Blog 
A couple of years ago, in the HQ of an Asian airline, I was having coffee with the SVP of Corporate Communications. When I asked about why the airline doesn’t “listen” to customers on social media, her reply left me stunned. She said,
“If it’s important enough, I will read it in the newspapers next morning. Otherwise, it doesn’t warrant my attention.”
Two years on, the airline has had to deal with a number of crises and the person I had coffee with, is no longer with the company. The connected traveller of today is sharing every single thing, in realtime as they travel. Airlines that do not listen online lose a lot of time, and opportunities to recover quickly. And by the time the news hits mainstream media, it is too late.
Maintaining the status quo is not vision.
Till date, SimpliFlying has worked with over fifty airlines and airports around the world. Many airlines we have worked with, tend to do things when their competitors act in a certain way.
“Oh, my competition is on Google Plus. Let me get on it as well”
Guess what, that’s Google’s vision – to have every airline on the planet on its platforms. What’s yours?
“Our competition now has a separate account for handling customer service on Twitter. Should we finally start an account too? And perhaps open up our Facebook wall to comments?”
Responding to competition is not vision.
There are other airlines which only spring into action when something wrong happens. When a celebrity tweets about the bad food, they start responding on Twitter to customers. When an artist makes a video about bags being thrown 12ft, the airline threatens to suspend employees.
Firefighting is not vision.
Visionary airline marketers and executives do not start to dig a well, when they are thirsty. They look far, watch what’s on the horizon, and change their direction accordingly. Leading the way, or at least being fast followers.
Vision is what KLM does by hiring a team of 134 full time staff on social media. Fully invested! Every other airline we work with wants to know how many resources KLM is putting in social strategy, so that they can secure budgets internally.
Vision is what WestJet has done with their heart-rendering videos, which come out only once or twice a year, either during the holiday season, and surely during April Fools. Everyone knows about the Canadian airline!
Vision is what the likes of Air New Zealand and Virgin America have done by re-inventing safety videos as core marketing material. They re-invented something old and boring.
The biggest key to success in airline marketing is having the right vision. And it needs to come from the top. And then the ability to push it through all the corporate layers, and red-tape, to make it a reality. That leads to visionary airline marketing. Are you a visionary?