Top 10 Wow Initiatives by Airlines and Airports

Top 10 “Wow Initiatives” by Airlines
and Airports

Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably

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

Case-study 1
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.

www.SimpliFlying.com

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!


Case-study 2
Virgin America: Unexpected Luggage

The surprise factor

Delighting passengers is one of the easiest ways to achieve the “wow” factor. Last
year Spanair ran a campaign where it delivered unexpected gifts to their passengers.
This year Virgin America decided to do the same.


The coziness factor is welcome at Christmas

Virgin America teamed up with Banana Republic
to create gift boxes filled with cozy surprises.


Going viral
The campaign allowed both the Virgin America and the Banana Republic brands to not
only be associated positively in the minds of the passengers who received the gifts,
but also allowed them to gain free media coverage and over 15,000 views on Youtube


Case-study 3
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


Case-study 4
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.


Case-study 5
Southwest Airlines: 12 days of LUV

#12 Days OF LUV SON!

Can you guess, without turning to the next slide, what this guy is doing and why?


Christmas traditions
Much like Coca-Cola, Southwest is a brand that knows very well how to associate itself
with the “feel good” factor and, as always, it does it with its own unique style. And like
every feel good specialist it has its Christmas traditions.

The role of brand
traditions is to keep the
consumers
engaged, functioning as
a sort of bonding ritual
between the brand and
its advocates.


Tweet a picture to win
Southwest Airlines created a
similar bonding ritual with the 12
days of LUV Twitter contest where
each day, for a 12-day period, users
were asked to tweet a picture with
a specific holiday theme. Each day
the most creative and original
picture was awarded a 1000 dollars
Southwest gift card.

The image on the right is a
response to the 2nd day of the 2010
campaign when Southwest asked
its followers to send a picture of a
“creative Christmas tree”


Click here to download.


Case-study 6
Cebu Pacific: All I want for Christmas is you

A constant theme
While not reaching the level of brand traditions represented by the Coca-Cola
Christmas adverts or the Southwest Airlines’ 12 days of LUV campaign, some other
companies have on-going advertising themes that are becoming increasingly popular.

Cebu Pacific
became famous
for its dancing
flight attendants


From Lady Gaga to Mariah Carey

This Christmas Cebu Pacific decided to revamp its original dancing flight attendants
briefing with an holiday theme: all I want for Christmas is you


One final surprise
…but this time it did not end there. Once the flight attendants had completed their
dance routine a stylish Santa emerged from the front lavatory and started handing
out gifts.


Case-study 7
Air Europa: Volamos solo para ti

Volamos solo para ti
On a similar note Air Europa decided to extend its popular “volamos solo para ti”
campaign to include a Christmas prize draw. The video on the next slide shows the
original launch of the campaign earlier this year


Christmas version

Using the existing campaign website the company decided to ask its users to write,
and share, their best Christmas wish. The top 20 wishes were then selected by a jury
composed of Air Europa employees and were included in a prize draw to win a return
trip for two people on Air Europa’s long-distance network.


Case-study 8
Auckland Airport: 12 days of Christmas

A common theme
The 12 days of Christmas theme that we’ve previously encountered with Southwest
Airlines was also picked up by Auckland Airport who, by collecting coins from its
passengers throughout the year, was able to hand twelve $10,000 awards to 12
charities


Christmas Traditions

The initiative is the
airport’s way of giving
back to the community
and has been running
for several years
already, turning it into a
true Christmas tradition
for the airport


Case-study 9
Air New Zealand: Christmas fairies

Fairy Christmas

Staying in New Zealand we find another great airport-related campaign extension.
Air New Zealand decided to give its famous ANZ Fairy a bit of help:


Fairy Helpers

The company deployed 12 fairy helpers to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch
Airports. Their official task was to hand out “fairy drops” (sweets) to the public, but
the campaign was also aimed at raising awareness of the Air New Zealand brand
and, of course, favor positive brand association with the Christmas period.


Case-study 10
LAN: A Christmas dream

Flight LA445 Santiago – Buenos Aires

On the 24th of December, a festive day for most, some people were travelling and
could not be with their loved ones. However, the passengers of LAN flight 445 lived
a little Christmas dream. Turn to the next slide to see what transpires!


Santa on a mission
LAN sent a Santa Claus on an mission and had him delivering free dreams (tickets for
free flights) to all the passengers of flight 445.


For more case-studies:

Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably

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Top 10 Wow Initiatives by Airlines and Airports

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Top 10 Wow Initiatives by Airlines and Airports