince an airline of the viability of a certain new market and community engagement is key in air service development.  By engaging the community through the survey and using it as a channel to also inform them of the importance of their support, this just could be a winning way for an airport to use social media in a fun new way.

   Step 1: Create a simple survey aimed at gathering information from your local passengers on travel preferences and needs.
   Step 2: Write a post to the community sharing with them how the process works and the importance of supporting the airport.

   These are just a few ways that airports can begin to use social media as a route development tool. What do you think?

   For more ideas your airport can use social media to engage your passengers, be sure to revisit our 4 Fun Ways Airports Can Drive Engagement Though Foursquare and Top 10 airports on social media or drop us a line at airports@simpliflying.com to learn more about how your airport can use social media to drive engagement and revenue.

• Simplinnovative Air Service Development Marketing by Penticton Airport to get Westjet service
• How BmiBaby Used Instagram to Visually Engage Travelers and Locals
• Thirty questions airline brands and airports must answer to build a strong social media strategy
• How BMI SimpliEngaged Customers with a Pinterest Visual Lottery
• Introducing the newly expanded SimpliFlying team, with special focus on community engagement and airport marketing

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 check-ins and drive passengers to check-in.
• Incentives to purchase: Retailer specific check-in offers, each with a unique offer or one-time special.
• Rewards: Once the user reaches a set number of check-ins along the challenge path, the user is rewarded with an airport badge or pre-determined prize.

Airline example: Virgin America’s Terminal 2 Takeover

• • • • • • • • Passengers compete with each other to check in at the most airport locations.
              • Passengers aim to earn the lead on a terminal specific leaderboard.
              • Virgin branded program
              • Unique badges

2. Surprise and Delight

Businesses are often looking for ways to “surprise and delight” customers.  Airports can do the same.

Let’s take a look back at the KLM Surprises initiative:

• Passengers were chosen at random after checking into specific KLM airports and gates.
• Passenger was researched through social media, to find a unique gift that would delight that specific passenger.
• Delighted passengers share stories with family/friends spreading their word and new loyalty even further.
• Dedicated time frame.
• Dedicated KLM Surprise team

Airport “Surprise and Delight” Challenge: Think of ways to implement a similar surprise and delight tactic at your airport.  It could be as simple as broadcasting that two “XYZ Airport Surprises” will take place each week, following randomly choosing a foursquare check-in, and researching that passenger and their habits and pairing them with a unique prize, or even a generic airport prize.

If you have not already viewed the KLM Surprises video, we suggest taking a look. It is filled with great ideas and causes us to smile each time we view it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. “Foursquare Specials” as rewards for frequent airport usage

This may be one of the most fundamental ways to drive engagement through Foursquare, but sometimes we need reminded of the simple ways to engage.

Foursquare specials offer the opportunity to try out various types of rewards for checking in. These go live immediately and can change weekly or monthly. Four square specials can almost be seen as a trial run for using location-based tools within your airport.

Airport “Check In Specials” Challenge: Find a special that fits your airport brand and budget.

Decide the following:

• Number of check ins necessary before reward/special is offered
• Levels to reach various rewards/specials
• Items that fit the airport’s specific budget requirements (these can vary from a free coffee on the first check in, to $5 off retail after 5 check ins, to one day free parking after checking in at the airport 5 times in one month).
• Have a little fun. Find the best mix for your airport brand and budget.

4. A free “CRM system” – (yes, free!)

Do you know the Mayor of your airport?  Do you know what he likes to eat for breakfast? Where he gets his car washed? If he prefers Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts? We often refer to this as being “creepy” but really it is just another type of passenger tracking. Foursquare can act as a CRM system without actually paying for a CRM system.

How, you ask? Once you have claimed your airport venue, you can request a list of all past airport “mayors.” Take this opportunity to learn more about them, their habits, and then start engaging them. They are, after-all, a sampling of your frequent flyers.

Start gaining insights about the behavior of your customers by looking into their habits when outside of the airport walls.  Foursquare offers the opportunity to take a deeper look at each person checking in, and start learning their travel and behavior patterns. These patterns can help us to market to the more directly, and figure out how to engage them while they are in the airport.

While we have focused on Foursquare for this post, remember that driving engagement through location-based tools doesn’t stop here. Once you find the best program for your airport, Facebook Places, Twitter, Gowalla, Yelp, Loopt and even Google Latitude are other location-based tools to consider.

For more ideas be sure to revisit our Top 10 ways Airlines Have Used Location-Based Tools and Top 10 airports on social media or drop us a line at airports@simpliflying.com to learn more about how your airport can use Foursquare to drive engagement and revenue through location-based tools.

• Top 10 Location-Based-Service Initiatives by Airlines (Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and more..)
• Are location-based services a blessing for the airline brand?
• Three ways airports can use social media for air service marketing and route development
• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement
• [Presentation] How airports can track passengers, throughout the Evolving Traveler Life Cycle

“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 content that they find interesting. However, unlike other similar websites, it does so by asking users to share content through images while organizing it in themed groups known as Pinboards. Each Pinboard can have multiple pins all related to the theme of that Pinboard.

What is it actually like?

Each individual image represents a link that, if clicked, will lead the to the page where it was pinned from, thus generating traffic, but most importantly each image carries emotional content and a visual appeal that distinguishes this website from its competitors. What’s interesting iss that even though the image shows a certain number of users following SimpliFlying’s profile on Pinterest, users can choose to follow specific Pinboards as well; this has led to an interesting anomaly where many of our boards have got about 50+ followers in the first 7 days since we launched our profile.

Images are effective

Unlike text, images are processed very quickly by the brain and often carry an emotional component that is immediately transmitted to the viewer. When we add this to the fact that content on Pinterest is shared and organized according to each user’s personal interests, we get a social network that is heavily focussed on sharing emotions, desires, interests (and links) through images. Or, in other words, a marketer’s dream.

If used correctly Pinterest has an enormous potential to allow brands to get closer to their target markets, by allowing them to create content aggregates (Pinboards) that appeal to different types of users who are willing to share them because they feel an emotional attachment to them.

On Pinterest users mostly share the future, not the past

Furthermore, unlike other social networks, the nature of Pinterest means that users do not always share things that happened to them in the past but often things that they like and would want to have (or do) in their future, thus adding a great potential for Pinterest to be used as a destination and aspirational marketing tool.

For airlines and airports this could mean adding a whole new emotional dimension to their marketing efforts, by allowing them to connect their brands to the experience of travel, the beauty of the destination or just about any other concept they wish, or are able to, represent with images.

A growing trend

Although there are still only a handful of airlines and airports on Pinterest, there seems to be a growing trend towards the adoption of this new platform and its usage seems to be focused on communicating brand values and associating the travel experience with the destinations that it leads to.

At SimpliFlying we strongly believe that this platform has great branding potential and, if used correctly, could prove invaluable to both small and large businesses. For this reason we have created two specialized Pinboards to showcase the best examples of Airlines and Airport pins, and have already readied our consultants and trainers to provide expert advice on how to use this platform.

If you wish to learn more about how SimpliFlying can help your airline or airport harness the powers of the social web (or even only Pinterest) and engage travelers profitably , we offer Strategy Consulting and MasterClasses that can be customized to your needs. You can get in touch with us directly at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

Find SimpliFlying on Pinterest here.

• How BMI SimpliEngaged Customers with a Pinterest Visual Lottery
• Airlines rush to get brand pages on Google+, but why? 7 questions to ask before you join a new social media platform
• How BmiBaby Used Instagram to Visually Engage Travelers and Locals
• Airports That Twitter & Why It Is An Effective Tool (for the airport brand)
• [Infographic] The first-ever insights into how airlines are using Google Plus

The interview is preceded, as usual, by a free industry insights section where SimpliFlying’s CEO Shashank Nigam and Community Engagement Manager Marco Serusi discuss the latest industry news, focusing on the Singapore air show and the marked shift in power from Europe to Asia.

You can listen to the free version below (industry insights) or subscribe to it on our iTunes channel:

Interview with KLM’s VP of eCommerce (Premium podcast only)

While the industry insights section of our podcast is free to listen to and download, you can purchase our extended premium podcast for only $19 if you wish to listen to both the insights and interview section.

Here are some highlights from our interview with KLM:

• How the idea of the “meet and seat” was conceived and the role of crowdsourcing in the process (11:30)
• How one slide in a presentation started the viral buzz that anticipated the launch of the campaign (12:20)
• How the social media team at KLM works (13:30)
• How KLM assesses ROI on social media (14:25)
• Privacy concerns on the Meet and Seat campaign (16:45)
• The demographics of the Meet and Seat users (19:05)
• Why KLM thinks social media marketing matters (21:30)

Purchase the premium podcast below:

(Clicking on the link above will take you to Paypal where you can securely make your one-time purchase of $19. Please do not hesitate to contact us at podcasts@simpliflying.com if you face any difficulties in making the purchase.)

• Episode 4 of Simpliflying Podcasts: Exclusive insights into the world of airline loyalty & Interview with Gabi Kool, the CEO of Baltic Miles
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• Episode 5 of SimpliFlying Podcasts: Interview with Vueling’s CEO Alex Cruz and Industry Updates
• Can AirAsiaX make the low-cost long-haul model work with focus on Asia-Pacific? Interview with CEO Azran Osman-Rani
• High Flying Tweets: 11 of the best airline or aviation bloggers / journalists to follow on Twitter

KLM is well known for its social media initiatives, but the speed and quality of their campaigns is really starting to become something unique. Just a few days ago we reported about their “Meet and Seat” social-seating initiative and now they’ve surprised us again by creating a fun, and very shareable, initiative that will surely help create new positive associations with their brand. Read on:

Ever dreamed of becoming a stewardess? Or of dressing up as one?

Well, personally I haven’t, but since it’s Carnival, I decided to accept a fun assignment by trying out KLM’s latest initiative: their “Stewardress Yourself“ Facebook app. Eventually, I ended up taking some rather embarrassing (but admittedly entertaining) pictures of me as a SimpliStewardess.

The initiative has been launched trough a dedicated tab in KLM’s facebook page that houses a unique Facebook app designed to bring customers even closer to the brand. This is how it works:

Users are first prompted to like the KLM facebook page and give permission to the app.

Next they are asked to choose picture from their facebook albums, upload one, or take one with their webcam. And then…  Well you can see for yourself in the pictures below:

You can have plenty of fun adding your face to one of seven different “vintage” pictures and portray yourself as either a stewardess or a pilot, and share the result with your friends.

But it does not end there

Users who share the campaign with at least 5 other friends can win one of 5 personalized posters portraying them as a KLM flight attendant. Furthermore for those who do not want to rely on their luck to get a personalized KLM item, the company also offers the chance to buy (remember ROI?) personalized mugs, rucksacks and mouse pads.

Ultimately, this initiative again affirms the fact that KLM is undoubtedly one of the most innovative airlines in the world and has mastered the art of creating initiatives that not just create buzz but can ultimately be tied to their business objectives as well. Kudos to the team. We can’t wait to see what they offer next!

• How BmiBaby Used Instagram to Visually Engage Travelers and Locals
• Top 50 case-studies of airlines and airports excelling in social media
• An analysis of how KLM is winning the social media battle among European Airlines
• The Big Flight: How Malaysia Airlines is using social media to launch their new A380
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of April 2012: bmibaby vs JetBlue vs Virgin Atlantic

Sparsely populated

It’s a world populated by an endless number of small companies and a handful of large ones. In fact according to Eurocontrol in one of its main areas – European business aviation – over 85% of firms have less than 5 aircraft, and an alarming 39% have only one aircraft.

With these numbers, it is easy to understand why a handful of intermediaries (known as brokers) are able to dominate the market and eclipse the brands of the operators. For the, mostly corporate customers, it is easier to have a handful of familiar looking doors to knock on, rather than venturing out in search of an aircraft operator that could fulfil their needs.

A parallel universe: GDSs and the Airline industry

To make an easy to understand parallelism, it can be said that this world is similar to the one in which airlines lived until not so long ago, where they had to subscribe to a Global Distribution Systems (GDS) in order to sell their product to an end customer who did not have the means to reach the airline directly.

However, in the case of airlines, when the internet came along, they were able to reach their end customers at a relatively low cost, and their customers were more than happy to go online and get cheaper tickets. In the private air charter world this never happened.

Reverse auction

From the point of view of the aircraft’s operators the perverse mechanism of securing a charter flight looks a lot like a reverse auction, where the lowest bidder “wins” the right to operate the requested service. And while this was understandable in the Web 1.0 days because the aircraft operators did not have the means to attract a sufficient number of potential customers to their websites, in a social Web 2.0 context this is no longer true.

In an ever-connected social environment these small operators could easily get through to the end customers, bypassing the intermediaries, flaunting their brands to their customers, and not being seen as an undifferentiated product.

No Excuses

Some operators may say that they do not use social media simply because, even after removing the intermediaries, most of their transactions would still be B2B because the end clients are often corporates.

But wait a minute! While these operators might be from a different planet, their end customers are still organizations run by humans, and these humans are the ones who make decisions, the same ones who want to look good to their superiors by taking smart decisions and choosing a better product.

So why not simply use social media to connect with these fellow humans? Why not use social networks such as Linkedin to build professional relationships with these people? Why not discover a world that promises much more than the one you’re currently stuck in?

Do you agree that there’s potential in social media for private air charter? Disagree? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @simpliflying.

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