How Airlines are Building Real-World Relationships with their Fans (and Why it's Critical)

How airlines are building real-world relationships
with their social media fans (and why it's critical)

Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably

http://www.SimpliFlying.com
http://www.SimpliFlying.com

Beyond Fans
Is bigger always better? Is it better to have a huge following that’s there
for the free stuff or a small army of evangelists ready to support your
brand and spread its word when needed?

www.SimpliFlying.com

Big numbers are easy and impressive
Getting fans on Facebook is easy, just give them something, and they’ll
come. American Airlines famously grew its fans 84 fold in 54 hours with
its mystery miles initiative.


Social "we“b
Real world connection enhances the average traveler
experience (not just that ofFacebook fans)


#Qantasluxury
The spectacular backfire of #Qantasluxury is perhaps one of the best
examples of an airline that focused only on the social media side of the
interaction, missing what was going on in the real world.


Southwest Airlines Vs Kevin Smith
At the opposite end of the spectrum when an when an overweight
Kevin Smith was bumped off a flight fans jumped to defend Southwest
and the airline responded appropriately with both its social media and
real world channels.


Personalized surprises
In November 2010 KLM assembled a small team of employees and task
them with finding passengers who checked in on KLM’s Foursquare
locations at Schiphol Airport, learn more about them by looking up their
profiles, and choose a personalized gift.


Real life social media
This campaign was built around the idea of surprising passengers while
they waited at the airport and creating a positive brand association. It
was one of the first airline campaigns to merge social media interactions
with a real-world initiative.


A great success story
The campaign was so successful that it generated over 1.000.000
impressions on Twitter alone, as well as countless articles, blog posts
and conversations. The campaign was repeated in the summer of 2011.


Jet Airways: Up, Close and Social

Up, Close & Social
An interesting example of how airlines can get users engaged in a
different way is Jet Airways who invited the winners of the “My Most
Enriching Experience with Jet Airways” contest to take part in a unique
half-day event.


In-depth
As part of the event users were invited to visit Jet Airways’ maintenance
facilities and take part into a series of events designed to deepen the
relationship between them and the airline.


Vueling Air Gallery and KLM Tile & Inspire

4000 faces on a plane
Another interesting way in which KLM got its social media followers
involved was by giving them the opportunity of having their picture
painted on the fuselage of one of their aircrafts.


Dutch tiles
The campaign was centered around the use of a typical Dutch
decoration, delft blue tiles. Users where invited to turn their profile
pictures into tiles using a dedicated website, and add an inspiring
message.


Vueling AirGallery
In a similar initiative Spanish low cost airline Vueling decided to
celebrate the 50 million passenger mark by asking its users to submit
Instagram images of Vueling destinations in a dedicated Facebook tab
and inviting their friends to vote for them.


Thanks

The airline aimed to
create a flying art gallery
while also using the
images to inspire users to
share and travel. The
campaign received over
6000 entries and used the
winning ones to write a
huge “thanks” on one of
its planes.


Finnair and Helsinki Airport's Quality - Hunters
and BalticMiles' Brainstorm

Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing as well as an effective tool to get new ideas is also an
excellent way to encourage users to get involved with the brand and go
beyond just “linking” a page. Finnair and Helsinki airport leveraged on
collaboration by selecting a team of “quality hunters” ready to travel the
globe in search of the best travel experiences


Book swap
One of the ideas that came out from this experiment (that is now in it’s
second season) has been the creation of a book swap at Helsinki airport.


BalticMilesBrainstorm
Another company that decided to use crowdsourcing to get customers
engaged is loyalty company Baltic Miles that created a dedicated
Facebook tab where users can suggest how to earn and spend miles by
asking them to create a new loyalty tier.


The way forward

“The key success metric in
all these social-media led
initiatives is the real-world
impact, and not just the
number of fans.

And this is the way
forward.”


For more case-studies:

Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably

http://www.SimpliFlying.com www.SimpliFlying.com

How Airlines are Building Real-World Relationships with their Fans (and Why it's Critical)

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