Top 50 case-studies of airlines and airports excelling in social media

Aviation
Top 50 Marketing
Initiatives

In celebration of the 1s birthday of our renowned top 10s

Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably

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

Facebook case study
Cathay Pacific: “Around the World in 80 Days”

Cathay will fly you around the world *free* for 80 days!

Cathay Pacific invites
fans to plan an 80-day
trip across the world.

One global winner is
awarded unlimited
round-trip tickets for
80 days on the Cathay
Pacific network.

www.SimpliFlying.com

80 days of unlimited round-trip tickets to the winner!

Increases Cathay’s
visibility on Facebook.

Drives unparalleled
awareness about
Cathay’s worldwide
network of flights.


Facebook case study
Southwest Airlines: “Fans Fly Free”

Facebook Used to Promote Free Baggage Policy

“Fans fly free”
sweepstakes was
organized in Dec
2010.

“Bags fly free” page
promotes contest
details to fans.


100 pairs of round-trip tickets given away!

Fans arrived at the
Facebook page in
masses to participate.

Southwest Airlines now
has over 1.3 million fans
on Facebook.


Facebook case study
Cebu Pacific: “Fly One, Fly All, Fly Free”

Cebu Pacific flies you and friends free…

Cebu Pacific will fly
you and your friends
free if you can get 150
friends (including
yourself) on a
confirmed flight (thus
filling the entire
airplane)


Exponentially Increases Awareness

Each participant
invites 149 of
his friends!

1=149
10=1490
100=14900!!


Twitter case study
KLM : “Fly2Miami”

KLM challenges Dutch DJ & Filmmaker to fill up a plane

KLM announces that But Dutch DJ/producer
the Amsterdam-Miami Sied van Riel and film-
route would be re- maker Wilco Jung
launched on Mar replied on Twitter that
27, 2011. this would be too late for
the Spring Break events.

In response KLM empowers and challenges them to fill
up a plane! In return, they’d fly on an earlier date!

The challenge gets an unbelievable response!

The DJ and Result: On
Filmmaker March
responded with a 21, 2011, a KLM
website, Twitter MD-11 packed
account and a with Dutch
hugely popular DJs, producers,
#fly2miami hashtag. promoters and
other dance
fans, will
Goals Driven fly2miami!
Revenue
Engagement


Twitter case study
Delta Airlines: “@DeltaAssist”

Delta gets serious about customer service!

Delta Airlines has a
separate, dedicated
Twitter channels to listen
and respond to
customers.
What’s remarkable is the
effort put into answering
queries from almost
everyone.

They’re not even afraid to
apologize!


“Thanks for doing the right thing, Delta!”


Great response rates!
This is possible due to a
A recent infographic dedicated team of about
revealed that @DeltaAssist 10 people handling
tweets almost 64 times a customer requests.
day!

Goals Driven
Customer Service
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crankyflier/


Twitter case study
JetBlue: “Cheeps”

Cheap tickets sold every Tuesday morning on Twitter

JetBlue sells last
minute, limited-
availability, cheap
flights every Tuesday.

Almost 205,000 people
follow this account!


Fills up capacity, drives revenue!

Not only does it
help fill up
capacity, it drives
more user traffic
to JetBlue.

Goals driven
Revenue


Twitter case study
Eurocontrol: “Taming the Ashcloud”

Big daddy comes to play!

Eurocontrol stole the show
on Twitter even as many
airlines struggled to handle
the ashcloud crisis and
provide decent customer
service.

Relevant and informative
updates at frequent
intervals calmed nerves.


Transparent and speedy information-sharing

Liberally used the
Twitter hashtags
#euva and #ashtag to
inform customers.
Posted links to the latest
maps of ash-flow.

Goals driven
Crisis Management
Customer Service


Twitter case study
Air New Zealand: “@AirNZFairy”

Do you believe in fairies? You should.

The Air New Zealand
Fairy grants one wish a
day – “sometimes
smaller, sometimes
bigger” – to followers.

Notable example:
Helped raise more than
$2000 for Leukaemia &
Blood Foundations.


Serves people’s needs, makes them happy!

Many requests for more
air-points are fulfilled!


Users respond – and how!

Goals driven
Engagement
Customer Service
Loyalty


Location-based case study
Virgin America : “T2 Takeover”

Virgin America wants customers to takeover SFO’s
new terminal


A race to get on the leaderboard!

Passengers
compete with each
other to check-in at
the most locations
around the airport
and to get on the
public leaderboard.

Goals Driven
Loyalty
Engagement


KLM: “Surprises”

KLM makes its Foursquare followers happy

Some passengers
who check into
KLM’s
Foursquare
venues are
surprised with
personalized gifts
from KLM

Read more on
SimpliFlying.


Surprises = Delighted customers!
Passengers, chosen at
random, are accosted by
KLM at the airport and
receive special gifts.

Delighted passengers
share stories of
appreciation with friends
and family on social
networks, spreading the
word even further.

Goals Driven
Engagement
Loyalty


Southwest Airlines: “Loopt Rewards”

Southwest and Loopt tie up to please customers

Southwest Airlines gave away
10 round trip tickets (plus some
other goodies) via the Loopt
Rewards Wagon in Austin
during SXSW Interactive in
March 2011.


People actually ran for the rewards!


Air New Zealand: “Foursquare Mayors”

Foursquare could help get you into Air New
Zealand's upper class airline lounges.
The “mayors” of select
airports and terminals
served by Air New
Zealand receive free
admission to the Koru
Lounge just by showing
their mayor status and
boarding pass.

Pro Tip: Koru Lounges offer
amenities like bar service, light
refreshments, televisions, mag
azines and showers.


Rewarding the most loyal customers!

If they’re already a Koru
Lounge member, Air New
Zealand will award them
100 Airpoints Dollars
instead of club access (up
to a maximum of $300 per
month).

Mayors of Koru Lounges are
eligible for 100 Airpoints
Dollars as well.

Goals driven
Loyalty
Engagement

Germanwings: “ITB Berlin Takeover

Germanwings takes over ITB Berlin
Where: ITB Berlin, world’s largest travel
tradeshow
The challenge: Germanwings has neither a
booth nor a budget for marketing
The solution: Two people sent to create
Facebook Places locations for the booths of
other airlines, with a Germanwings twist.

On checking-in at an airline’s booth, the
status update on Facebook looked
something like this:
 Air Berlin: You’ll get to breathe Berlin air
Cheaper with Germanwings!
 Air France: France for a bargain price is
only available from Germanwings!


Significant User Response

200+
Check-ins

24000+
People received
notifications

$0
Dollars spent

Goals driven
Engagement Read more on SimpliFlying.


Airport case study
London Heathrow: “Airport Concierge”

Cider anyone?
Having a look at an airport’s twitter feed it would be reasonable to expect to
see a lot of tweets talking about flight delays, people complaining about
queues etc… but at LHR things seems to be a bit different. yes there are all
the usual airport questions but you can also find interactions like this one:


The Personalized attention makes people to combine the
most important lesson learned from LHR is how feel important
necessary degree of information dissemination with a bit of helpful human
feel.

In a complex and busy airport like Heathrow, providing information is a
fundamental task, and providing personalized advice always provoke positive
reactions and creates happy users.


Airport case study
Warsaw-Chopin Airport: “Preparing for the future”

Preparing for euro 2012…
Warsaw Chopin airport is still a relatively new player in the social media
arena, but it seems to be improving fast with two dedicated Twitter channels
and two Facebook pages catering to local (Polish) and foreign (English
Speaking) passengers respectively

The airport has recently stepped up its social efforts, most likely in preparation
for the Euro 2012 games and, in the process, has become one of the first two
airports (together with Cancun) to open a company page on Google+.


…and showing its crisis management prowess
Recently this airport also got a chance to show its crisis management skills on
social media, when an LOT 767 did a gear up landing that blocked the
airport’s only runway for several days. The airport responded promptly and was
able to provide up to date information, both in Polish and English, that were
widely re-tweeted and acknowledged.


Overall, a fantastic effort.

*Plane “lands”

*The airport
answers its users

*Plane is removed

*Back to
normal
*Compliments and
thank you notes
arrive from
everywhere

Goals Driven
Engagement
Customer service
Crisis management

Airport case study
Kuala Lumpur Airport (KLIA)

iStyleKLIA 2010 Social Media Campaign

Objectives:
Drive awareness and engagement
for the iStyleKLIA 2010 event.

Utilised the latest social media tools
to seek and engage key
influencers, designers and their
communities, retailers and other
participants.

Empowered the airport users and
participants to share their
experiences.


Key words: Engagement & Empowerment


Microsite


Facebook fan page


A broad-based, successful campaign

Views:
Microsite 3,000+
Microsite blogs 2,400+
Facebook 10,100+
YouTube 1,250+
Google 3,000+ references
Twitter 10,000+
Photographs 4,500+

Goals driven:
Engagement


Airport case study
Changi Airport (SIN)

Changi’s Millionaire Dance Celebration Video!
Objective: To launch Changi
Airport’s largest ever shopping
promotion.

Singaporeans invited to show what
it feels like to win $1m in a flash
mob-style mass performance, right
in the heart of Changi Airport.

Attracted over 400
performers, professional and
amateurs, aged 10 to 75.

Goals Driven
Apart from driving retail, the campaign
Engagement evoked heartwarming expressions of pride as
Revenue well. Watch the video here. It has received
almost 200,000 views till date.

Airport case study
Akron-Canton Airport (CAK)

Fully Integrated Marketing/Communications

CAK is one of few airports to
have more than 34,000
Facebook fans.

Nearly 5,000 Twitter followers.

Social feeds for Facebook and
Twitter on every page of the
CAK website.

Only airport to host a regular
online chat with their CEO.

Social Tip from CAK: Success is not from having social pages but from
high response rates and attention to the pages.


Interactive Social Media Integration
T-shirt Tuesdays: a contest on
CAK’s Facebook page that
generates thousands of Facebook
likes and email addresses. Each
Tuesday, CAK awards ten t-shirts
to people who have entered.
(This is not just any t-shirt. This is
a limited edition cool CAK tee that
people have offered to buy!)

Prez Says: a live, online chat that
takes place on Facebook. CAK’s
President & CEO Rick McQueen
answers questions from anyone for
one hour every month.


Social Loyalty case study
British Airways & American Airlines:
Miles Millionaire

Joint loyalty contest to get more members!

Targets existing American Airlines AAdvantage and British Airways
Executive Club members, as well as prospective members. Loyalty
members who register for the promotion will earn 20,000 AAdvantage or
British Airways Executive Club bonus miles for every eligible trip booked
in full-fare economy class or above.


So you think you can be a miles millionaire?
Once travel is
completed, customers will
receive a contest entry
email where they can
submit an essay
answering the question, “If
you were cured of the
'Wanderlust' with 1 million
miles, where would you go
and what would you do
there?”
Entries are then voted for.
Goals Driven
Engagement
Loyalty


Social Loyalty case study
Virgin Atlantic: Social Gaming

Innovative reward systems: In the works
Virgin Atlantic
recently
announced plans
to re-launch its
social travel
community
site, Vtravelled, wi
th a strategy
focused on
rewarding their
frequent flyers
using gaming
mechanics.
They will partner with social gaming experts Lithium to
engage with their 1.8 million Flying Club members. The airline will
introduce the ability to earn real currency in the form of miles in addition
to the more usual virtual rewards.

First step: In-flight entertainment overhauled as
social network!

As a first
step, there’s a
new system in
their new A330s
integrated with
the aircraft’s in-
flight
entertainment
units.

Goals driven It works like a travel social network – you can read
Loyalty tips about destinations, write messages to others
Engagement using the network, search for reviews and rate
content from other passengers! How cool is that?

Viral Video case study
Southwest Airlines: “Singers and Rappers”

Southwest puts the fun back into travel

Wouldn’t you love to be in a
flight where safety instructions
are rapped out or sung instead
of the normal dull and
sometimes foreboding routine?
Travelers say yes! The rapping
flight attendant David Bloom is
already a minor internet
celebrity!

YouTube views: 466,700+
Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement


Cebu Pacific: “Dancing Flight Attendants”

Passengers going Gaga!

If you’re more of a dance
person then you can always
hop on to Cebu Pacific where
safety instructions are given
out by flight attendants
dancing to Lady Gaga songs.

YouTube views: 10,080,000+

Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement


Virgin Atlantic: “Your airline’s either got it..”

Your airline has either got it or it hasn’t!

This ad campaign the
campaign takes the viewer on
a metaphorical flight with
Virgin Atlantic - a surreal and
glamorous world of airline
iconography and dramatising
how it feels to fly with the
airline.


Goals driven
Engagement
Loyalty

American Airlines: “Thank You”

Thanking the men in uniform who serve the Country
AA’s new ad aims to
emotionally connect viewers
with active military service
members as they travel.
“Thank You” follows young
men and women from
different branches of the
military as they travel on AA.


Goals Driven
Engagement
Loyalty


Route Launch case study
SpiceJet: “Q400 Launch”

SpiceJet organized 3 contests to drive awareness
about their new planes and destinations in India
1. Name the plane –
Fans and followers were
asked suggest 5 names
for SG Q400 aircraft in
'Hindi' after Indian spices
that would be appropriate
as names for the planes.
If their choices matched
SpiceJet’s, a lucky winner
would get to inaugurate
the first flight of the Q400
fleet!

Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement

Trivia Contest
2. SG400 trivia - This six-day
long contest had one
question everyday regarding
the SG Q400. Every correct
answer gave the fan/follower
a DIGIT. At the end of the
contest, these digits formed
the key to win some great
prizes!


Loads of Responses


3. Guess the Destination


Lufthansa: “A380 Launch”

Driving huge buzz online for 1st A380 flight from
Frankfurt to JFK
Lufthansa invited a
number of aviation
bloggers and geeks on-
board their inaugural
flight resulting in a
tremendous amount of
buzz being generated
online regarding the
launch of their first A380
flight.

This resulted in
tremendous awareness
being generated via
social media. Goals driven
Engagement

Tremendous buzz driven online


American Airlines: “Helsinki”

Fantastic Facebook competition to get eyeballs!

AA gives away a free luxury trip
to Helsinki to one lucky winner a
pizza-design contest:

As AA puts it:
“Create a Chicago-style pizza
with a Finnish twist –cook it, draw
it, mould it or just describe it, we
want to see your ideas! Upload
your pictures or ideas to the
competition tab on the American
Airlines page and get your friends
to vote for you.”


Driving a huge number of conversations online

Goals driven
Engagement

Edmonton Airport: “Stop the Calgary Habit”

Edmonton International Airport launches
intervention campaign
Edmonton International Airport
(EIA) estimates that it strikes up
to 750,000 people annually: The
Calgary Habit, the drive or flight
south that many Edmontonians
make to catch a plane from
Calgary.
The symptoms: travellers using
the Calgary airport don’t weigh in
costs like
gas, parking, time, inconvenience,
lost economic activity for the
region and the toll they’re taking
on Edmonton’s capacity to grow
its air service. Goals Driven
Engagement
The cure: EIA’s “Stop the Calgary
Revenue
Habit” intervention campaign.

Widespread grassroots campaign!

A roving rally was organised with a
prize giveaway. The winner walked
away with a $4,000 travel voucher
to purchase a trip for two to any of
the more than 50 destinations EIA
serves non-stop.

The cheeky campaign is also
meant to discourage them from
flying via Calgary and make them
aware of the toll this behaviour has
on Edmontons ability to attract
new routes.


Cathay Pacific: “Chicago”

Cathay holds Facebook competition for HK-
Chicago non-stop service launch

Cathay invites Facebook
fans to produce any form of
art that blends Hong Kong
and Chicago into a single
piece of art. These
submissions are then
subjected to online voting
by their friends and peers

Goals driven
Engagement


Encouraging creativity, driving engagement

The winner will get:
2 tickets to Hong Kong
and a cultural Feng
Shui architectural
tour, courtesy of the
Hong Kong Tourism
Board.

In addition, the winning
entry will be featured on
the Cathay Pacific
Facebook fan page and
will be on display at
select airport locations.


Distribution Initiative case study
Virgin America: “Chrome app & Groupon”

Route launches using Groupon
After announcing the new
Chicago-O'Hare and
LAX, SFO routes, VA
tasted huge success with
a Groupon deal in a
matter of a couple hours.

The bargain was to pay
$7 and get $77 in airfare
towards a round-trip
purchase on Virgin
America’s new Quite obviously the deal was a huge
routes, and the deal was hit. Later, this was repeated
good on Groupon's successfully, with slight modifications
Chicago, Los Angeles and to the price, for the Dallas-Fort Worth
San Francisco sites. routes.

Google Chrome app helps you fly!
To use VA’s app, users
input their gender as
well as where, when
and the kind of trip in
order to get
suggestions for what to
pack and where to go.

Users can also select
specific traveling
preferences to build
Trip Inspiration boards
based on criteria like
Trip Vibe and Must Do
activities.


Discover a social travel experience!
They can also pick from
a selection of images or
add their own images
from Picasa to their
boards. The app then
recommends
destinations that
correspond to the
“mood” of your
Inspiration Board.

Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement


Lufthansa: “iPad app”

Looking for travel inspiration?

The Lufthansa for
iPad app is
available in English
or German and it
caters to people
looking for a little
travel inspiration
and also to the
practically minded
traveler.


An interactive booking guide
The crux of this app is an
interactive world
map, enabling you to
trace your way from
origin to destination
airports and helping
book flights.

It also allows check-ins
and uses an interactive
feature to select seats.
You can also access a
booking summary and
view your Miles & More
account balance.


Discover more and experience Lufthansa

Not only are there
detailed guides to
cities, the Experience
Lufthansa section offers
a 3-D rendition of the
airline’s new European
cabin, and there are
360-degree views of the
A380 cockpit, along with
a selection of videos.

Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement


Malaysia Airlines: “MHBuddy & MHQuick”

Book tickets directly from Facebook

The second prong in Malaysia
Airlines’ e-commerce suite,
MHbuddy is Malaysia Airlines’
ticket office on Facebook. With
MHbuddy, socially active
travelers can now have a
seamless travel experience on
Malaysia Airlines without even
leaving Facebook, and can
spread the words of their travel
experience easily.

SimpliFlying.com has earlier
featured MHBuddy in detail. Read
that article here.


A truly social booking experience
Socially savvy travelers can book
their flights without having to
access the Malaysia Airlines
website, check-in for their
flights, select their seats on the
plane and see where their friends
are sitting if they are flying on the
same flight.

In addition, being on the
Facebook platform, users of
MHbuddy can announce their
travel plans to their friends on
their Facebook wall, or even find
friends who are at their
destination.


Chrome app gives more options to the social user

With the launch of the
MHbuddy app on
Facebook, Malaysia
Airlines not only has
another commerce
channel, but also it
serves as a
bridge, together with
other Malaysia Airlines M-
commerce solutions such
as MHmobile & MHquick
Google Chrome app, for
users who are social
media savvy. Goals driven
Revenue
Engagement

Alaska Airlines’ “FlyingSocial”

Use of Facebook’s social graph to sell tickets
Alaska Airlines’
FlyingSocial Facebook
application allows you
to see on a map where
your Facebook friends
live.

Then it super-imposes
fares to those
destinations on the
airline, and you can
either buy or share with
a friend.
Goals driven
Revenue


Mobile App case study
Case-study 1 Top Mobile App case n 1
KLM: “Tripshake”

Shake your phone to find travel inspiration
There’s a reason why KLM
won the award for the Best
Airline at the SimpliFlying
Awards for Social Media
Excellence this year: They’re
constantly innovating and
looking for newer ways to
engage their customers.

Their new app helps users
select a place or date they
want to travel and in turn can
select one of about 100
options.


Ensuring a social experience even on the phone

Users can see a ticket price
and can subsequently either
choose to book or shake the
phone for another option till
they find the perfect match.

Destinations and prices can
also be shared via social
media.

This is in addition to their
existing app that already has
numerous features. (see next
slide)


Augmenting the existing app
The free KLM iPhone app offers
a range of options including
regulars such as booking flights,
managing bookings, changing
bookings, flight status.

In addition, it offers in-app
features such as e-boarding
pass and discounts on additional
check-in baggage.

Goals Driven
Revenue
Engagement
Customer Service

Cathay Pacific: “City Guides”

Forget those bulky travel guides!
While the experience on
their iPhone app was
already very good with
excellent functionality and
comprehensive features, the
iPad app goes one step
further.

Not only is it stunning to look
at, it offers in-depth city
guides
(sights, dining, attractions
etc) which customers are
certain to spend hours with.
An excellent travel
companion overall!

A look behind the scenes

Moreover, it also allows
passengers to “Meet the
Team” by browsing photos
of Cathay Staff, making
the journey experience
that much more personal.

Goals Driven
Revenue
Customer Service
Engagement


Virgin Atlantic: “Flight Tracker”

Now your iPhone (or iPod) can show you the
position of your plane on a map!
While Virgin Atlantic’s
Flight Tracker was initially
precisely what it’s name
indicated, it is now much
more including managing,
bookings, checking-in etc.

Some of the fun things the
app can do:
~Tell you the position of
your plane on a map.
~Alert you on your device
when the plane lands.
~View short videos of most
destinations.


Welcome to the Virgin “family of apps”
Virgin has some other apps to
help you with flying as well. Jet
Lag Fighter helps you reduce jet
lag by helping you establish a
proper sleep schedule while the
Flying Without Fear app is
meant to help you minimize the
fear of flying. A third app called
TripJournal does what its name
suggests. Very thoughtful, we
have to say.

Goals driven
Engagement
Customer Service


Qantas: “Loyalty + Augmented Reality”

A clever loyalty app
The Qantas Frequent Flyer app aims
to show members the wide range of
earn and burn options of the loyalty
program. Users can flip through award
flights (including an estimate of the
surcharges, fees and taxes payable)
and through a large catalogue of non-
flight awards, to find out how many
points they need.

Members can set themselves points
goals, track progress, and get notified
once their goal has been achieved.
They can also share with their friends
on social media when they reach their
goals.

Brilliantly combining augmented reality with loyalty

Combining the camera, GPS
and compass to recognize an
object or place that a user is
pointing to, the app lets an
iPhone 4 or 3GS search for
partners while on the road.
Pointing the device in a
certain direction brings up the
nearest loyalty program
partners in that direction.

This feature can be used in a
number of ways and is
Goals driven
obviously great fun to use.
Engagement
Loyalty
Customer Service

Crowdsourcing case study
SAS: “New summer routes”

Summer routes
If you are an airline manager and have successfully identified 21 out of the 22
summer destinations you were asked to find, but cannot decide on the 22nd do
you:
a) Start looking immediately for
an expensive market analyst?

b) Ask a magic mirror?

c) Go on Facebook and ask your
customer where would they
like to fly ?

(Hint: Magic mirrors do not exist)


Sommerflyet 2012
Being a very social airline with more than 110,000 followers, SAS decided
to go for option C and launched a campaign called “Sommerflyet 2012’ to
let its followers decide one of its 22 summer routes.


A clear winner
The company asked its followers to submit a destination that was within 5
hours’ flight-time from its Oslo hub and then included the top 10 suggestions
into a poll that was posted on its Facebook page.

This well planned approach proved very effective and provided both brand
exposure, social interaction with the community and efficient business
intelligence.

The Turkish town of Alanya
emerged as a clear winner
and will become one of the
22 summer destinations for
the summer 2012 season.


Social Customer Service case study
Frontier Airlines: “Damage control”

Fighting Murphy’s law with social media

When a storm hits an
airline’s major hub it is
reasonable to expect some
flight delays. However, what
if that storm happens to
carry golf-ball-sized ice
pellets, and damages one
third of their fleet?

The solution Frontier airlines
found was called social
media.


Two easy steps
The airline knew from the start
that a lot of passengers were
going to arrive at the airport only
to find out that their flights had
been cancelled so, in order to
reduce the negative
sentiments, they started using
social media to disseminate
information.

Step 1: Keeping people
informed
It reduced stress and helped
customers understand what was
going on.


Listen! Empower! Engage!
They also knew that passengers
were, understandably, going to
be angry and complain about it
on the social web. So they used
Radian 6 to track down any
mention of Frontier and address
the complaints.

Step 2: Being proactive and
empowering their social media
team
The employees were
empowered to help customers
re-book their flights through
Twitter and Facebook.


Glowing results!
Using social media ultimately
allowed Frontiers to serve
customers much faster than
they could have using
“traditional” customer service
counters.

Lots of positive reactions
from “surprised” customers
4000 customers engaged
during the crisis
700,000 visitors to the
Goals Driven
facebook page
Engagement
Customer service
Crisis management

CityJet: “Twitter concierge service”

Providing local knowledge to busy travelers
Although still in its
infancy, CityJet’s Twitter
concierge is probably the
most innovative tool in airline
social media customer
service. The aim is to provide
personalized
recommendations to those
travelers who request them.

The service is currently
undergoing trials but it’s
expected to become
available on all City Jet
destinations and provide
answers within 15 minutes.

Changing times. Changing approaches.

“Twitter has become the „go to‟ tool
for customer service within the
travel industry [….] The majority of
our passengers are business
travelers and the Twitter Concierge
taps into their need for a
swift, efficient and seamless travel
service.”
- Christine Ourmieres, CEO CityJet

Goals Driven
Engagement
Customer service
Revenue


Air Asia: “Lil' Miss Red”

Spot the right answer!

When you’re a low-cost airline
in need of increasing your
customer service reach do you:

a) Build an expensive
traditional customer service
center with hotlines etc…
Or
b) In true low cost style you
create a dedicated web portal
and social media accounts?


The correct answer is B

Air Asia clearly seems to
think the answer is B.

They were already the
airline that replied to
the highest percentage
of tweets in the
world, but now they are
scaling up their efforts
with a dedicated
AskAirAsia website, a
dedicated Twitter
account and a Facebook
tab.


Lil' Miss Red presents…
For its dedicated customer
service website the
company also developed a
nice avatar called “Lil’ Miss
Red” that helps customers
with their questions.

Likewise on the facebook
version of the FAQ search
engine they used the image
of their CEO, Tony
Fernandes.

Goals Driven
Customer service
Revenue


KLM: “More than just social”

When social media is in your DNA…

Given KLM’s prowess on
social media (they were the
winners of the SimpliFlying
Social Media Awards this
year), it’s no surprise that
they made it to this list too!

Their Live Reply video will
show you why they’re so
good at tackling customer
service while engaging
customers. Check out the
next slide!


Friendly customer service available 24/7

If you are a KLM passenger
the company will make it
extremely easy for you to
get answers to questions.
They provide 24x7 customer
service on Twitter
, Facebook and are now
experimenting with Google+
as well.


From virtual to real-life!
What really distinguishes them, however, is their ability to go beyond social
media and into real life. For example during their Live Reply campaign the
company started answering tweets with YouTube videos.
The result:
 Surprised passengers were
more than happy to re-tweet and
share the videos
Followers were attracted to both
facebook and twitter
KLM’s campaign was featured
on important websites and TV
channels

… and all at almost no cost to the Goals Driven
company Engagement
Customer service

Virgin Atlantic: “Social Snow”

2010 was a difficult winter for airlines
Three separate, major snow
events in December 2010:
“Snow 1” :closing of Gatwick;
“Snow 2” : extended closing
of Heathrow;
“Snow 3”: closing of JFK and
the heavy snow on the US
eastern seaboard.

They followed in quick
succession, giving little time
for planning to Virgin (as well
as other airlines).


Virgin’s integrated communication strategy

Virgin posted major
updates on their website
every few hours.
They also handled
individual queries via
Facebook and Twitter.

About 50,000 text
messages sent over a
period of a few days to
alert customers about the
disruption and to direct
them to their website or
social channels for more
information.

Huge Twitter customer service effort during
disruption!
Virgin proactively broadcasted
key messages to their social
following as well as answering
as many individual passenger
questions as possible.
This peaked at more than 460
tweets, 1,950 comments and
posts and almost 1 million
post views on Facebook up to
the 19th December.
The social team worked in 8
hour shifts to cover a
24*7, one-on-one response. At
its peak, they were handling a
Twitter response every 20-30
seconds.


Special chartered flight to repatriate US travellers
for Christmas, FREE!
Since this decision was taken
hurriedly, Twitter and Facebook
were used to inform stranded
customers of the option.

Virgin filled the plane by actively
promoting the flight on Twitter for
several hours. They achieved Top
Tweet status resulting in filling
450 aircraft seats in 7 hours.

The fully-loaded flight left on time
and the customers got back to
New York in time to meet their Goals Driven
family and friends for Christmas. Engagement
This was a first for any airline. Customer service

Finnair + Helsinki Airport: “Quality Hunters”

It all started in September 2010…

…when Finnair launched a campaign to
hire 4 “quality hunters”. The original job
offer read:
“The Quality Hunters' mission will be to travel to cities in Europe, Asia and the US
throughout October and November, assessing flights, airports and destinations. As
independent advisors to Finnair, they are expected to communicate their impartial
views and recommendations to the company on a regular basis throughout the two-
month period. In addition, the Quality Hunters will share their thoughts and
adventures with the public through personal blogs.”


… and expanded in 2011
The original campaign received more than 5200 job applications and generated
a considerable amount of positive exposure for the company, both online and
offline, with the website being visited by more than 10.000 people on the
busiest days.

In 2011 the campaign was
re-launched, but this time
in partnership with Helsinki
Airport and searching for 8
quality hunters.

Each specialized in a different
“field” of quality, from
socializing to business class
services.


Invited other users to share ideas too!
This time however the program also included several “additional” social
media based tools to allow other users to suggest and discuss new ideas.

The idea meter was a particularly successful tool as it allowed on-site
discussions as well as Facebook and Twitter discussions, with dedicated
Twitter hashtags for each idea.

Quality brand focus

The greatest achievement of the strategy behind the quality hunters campaign
however is perhaps a less obvious one…

By creating this crowdsourcing challenge both Finnair and Helsinki Airport have
created a strong association between their brand and the concept of
quality.

This was achieved mostly through the media coverage of the challenge and the
buzz that it generated on the social web.


Lufthansa: “Cargo Innovation”

Going Green
In November 2011 Lufthansa Cargo launched a competition aimed at improving
its operations in two key areas:
Green Solutions: aimed at reducing the company’s environmental footprint

Add-on Services: aimed at identifying additional services that could improve
the company’s portfolio or streamline its current operations


Social Innovation
The initiative has recently achieved
the 100 submissions mark, and is
constantly growing.

Once posted, the ideas can be
browsed trough a tag cloud on the
competition’s website and discussed
using either a dedicated twitter
account, a dedicated facebook tab, or
the website itself.


A noble initiative generates considerable buzz

The contest is scheduled to
end in mid December
2011, with the winners being
announced in February 2012.

So far the initiative has proven
to be very
successful, generating a
considerable amount of buzz.
This achievement is even
more remarkable if the lower
lever of “glamour” associated
with air cargo is taken into
account.


Estonian Air: “My Estonian Air”

A renewed vision at the top!
The arrival of a new CEO at Estonian Air has brought a wealth of new ideas
and innovative management techniques to the airline.

One of the most remarkable changes has been the launch of a
crowdsourcing campaign to:

“..firstly, to get ideas from
people and see what they
think and expect from us.
Secondly, it gives us a
perfect opportunity to explain
why certain things are done
in certain way and also sell
our service”
[Tero Taskila, CEO, Estonian
Air]

My Estonian Air

Right from its very start the crowdsourcing campaign invited users to get
involved and, most importantly, to take ownership of the airline, helping
shape its future.
The initial reaction was
overwhelming with over 300
responses on the day the
website opened. Furthermore
the concept proved so
successful that the airline,
after implementing some of
the proposed solutions, was
nominated for several industry
awards for its outstanding
initiatives and product
offerings.


Follow-through: Actual implementaton of ideas
Building on the recommendations and
ideas put forward by its customers the
airline was able to considerably improve
its service offering. One of its most popular
initiatives has been the “gourmet flights”
where passengers are offered a special in-
flight meal designed and presented by
local chefs.


Air France: “Design competition”

Pioneering the crowdsourcing wave!
The Air France design contest of 2009 as well as being one of the first and
finest examples of airline crowdsourcing was also one of the first to pre-select
participants by only accepting applications from:

“students and young
people who graduated less
than 3 years ago from
design schools, graphic
arts schools, industrial
design schools, fine arts
schools in France, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Swit
zerland, Italy and the
United Kingdom”


Ensuring quality results
By limiting its pool of candidates to selected groups of culturally relevant and
appropriately trained young professionals, the company was able to receive a
large amount of high-quality submissions that ultimately led to some
extraordinary results.


Strategic marketing background
From a marketing point of view however, the most important aspect of the
competition was the subtle association it created between the concept of
high-quality design and the airline itself.

This core association
was further exploited by
the airline in its
advertisements that often
featured design, fashion
and quality related
themes.


Ryanair: “Ancillary revenue competition”

What should we charge you for today?

When it comes to
finding additional
revenue sources
European low cost
carrier Ryanair is
certainly one of the
most proactive (and
provocative) airlines
around.

However, it seems that
even they had some
problems finding new
“revenue streams”.


The crowd has a sense of humor
The company ran a crowdsourcing contest where it asked people to submit
ideas for new extra fees, promising 1000 Euros to the winner. The response
from the crowd was exceptional and often included a good deal of humor.

These are some of the best
proposals received by the
company:

•Charging for toilet paper –
with O‟Leary‟s face on it,

•Charging €2.50 to read the
safety cards,

•Charging €50 for bikini clad
Cabin Crew.


Two years later people are still worried…
The contest turned out to be an excellent marketing tool for the
company, reinforcing its image of a low cost company willing to do anything
to lower its fares. The legacy of the contest also had a surprisingly long
lasting effect generating a considerable amount of buzz and urban legends
still circulating about the possible implementation of some of these
measures.


Christmas “wow” initiatives case study
Spanair: In-flight meeting with Santa Claus

Owning the magic of Christmas

We often hear a lot about
positive brand
associations and when
talking about it there are
two things that often
come to mind. The first
one is Christmas, as an
example of a perfect
moment for “feel good”
campaigns and the
second one is Coca
Cola, considered the
master of positive brand
associations.


Building a positive brand association

Now, that’s easier said than done, but, without being Coca-Cola, how would
you do it? And most importantly how would you get children to smile like this?


Flight JK6474 – A special surprise from Santa
On Wednesday 21st of December at 20:30, at 10,700 meters of altitude, the
173 passengers on JK6474 between Barcelona and A Coruña did not believe
what they were experiencing. Watch the video on the next slide to see more!


Toronto Pearson: Singing Christmas Carols

Singing employees
Another way to offer passengers a feel good experience during an holiday
period like Christmas is making something unique for them, and to surprise
them.

While Christmas carols
sung by professionals
on a stage are a fairly
common
occurrence, what
appears in this video
clearly isn’t. Check out
the next slide for more!


Tweet to surprise!
This Christmas Toronto airport organized a twitter campaign where anyone
who had a loved one or a friend travelling through the airport could tweet and
ask for a personalized Christmas carol to be sung for him/her.

What you’ve seen in the
previous slide was a carol sung
for our CEO Shashank Nigam
who, after recovering from the
initial surprise, took out his
camera and recorded it.


Mrs. Klaus and the Elves
To further enhance the Christmas feeling the airport also partnered with
Microsoft to set up booths were passengers could take holiday pictures with
Mrs. Klaus and the elves


airBaltic: Elves take over

Airports are boring, right?
Airports are, amongst other things, a place where passengers have to spend a
lot of time waiting and often, getting bored. That is unless someone starts
singing Christmas carols to you, or… well let’s see if you can guess what
these people are staring at:


A plane was taken over by…
Well, panic must have been running through the veins of some Air Baltic
executives when they heard that one of their planes had been taken over.
However luckily for them, the elves did not damage the aircraft. In fact quite
the opposite.


A quarter of a million views on Youtube
The campaign was perhaps one of the most imaginative we’ve seen this year,
and was designed to target not only Air Baltic’s passengers but all the ones
that happened to be in the airport at the time. On Youtube the campaign’s
video registered about 250,000 views.


For more case-studies:

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Top 50 case-studies of airlines and airports excelling in social media

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