SimpliFlying recently led a hands-on social media MasterClass for Thai Airways, at their Head Quarters in Bangkok. The attendees for the hand-on MasterClass included senior managers and executives from the Royal Orchid Plus loyalty program, PR, Marketing and Customer Service.
Like all MasterClasses SimpliFlying has led, a lot of emphasis was paid to hands-on exercises. This included brand sentiment analysis on Twitter, tracking social media mentions using freely available tools and even finding out who the FourSquare Mayor of the Royal Orchid Lounge is, and how to engage him best!
After a day filled with deep dives into how the best airlines in the word build a social media strategy, and taking lessons from social media brand disasters like “United Breaks Guitars”, the participants walked away with enough knowledge to build a strategy for Thai Airways. And of course, their own Twitter accounts as well!
Check out the happenings from Bangkok in the storyboard below (click here if you can’t see it).
If you or your airline is keen to engage SimpliFlying for executive training …
We all know United Airlines broke Dave Carroll’s guitar, and got caught stunned like a rabbit in headlights, when the video became a hit. But worry not, SimpliFlying has The Answer to United’s troubles. This song provides United Airlines with 10 solutions to dealing with this “PR mess” in a fun, innovative way. And in turn, engaging its passengers too.
For the vocally inclined, lyrics are included in the video. Enjoy the song, and the video. To have even more fun, try counting the number of unique planes seen in the video, and state your answer in the comments. The backstory follows.
The Backstory
When Dave Carroll came out with his first United Breaks Guitars video, I wrote an article that explained why Dave has become the de-facto Chief Marketing Officer of United Airlines. The article was a huge hit, even getting a mention from the revered Chris Brogan.
After the first song, there was a huge hue and cry in the media about the PR disaster United faced. So when Dave came up with his …
All Canadians rejoice! The new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of United Airlines is one of your own. He’s none other than Dave Carroll. His music video entitled “United Breaks Guitars” (watch below) is approaching three million views in just one week of being uploaded on Youtube. This is more than five times the total views of all of United Airlines’ advertisements since 1984 on Youtube!
Why do I call Dave the new CMO of the airline? Simply, because he has more power to communicate something about United’s brand experience than anyone in their corporate offices. And people relate to his experience much more than the airline’s advertisements featuring sea creatures.
The accidental spokesperson
The legend goes that (yes…it’s a legend already) on a flight from Halifax, Canada to Nebraska, Omaha, Dave’s Taylor guitar worth $3500 was badly damaged by baggage handlers in Chicago – an act Dave and his fellow passengers witnessed. After almost a year of chasing United Airlines for a compensation in vain, this is what Dave concluded:
At that moment it occurred to me that I had been fighting a losing battle all this time and that fighting over this at all was a waste of time. The system …
