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STRATEGIC DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN
MAY 17, 2020
Keshav Arora / Alex Bains / Cam Dufour
Farhan Elahi / John F. Kissoon / Gurvinder Shoker
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As air travel anxiety relaxes consumers will begin by seeking out new domestic destinations to travel as the upcoming months approach.
Air Canada wants to be the premier travel partner of choice as Canadians venture out and explore their country.
Using an omnichannel digital marketing strategy, Air Canada will position itself as the premier seller of dream travel rather than another low
budget operator by creating a deeper emotional connection with its customers.
Based on the findings of the digital audit, Air Canada’s marketing goals are as follows:
1). Take an aggressively holistic approach to marketing by using an omnichannel digital marketing strategy.
2). Increase paid or begin paid advertising across Google Search and Display Ads, Native Banner Ads on Travel Aggregator Sites, and Paid Social
Media Advertising on multiple platforms.
3). Increase brand affinity by giving consumers compelling reasons to choose Air Canada over other airline carriers.
To achieve these goals the marketing plan is broken down into two main campaigns. The “Making you Dreams Travel” campaign will focus on
inviting Canadians to explore their country. The “CleanCare+” campaign will look to assure consumers that amid COVID-19, Air Canada is
taking all the necessary safety precautions.
The campaigns will operate throughout June to August, approaching consumers at all stages of their buying journey. Using appropriate
mediums in the earlier months to build campaign awareness and later positioning Air Canada in front of competitors when it comes time to
make a conversion.
This approach relies on a steady stream of content across multiple digital platforms by effectively weaving post timings together within the
constraints of the campaign schedule and marketing budget.
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
Founded in 1937, Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving nearly 220 airports on six continents serving nearly
51 million passengers. It is ranked as the 16th largest airlines in the world, with a fleet of 180 aircraft and a seating capacity of 64,529,302 with
service to 62 airports in Canada, 53 in the United States and 101 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico,
Central and South America.
Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research
firm Skytrax which also ranked Air Canada as the Best Airline in North America in 2019 – marking its 3rd consecutive year.
In a matter of months, the coronavirus reset a decades-long aviation boom. This explosion in air travel brought accessibility to the globe,
introduced hundreds of millions to flying, and created a thriving business. Everything is on hold now as airlines are grounded and have reduced
seating capacity by more than 70% since January, according to analytics firm Cirium.
An International Air Transport Association survey found 40% of recent travelers anticipated waiting at least six months after the virus is
contained before flying again. An increase in video-conferencing could reassess the need for business travel, according to UBS Group AG.
Travellers will likely venture out again to explore their own country at the traditional start of the summer season and into the fall. This will
provide Air Canada a great opportunity to have their customers explore Canada during this time and enjoy “Traveling like a Canadian”.
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
OPPORTUNITIES
WEAKNESSES
THREATS
• Largest airline in Canada serving both domestic and international routes
• Banner Operation: Air Canada Rouge, with four regional partnerships
with Sky Regional Airlines, Jazz Aviation LP, Air Georgian Ltd and
Exploits Valley Air Services
• Awards & Recognition: Skytrax 4 Star Ranking and Best Airline in North
America 3 years in a row 2017-2019
• Brand awareness is high
• Strong online presence across social media sites
• Aging fleet: Average is 14.5 years which is costly to maintain
• Brand awareness is high, brand affinity is low
• Poor customer service and engagement with their audience and
handling of complaints
• The prices charged by the business may not be perceived as justified
when compared to other low-cost carriers
• Introduction of newer aircraft – Airbus A220, 737 Max8
• New campaign launch to increase penetration into global markets
• Increase brand affinity through strategic digital omni channel marketing
• Create stronger visual banner ads
• Low cost air carriers for domestic (North American) routes
• Other air carriers for international routes
• Government restrictions and legislation
• The current economic conditions due to Covid-19 are directly
affecting business performance as customers are in social isolation
during the pandemic
COMPETITION
Founded in 1996, WestJet is one of Air
Canada's top competitors, serving 22 million
passengers and a fleet of over 150 aircraft.
It began as a low-cost alternative to the
country's competing major airlines,
WestJet provides scheduled and charter air
service to more than 100 destinations in
Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico,
Central America, and the Caribbean.
Founded in 1996, Expedia.com is an
American online travel agency and
metasearch engine. The website and mobile
app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel
reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and
vacation packages. It is owned and operated
by Expedia Group, ranked first on the list of
top earning travel companies. Expedia.com
is also considered one of Air Canada’s top
competitors.
Founded in 1986, Air Transat is a Canadian
airline based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the
country's third-largest airline, and Canada's
number one leisure airline. It flies to 60
International destinations in more than 25
countries in America and Europe, offers
domestic and connecting flights within
Canada, and carries 5 million passengers
every year.
25.49M Passengers
109 Destinations 24 Countries
4.7 Billion Sales
160 Aircraft
All Passengers
All Destinations 32 Countries
12.07 Billion Sales
All Airlines
5M Passengers
60 Destinations 25 Countries
3.6 Billion Sales
44 Aircraft
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - FACEBOOK
Total Followers: 1.4M
Average Posts per Week: 6.25
Avg Questions Answered (30 Days): Questions: 100; Answered: 43%
Avg Response Time (30 Days): 7 Hours
Engagement Type: Kudos: 40% / Customer Complaints: 60%
Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation
Content Availability: EN/FR
Tone: Formal & Informative
Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, proud supporter of
Toronto Maple Leafs. Canadian Persona.
Distribution of Posts (30 Days):
Photos: 12; Videos: 8; Links: 5
Average Interactions (30 Days):
Photo: 3300; Video: 908; Link: 472
Distribution of Interactions:
Reactions: 37K; Comments: 6.9K, Shares: 5.5K
Top Posts
Facebook Summary:
Air Canada’s Facebook page relies primarily on organic content and does
not run any ads. This platform is where they have a majority of their
followers. They have separate posts in English & French. They are not
consistent in replying to complaints, which amount to almost 60% of
customer interactions.
Facebook Recommendation:
We believe that investing in ads can reel in more potential customers to
their website to make a purchase. They are also measurable and can
benefit Air Canada from steering their marketing campaigns in the right
direction. Air Canada can also leverage its 1.4 Million followers by
increasing engagement by cutting their response time in half from 7
hours. Combine English & French posts to increase engagement from each
post.
(*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - INSTAGRAM
Total Followers: 872K ; Following: 435K
Average Posts per Week: 3.5
Average Interactions per Post (30 Days): 11.2K
Average Interactions per Week: 39K
Engagement Type: Kudos: 40% / Customer Complaints: 60%
Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation
Content Availability: EN/FR
Tone: Formal & Informative
Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona.
Distribution of Posts (30 Days):
Photos: 6; Carousels: 6; Videos: 2
Distribution of Interactions (30 Days):
Likes: 154K; Comments: 2.3K
Top Posts
Instagram Summary:
Air Canada’s Instagram page harbors 872K followers ranking in as their 2nd
most popular social media platform. Air Canada does not communicate
nearly as much as they should with the interactions and often uses emoji
as quick replies. The number of likes far exceeds the number of comments
they receive.
Instagram Recommendation:
Air Canada needs to communicate more with their followers even if the
comments are negative. They should provide a link to a customer
complaints portal where followers can log their complaints. This can be a
very useful KPI to measure in driving their business to be more pleasing to
customers.
(*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - TWITTER
Total Followers: 499K
Total Tweets (30 Days): 62
Avg. Tweets per Day: 2.14
Avg. Interactions Per Tweet: 171
Average Mentions Per Week: 2.1K
Average Questions Answered (30 Days): Questions: 1.9K,
Answered: 247 (Less than 1%)
Average Response Time: 8 Hours
Engagement Type: Kudos: 40% / Customer Complaints: 60%
Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation
Content Availability: EN/FR
Tone: Formal & Informative
Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona.
Distribution of Interactions (30 Days):
Retweets: 1.5K; Replies: 1.1K, Likes: 8K
Top Posts
Twitter Summary:
With 499K, Air Canada is not leveraging its Twitter platform as efficiently
as their more popular counterparts. Out of all platforms, Twitter followers
have the most questions to ask Air Canada and they are just not replying
enough with an average response time of 8 hours.
Twitter Recommendations:
Focus on replying more often to followers in less than half the time it
takes. Decrease the question to answer ratio by 30%. Merge English &
French posts to boost engagement.
(*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - WEBSITE
Organic Search Traffic - 4.9M
Paid Search Traffic - 22.2K
Display Advertising - 1.3K
Top Page - Home page with 47% of traffic
Average Visit Duration - 08:04
Pages / Visits - 5.15
Bounce Rate - 29.54%
Traffic Source - direct 53%
Traffic Share - desktop 44%, mobile 56%
96.7% of their pages have a respond time of 0-1 second
(screamingfrog)
Website Summary:
Air Canada's website is in a good state organically. The site saw 4.9M organic searches
in the month of March in which 53% is direct traffic meaning that our customers go
right to the site rather through a referral channel or advertisement. The share of display
ads is only 1.69%. of the total traffic. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there is a fall in
the monthly budget of paid advertisements further increase the share of organic traffic
to the website. More than 50% of the users are coming to the website through a mobile
device.
Website Recommendations:
What we recommend for the Website is a brief layout reconstruction that shows our
upgraded health and safety measures to ensure our customers that they are well taken
care of. Video interview snippet by a Flight Captain showcasing the measures taken
under the CleanCare+. As the markets re-open post-Covid-19 lockdown and travel
restrictions are lifted, Air Canada should consider investing in paid sources of traffic
including Search Engine Marketing on Google and Bing. Display ads campaign should be
emphasised as it can create more impactful impressions for campaigns promoting
rejuvenating holidays.
Organic Keywords
air canada - 2,740,000
air canada check in - 301,000
air canada vacations - 246,000
air canada flights - 135,000
air canada flight status - 135,000
Paid Traffic Share: 12.11% traffic to website
https://www.aircanada.com/ comes from Paid sources. (Source:
similarweb.com). Display Advertising serves 1.69% of traffic (source:
similarweb.com)
Display Advertising
(*Source: https://www.similarweb.com/website/aircanada.com
https://www.semrush.com/analytics/overview/?protocol=&searchType=domain&q=aircanada.com&db=us
AIR CANADA RECOMMENDATIONS & KPIs
Goal: Air Canada needs to be consistent throughout all social media in terms of digital marketing. Visuals should be similar all across the board
with similar messages. Based on our social media audit, we found that hashtags weren’t consistently used throughout all platforms. Facebook
& Twitter led in the engagement department with most replies, whereas Instagram only had a few emoticon replies. The comment section has
been mostly disabled within their YouTube channel, which disables potential customers to voice their opinions.
Solutions: The use of visuals should be consistent throughout all social media platforms and tied into what travellers see on their Air Canada
flight to remind them of their experience that got them on their seats. Air Canada should merge there French & English content where
possible to increase engagement and potentially save costs. Consistent use of hashtags across all campaigns to help track engagement.
KPIs:
Campaign: Making Your Dreams Travel
Engagement: Measuring and increasing likes and followers as well as positive comments as it is a key indicator of strong engagement.
Click Through Rates & Sales Revenue: Measuring the number of clicks to determine total conversions on the website come from Social Media.
Issues Resolved: Proactively addressing negative comments and turning it into a positive experience for consumers will enhance the
reputation of Air Canada Customer Service.
Campaign: Air Canada CleanCare+
Shares &Mentions: This is an indicator that people are willing to recommend Air Canada to friends and family. Measure the number of
hashtag usage of #AirCanada #ACcleancare+ to review the amount of organic conversations.
Impressions & Web Traffic: Review impressions per day to see if the campaign goals are being met. Measure the amount of traffic from
digital marketing to website conversions and adjust content as needed.
HOLISTIC OMNI-CHANNEL DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
AIR CANADA RECOMMENDATIONS & KPIs
Goal: Boost in Social Media Posts, Banner Ads in Travel Aggregator
Solutions: Google Ads: Use Google Ad Campaigns to achieve targeted reach for customers looking to book domestic flights. Also, use Google
Ad Display to market on other popular websites. We will submit a variety of different creatives so ads rotate effectively as they will show
different trip options as per their adgroup.
Banner Ads in Travel Aggregator Sites: Contact media and marketing representatives from some of the travel aggregator sites to promote our
Dream Destinations. Example; https://advertising.expedia.com/solutions/products/display-advertising
Organic and Boost in Social Media Posts: Use paid promotions on posts on Facebook and Instagram. Ghost posts for Facebook. These ads do
not appear on our customers timeline and they do not appear in our customers feeds. Instead, they show up as sponsored content in the
feeds of users you’re specifically targeting. General posts in Twitter for our organic followers.
KPIs:
Click Through Rate: 3% for search ads and 1% for display ads, 2% for Facebook/Instagram
*Facebook/Instagram - 0.93% (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - 2.18% (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - 0.47% ( “Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average).
Average Cost Per Click: $1.50 for search ads and $0.42 for display ads, $0.50 for Facebook/Instagram
*Facebook/Instagram - $.0.68 (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - $1.53 (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - $0.44 ( “Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average)
Conversion Rate: 4% for search ads, 1% for display ads, 3.5% for Facebook/Instagram
*Facebook/Instagram -2.91% (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - 3.55% (“Travel Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - 0.51% ( “Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average)
Cost Per Conversion: $40 for search ads and $90 for display ads, $15 for Facebook/Instagram
*Facebook/Instagram - $21.99 (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - $44.73 (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - $99.13 (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average)
INCREASE / IMPROVE PAID ADVERTISING:
(*Source: Google https://www.searchenginejournal.com/data-whats-good-ctr-cpa-conversion-rate-adwords-2018/248947/#close)
(*Source: Facebook/Instagram https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/02/28/facebook-advertising-benchmarks)
AIR CANADA RECOMMENDATIONS & KPIs
Goal: To increase Brand Affinity by giving consumers a compelling reason to choose air Canada over other airline carriers. Air Canada is among
the Top 50 most valuable Canadian brands and one of Canada’s fastest growing brands. As much as the airline is an industry leader it is still
behind in one of the most basic customer service offerings: Prompt and effective customer service across its various platforms which include
social media, chatbots, and apps, in addition to its call center.
Solutions: Creating Impact: Most airlines do not put the customer first. The customer is at the center for all of Air Canada’s marketing strategy
by endeavouring to carve out a unique place in the customer’s heart. Air Canada through an omni-channel digital marketing strategy will
strengthen its brand affinity with customers by addressing the needs of customers need to travel and be kept safe and healthy during the
current pandemic situation and assuring customers that they come first is the most important thing to them and that their destinations are still
within reach, albeit a little closer to home. Content available on all platforms will be relevant, timely, practical and aspirational.
KPIs:
Mentions on Social Media: Shares of Air Canada content, positive recommendations, and likes will indicate strong brand affinity. Compared
with mentions in passing, complaints, or general conversations can indicate brand awareness without any positive sentiment.
Brand Search Volume: This is a good indicator of Brand Affinity since it specifies the number of people going out of their way to navigate
specifically to the Air Canada website in search of either campaign. A brand with a strong affinity tends to see this number climb at a steady
rate over a period of time during an effective campaign.
Time Spent with Content: An individual’s investment of time spent on digital platforms with a particular brand is a strong method to quantify
brand affinity. By using Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and YouTube Analytics as well as looking at bounce rate on the website, MailChimp
Analytics benchmarked monthly basis through the campaign we should be to see these numbers increase over time for Air Canada.
INCREASE BRAND AFFINITY
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN
In the midst of COVID-19 travelers are weary to fly and are projected to begin their vacations domestically as flight anxiety lessens.
The content plan attempts to target consumers at all stages of their buying journey. Logically releasing content building towards the Paid
Search and Display campaigns when the consumer will seek to make a conversion. The content plan also works in tandem with the goals
established by the Air Canada digital audit:
Holistic Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy
Increase/Improve Paid Advertising
Increase Brand Affinity
To enact these goals, this marketing strategy focuses on two omni-channel campaigns.
Making Your Dreams Travel - Encourage Canadians to go out and explore their country as consumers come back to air travel and start their
postponed vacations.
Air Canada CleanCare+ - Give consumers confidence that the Air Canada brand makes customer safety a priority and is taking all the necessary
precautions to keep air travel safe.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVE:
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN
Roadmap: The social media campaign will begin immediately in early June, bringing awareness to the campaign but continuing long enough to
coincide and encourage consumers to make conversions during the Paid Search and Display campaigns. Air Canada social media platforms will
be interlaced with themes from both campaigns focusing on different messaging each week. A Paid social media campaign will run alongside
the current social media campaign with the messaging of our current campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Content: The Making Your Dreams Travel campaign will focus on highlighting a different travel hotspot within Canada each week. Each
platform will feature similar hashtags, visuals, and copy to create a holistic digital experience. The Air Canada CleanCare+ campaign will
focus on different health and safety messages each week, along with the assurance that consumers are correct in placing brand affinity with
Air Canada because of the brand’s exceptional management of the pandemic. Once again, each platform will work together to create a holistic
digital experience with similar hashtags, visuals, and copy. All facets of the social media campaign will appear on and be optimized for desktop
and mobile.
Budget: The content strategy relies on engaging and relevant graphics, videos, and communication, which is why we have devoted a quarter
of our budget to social media. This tactic will also require a range of designers, ad specialists, and content leaders to be successful. Being the
largest demographic and with no implementation of Paid Ads, Facebook has been allocated the largest amount of the budget. Instagram and
Twitter being the other dominant social media platforms are given a sizable portion of the budget, along with a similar amount being given to
YouTube because although it’s reach is less relevant to our brand it is more expensive to produce video content. Linkedin and Pinterest take
up the smallest amount of the social media budget as they are smaller and less relevant platforms to our campaign.
SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN:
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN
Roadmap: The Adwords campaign(s) will be the main approach to creating conversions, once so much campaign awareness has been created
on other digital mediums. The bulk of the campaign will run through July and August, but preliminary CleanCare+ ads will build awareness in
June. The Banner Ads on the enRoute site will come earlier as they will be part of the awareness stage of the campaign as well. Next, Native
Ads will be placed on Expedia (with messaging from both campaigns) as Air Canada will need to present itself as the premier source for
domestic travel and Expedia is not only a major competitor but also markets itself aggressively. Lastly consumers will be encouraged to make a
conversion through the Paid and Display campaigns which will be supported by an ongoing social media campaign.
Content: Display and Native Ads will follow a similar style to the social media visuals and copy as part of the holistic experience. Ad copy will
prompt consumers to explore Canada and let them know that their Dream Vacation is available through Air Canada. As well copy will reassure
consumers that the brand makes safety a priority. As affordability is essential to many travelers, Search copy will include Sitelink and Callout
Extensions offering discount coupons and travel packages. A Sitelink Extension will also be used to prompt consumers to download a
CleanCare+ travel safety guide.
Budget: Another quarter of the budget will be devoted to Adwords and Native Ads. Air Canada will bid on highly competitive keywords for a
long duration in an attempt to be presented as the premier option for travelers returning to flying. As well as that, Expedia Native Ads are
another highly competitive space that Air Canada will be looking to advertise. The banner ads will once again require appropriate graphics to
accompany them. The Air Canada website will also require SEO to reflect the intentions of the Dream Travel and CleanCare+ campaigns. To
see the Adwords and Native Ads campaigns through, a team lead, strategists, and ad specialists will need to be hired.
PAID SEARCH / NATIVE & DISPLAY ADS PLAN:
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN
Roadmap: Both campaigns will be announced in the physical and digital enRoute magazine as well as the website at the start of June to build
awareness. Relevant landing pages will be featured on both the Air Canada Website, and mobile app for the duration of the campaigns. An
email campaign featuring newsletters will help build awareness through June.
Content: The landing pages and website content will feature messaging similar to the social media campaign. The newsletter will contain
similar messaging and feature discount coupons prompting enticing consumers to fly early in their buying journey.
Budget: All of these additional expenses are estimated to consume the other half of the budget. The Air Canada and enRoute websites will
require updated SEO and landing pages. Content creation, graphic design, and copy are necessary for the websites, landing pages, and
newsletter. The Air Canada App is in dire need of near total redesign. 20% of the budget will be designated for analytics software and analysis.
Team leads, content creators, developers, and analysts will be required.
ADDITIONAL DIGITAL CHANNELS PLAN:
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN BUDGET
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN WEEKLY CONTENT
CAMPAIGN: MAKING YOUR DREAM TRAVEL
MOBILE
AC WEBSITE DISPLAY AD - EXPEDIA
GOOGLE ADS
EMAIL
SOCIAL
MEDIA
CAMPAIGN: AIR CANADA CLEANCARE+
MOBILE
AC WEBSITE DISPLAY AD - EXPEDIA
GOOGLE ADS
SOCIAL
MEDIA
EMAIL
REFERENCES
Retrieved April 29, 2020
https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2019-12-09-Air-Canada-Named-Best-North-American-Airline-
for-International-Travel-by-Business-Traveler-USA
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Retrieved May 10, 2020
https://www.airtransat.com/en-CA/Corporate-information/About-Air-Transat
https://www.rezgo.com/glossary/expedia
TOTAL WORD COUNT
FOR CONTENT PLAN: 997
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travellers/
APPENDIX
CURRENT CAMPAIGN – TRAVEL LIKE A CANADIAN
Air Canada is leveraging its Canadian values of multiculturalism, diversity and openness as it targets international markets for the first time in
the new digital campaign – “Travel like a Canadian.
“We want to represent the very best of Canada and bringing the best of Canada to the world, and vice versa”, Managing Director of brand at
Air Canada, Andy Shibata says as the airline’s strategy is to expand its network beyond North America. It felt “steeping a campaign in Canadian
values” would resonate just as well abroad as it does with domestic audiences.
Air Canada’s new digital campaign Spokesperson, Sandra Oh can be seen acting ‘Canadian’ - friendly, courteous peacemaker and fellow
traveller, introducing an international audience to the wonders of over-apologies, poutine and Caesars. This is the airlines first big
international campaign supported by an omni channel strategy, targeting both leisure and business travellers in the US, Europe, Asia and
Australia. The campaign aims to position Air Canada as an alternative choice to domestic airlines when flying through hubs like Toronto,
Montreal and Vancouver.
The goal for the campaign is broader awareness, Shibata says in a very heated competitive global environment price is a factor in that
competition and loyalty is key: if the customer experience is not exceptional it doesn’t matter what kind of price or loyalty points are offered.
DEMOGRAPHICS
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - YOUTUBE
Total Followers: 34.1K
Total Views: 49M
Total Videos: 345
Average Videos per week: 1.5
Average interactions per day: 1.5
Engagement Type: No Replies, Mostly negative. Comments are
turned off for most videos.
Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation
Content Availability: EN/FR
Tone: Formal & Informative
Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona.
Distribution of Interactions (30 Days):
Likes: 623; Dislikes: 29; Comments: 32 Top Posts
YouTube Summary:
Air Canada’s YouTube page is very formal & informative. They focus on
portraying their proud nationality and has separate videos in English &
French. They have turned off the comments section in majority of the
videos and does not have any paid advertisements.
YouTube Recommendation:
Air Canada should invest in video advertisements to leverage potential
customers viewing similar travel video to reel them in to their YouTube
page. The KPI can be measured by increased number of followers and
views. We also believe that opening up comments will add additional
metrics whether it is kudos or customer complaints to drive the business
towards the right direction.
(*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – PINTREST
Total Followers: 1.5K
Total Monthly Views: 107.5K
Pintrest Summary:
Air Canada’s Pinterest account needs some work. They have one single
post this year and their previous posts are old plane models, black and
white trip destinations and seem to give off more of a “business” oriented
point of view. They have infographics to communicate plane functions,
staff procedures but no information toward Air Canada flyers.
Pintrest Recommendation:
The page still brings in 100.4K monthly views and they should consider
making the page more traveller friendly and blend in trip destinations
offered through Air Canada. They have stunning imaging of their planes,
staff and inside the cabin and should incorporate bringing in images from
these destinations they promote. They have tons of great examples in
their ENRoute magazine that they can explore.
(*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – MOBILE APP
Total Followers: 34.1K
Total Views: 49M
Total Videos: 345
Average Videos per week: 1.5
Average interactions per day: 1.5
Engagement Type: No Replies, Mostly negative. Comments are
turned off for most videos.
Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation
Content Availability: EN/FR
Tone: Formal & Informative
Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona.
Mobile Summary:
Air Canada’s YouTube page is very formal & informative. They focus on
portraying their proud nationality and has separate videos in English &
French. They have turned off the comments section in majority of the
videos and does not have any paid advertisements.
Mobile Recommendation:
Air Canada should invest in video advertisements to leverage potential
customers viewing similar travel video to reel them in to their YouTube
page. The KPI can be measured by increased number of followers and
views. We also believe that opening up comments will add additional
metrics whether it is kudos or customer complaints to drive the business
towards the right direction.
(*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – AC WEBSITE ANALYTICS
Paid Trends For Air Canada Website:
Average Search Engine (Google) ad position is between 3 to 4.
(Source: www.ispionage.com)
Paid Trends For Air Canada Website:
Total Number of PPC Keywords – 2019-2020.
(Source: www.ispionage.com)
Monthy AD Budget For Air Canada:
12 Month Ad Budget – 2019-2020.
(source: www.ispionage.com)
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – WEBSITE ENROUTE
Enroute Website performance: The website performances poorly, majorly due to
unused CSS. The site speed is for First Contentful Paint is 5.4 s and First Meaningful
Paint is 6.4 s, making it a slow websites. (source: www.web.dev/measure/)
Enroute Website Summary:
Enroute is a standalone blog site of Air Canada. Entire traffic to the Enroute magazine
website is organic. The website is content rich with a variety of different topics
including fashion, wellness, food and drink, how-to's and must see destination ideas.
The layout of the site is bright and colourful, clean, and well organized. It also
emphasizes a lot of ‘Canadiana’ for the domestic audience. However, CSS and JS
features has negatively affected the website’s performance. The website scores high on
the parameters of Search Engine Optimization.
Enroute Website Recommendations:
Website performance needs to be enhanced maintaining the quality of the content.
Following topics in consideration of the current pandemic situation should be covered
in the posts/blogs:
Photo Essay: Top 10 select #ACMakingYourDreamsTravel destinations
List: CleanCare+ Plus Travel Tips to Healthy Flying
Short Read: Mental health benefits of travelling after lockdown
Interview: Behind the scenes- Flights Post-Covid
Traffic share: 100% of the traffic is organic and no traffic from the paid ads.
(source: www.spyfu.com)
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT ROADMAP
AUGUSTJULYJUNEMAY
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS – FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE
NATIVE ADS ON TRAVEL SITES / GOOGLE DISPLAY ADS
FEATURE – AIR CANADA WEBSITE
FEATURE – AC VACATIONS WEBSITE
ENROUTE MAGAZINE & WEBSITE
2020 – Q42020 - Q3
GOOGLE AD WORDS CAMPAIGN
MOBILE APP CONTENT
EMAIL NEWSLETTER (DEALS / H&S INFORMATION)
BRIEF AGENCY
AGENCY - CREATIVE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT – MONITOR TRENDS AND NEWS AND ADJUST CREATIVE AS NEEDED
WEBSITE / MOBILE TESTING
AGENCY TO MONITOR & OPTIMIZE TO CREATE AWARENESS AND CONVERSIONS
AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT CALENDAR
AIR CANADA GOOGLE AD CAMPAIGN
ACCOUNT: AIR CANADA
CAMPAIGN: MAKING YOUR DREAMS TRAVEL CAMPAIGN: AIR CANADA CLEANCARE+
We plan on using keywords that have a
minimum of 500 monthly searches.*
Historically, some of these keywords have a lower monthly search. Since the COVID-19
pandemic, we believe that we will see an increase in COVID-19 keywords now that
airlines are taking more health and safety precautions for their passengers.
Cheap Flights
Canadian Flight Package
Flights to Quebec/ Flights to Vancouver
Flight Coupons / Expedia Flights
Flights to Toronto / Family Flights
Cheap Flights from Toronto
Toronto to Calgary Flights
Toronto to Vancouver Flights
Areoplan / Enroute
Top 10 Canadian Destinations
Places to Visit In Canada
Canadian Travel / Dream Desitinations
Air Canada Flights / Air Canada Expedia
Explore with Air Canada / Fly Like A
Canadian / Travel with Air Canada
Social Distancing Policy in Flights
Social Distancing Flights
Airline Health & Safety
Air Canada CleanCare+
What is Clean Care Plus?
Air Canada Passenger Safety
Air Travel Safety / Air Canada Policy
Covid 19 Air Travel
Covid 19 Air Travel
Airline Insurance / Airline Safety Tips
Air Canada Safe Travel
Covid Traveler Insurance / Family Flight
Cancelation Policy
Credit Card Insurance / Air Travel Policy
Safest Airlines / Healthy Flying
AIR CANADA FLIGHTS DREAM DESTINATIONS AC CLEANCARE + HEALTHY TRAVELING
CAMPAIGN: MAKING YOUR DREAMS TRAVEL
ENROUTE WEBSITE
LANDING PAGE
ENROUTE MAGAZINE COVER
SAFETY FIRST, ALWAYS
CAMPAIGN: AIR CANADA CLEANCARE+
ENROUTE MAGAZINE COVER
SAFETY FIRST, ALWAYS
ENROUTE MAGAZINE CLEANCARE+ SPREAD

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Air canada- Digital Marketing Strategy

  • 1. STRATEGIC DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN MAY 17, 2020 Keshav Arora / Alex Bains / Cam Dufour Farhan Elahi / John F. Kissoon / Gurvinder Shoker
  • 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As air travel anxiety relaxes consumers will begin by seeking out new domestic destinations to travel as the upcoming months approach. Air Canada wants to be the premier travel partner of choice as Canadians venture out and explore their country. Using an omnichannel digital marketing strategy, Air Canada will position itself as the premier seller of dream travel rather than another low budget operator by creating a deeper emotional connection with its customers. Based on the findings of the digital audit, Air Canada’s marketing goals are as follows: 1). Take an aggressively holistic approach to marketing by using an omnichannel digital marketing strategy. 2). Increase paid or begin paid advertising across Google Search and Display Ads, Native Banner Ads on Travel Aggregator Sites, and Paid Social Media Advertising on multiple platforms. 3). Increase brand affinity by giving consumers compelling reasons to choose Air Canada over other airline carriers. To achieve these goals the marketing plan is broken down into two main campaigns. The “Making you Dreams Travel” campaign will focus on inviting Canadians to explore their country. The “CleanCare+” campaign will look to assure consumers that amid COVID-19, Air Canada is taking all the necessary safety precautions. The campaigns will operate throughout June to August, approaching consumers at all stages of their buying journey. Using appropriate mediums in the earlier months to build campaign awareness and later positioning Air Canada in front of competitors when it comes time to make a conversion. This approach relies on a steady stream of content across multiple digital platforms by effectively weaving post timings together within the constraints of the campaign schedule and marketing budget.
  • 3. BUSINESS OVERVIEW Founded in 1937, Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving nearly 220 airports on six continents serving nearly 51 million passengers. It is ranked as the 16th largest airlines in the world, with a fleet of 180 aircraft and a seating capacity of 64,529,302 with service to 62 airports in Canada, 53 in the United States and 101 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax which also ranked Air Canada as the Best Airline in North America in 2019 – marking its 3rd consecutive year. In a matter of months, the coronavirus reset a decades-long aviation boom. This explosion in air travel brought accessibility to the globe, introduced hundreds of millions to flying, and created a thriving business. Everything is on hold now as airlines are grounded and have reduced seating capacity by more than 70% since January, according to analytics firm Cirium. An International Air Transport Association survey found 40% of recent travelers anticipated waiting at least six months after the virus is contained before flying again. An increase in video-conferencing could reassess the need for business travel, according to UBS Group AG. Travellers will likely venture out again to explore their own country at the traditional start of the summer season and into the fall. This will provide Air Canada a great opportunity to have their customers explore Canada during this time and enjoy “Traveling like a Canadian”.
  • 4. SWOT ANALYSIS STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES WEAKNESSES THREATS • Largest airline in Canada serving both domestic and international routes • Banner Operation: Air Canada Rouge, with four regional partnerships with Sky Regional Airlines, Jazz Aviation LP, Air Georgian Ltd and Exploits Valley Air Services • Awards & Recognition: Skytrax 4 Star Ranking and Best Airline in North America 3 years in a row 2017-2019 • Brand awareness is high • Strong online presence across social media sites • Aging fleet: Average is 14.5 years which is costly to maintain • Brand awareness is high, brand affinity is low • Poor customer service and engagement with their audience and handling of complaints • The prices charged by the business may not be perceived as justified when compared to other low-cost carriers • Introduction of newer aircraft – Airbus A220, 737 Max8 • New campaign launch to increase penetration into global markets • Increase brand affinity through strategic digital omni channel marketing • Create stronger visual banner ads • Low cost air carriers for domestic (North American) routes • Other air carriers for international routes • Government restrictions and legislation • The current economic conditions due to Covid-19 are directly affecting business performance as customers are in social isolation during the pandemic
  • 5. COMPETITION Founded in 1996, WestJet is one of Air Canada's top competitors, serving 22 million passengers and a fleet of over 150 aircraft. It began as a low-cost alternative to the country's competing major airlines, WestJet provides scheduled and charter air service to more than 100 destinations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Founded in 1996, Expedia.com is an American online travel agency and metasearch engine. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacation packages. It is owned and operated by Expedia Group, ranked first on the list of top earning travel companies. Expedia.com is also considered one of Air Canada’s top competitors. Founded in 1986, Air Transat is a Canadian airline based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the country's third-largest airline, and Canada's number one leisure airline. It flies to 60 International destinations in more than 25 countries in America and Europe, offers domestic and connecting flights within Canada, and carries 5 million passengers every year. 25.49M Passengers 109 Destinations 24 Countries 4.7 Billion Sales 160 Aircraft All Passengers All Destinations 32 Countries 12.07 Billion Sales All Airlines 5M Passengers 60 Destinations 25 Countries 3.6 Billion Sales 44 Aircraft
  • 6. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - FACEBOOK Total Followers: 1.4M Average Posts per Week: 6.25 Avg Questions Answered (30 Days): Questions: 100; Answered: 43% Avg Response Time (30 Days): 7 Hours Engagement Type: Kudos: 40% / Customer Complaints: 60% Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation Content Availability: EN/FR Tone: Formal & Informative Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, proud supporter of Toronto Maple Leafs. Canadian Persona. Distribution of Posts (30 Days): Photos: 12; Videos: 8; Links: 5 Average Interactions (30 Days): Photo: 3300; Video: 908; Link: 472 Distribution of Interactions: Reactions: 37K; Comments: 6.9K, Shares: 5.5K Top Posts Facebook Summary: Air Canada’s Facebook page relies primarily on organic content and does not run any ads. This platform is where they have a majority of their followers. They have separate posts in English & French. They are not consistent in replying to complaints, which amount to almost 60% of customer interactions. Facebook Recommendation: We believe that investing in ads can reel in more potential customers to their website to make a purchase. They are also measurable and can benefit Air Canada from steering their marketing campaigns in the right direction. Air Canada can also leverage its 1.4 Million followers by increasing engagement by cutting their response time in half from 7 hours. Combine English & French posts to increase engagement from each post. (*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
  • 7. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - INSTAGRAM Total Followers: 872K ; Following: 435K Average Posts per Week: 3.5 Average Interactions per Post (30 Days): 11.2K Average Interactions per Week: 39K Engagement Type: Kudos: 40% / Customer Complaints: 60% Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation Content Availability: EN/FR Tone: Formal & Informative Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona. Distribution of Posts (30 Days): Photos: 6; Carousels: 6; Videos: 2 Distribution of Interactions (30 Days): Likes: 154K; Comments: 2.3K Top Posts Instagram Summary: Air Canada’s Instagram page harbors 872K followers ranking in as their 2nd most popular social media platform. Air Canada does not communicate nearly as much as they should with the interactions and often uses emoji as quick replies. The number of likes far exceeds the number of comments they receive. Instagram Recommendation: Air Canada needs to communicate more with their followers even if the comments are negative. They should provide a link to a customer complaints portal where followers can log their complaints. This can be a very useful KPI to measure in driving their business to be more pleasing to customers. (*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
  • 8. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - TWITTER Total Followers: 499K Total Tweets (30 Days): 62 Avg. Tweets per Day: 2.14 Avg. Interactions Per Tweet: 171 Average Mentions Per Week: 2.1K Average Questions Answered (30 Days): Questions: 1.9K, Answered: 247 (Less than 1%) Average Response Time: 8 Hours Engagement Type: Kudos: 40% / Customer Complaints: 60% Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation Content Availability: EN/FR Tone: Formal & Informative Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona. Distribution of Interactions (30 Days): Retweets: 1.5K; Replies: 1.1K, Likes: 8K Top Posts Twitter Summary: With 499K, Air Canada is not leveraging its Twitter platform as efficiently as their more popular counterparts. Out of all platforms, Twitter followers have the most questions to ask Air Canada and they are just not replying enough with an average response time of 8 hours. Twitter Recommendations: Focus on replying more often to followers in less than half the time it takes. Decrease the question to answer ratio by 30%. Merge English & French posts to boost engagement. (*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
  • 9. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - WEBSITE Organic Search Traffic - 4.9M Paid Search Traffic - 22.2K Display Advertising - 1.3K Top Page - Home page with 47% of traffic Average Visit Duration - 08:04 Pages / Visits - 5.15 Bounce Rate - 29.54% Traffic Source - direct 53% Traffic Share - desktop 44%, mobile 56% 96.7% of their pages have a respond time of 0-1 second (screamingfrog) Website Summary: Air Canada's website is in a good state organically. The site saw 4.9M organic searches in the month of March in which 53% is direct traffic meaning that our customers go right to the site rather through a referral channel or advertisement. The share of display ads is only 1.69%. of the total traffic. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there is a fall in the monthly budget of paid advertisements further increase the share of organic traffic to the website. More than 50% of the users are coming to the website through a mobile device. Website Recommendations: What we recommend for the Website is a brief layout reconstruction that shows our upgraded health and safety measures to ensure our customers that they are well taken care of. Video interview snippet by a Flight Captain showcasing the measures taken under the CleanCare+. As the markets re-open post-Covid-19 lockdown and travel restrictions are lifted, Air Canada should consider investing in paid sources of traffic including Search Engine Marketing on Google and Bing. Display ads campaign should be emphasised as it can create more impactful impressions for campaigns promoting rejuvenating holidays. Organic Keywords air canada - 2,740,000 air canada check in - 301,000 air canada vacations - 246,000 air canada flights - 135,000 air canada flight status - 135,000 Paid Traffic Share: 12.11% traffic to website https://www.aircanada.com/ comes from Paid sources. (Source: similarweb.com). Display Advertising serves 1.69% of traffic (source: similarweb.com) Display Advertising (*Source: https://www.similarweb.com/website/aircanada.com https://www.semrush.com/analytics/overview/?protocol=&searchType=domain&q=aircanada.com&db=us
  • 10. AIR CANADA RECOMMENDATIONS & KPIs Goal: Air Canada needs to be consistent throughout all social media in terms of digital marketing. Visuals should be similar all across the board with similar messages. Based on our social media audit, we found that hashtags weren’t consistently used throughout all platforms. Facebook & Twitter led in the engagement department with most replies, whereas Instagram only had a few emoticon replies. The comment section has been mostly disabled within their YouTube channel, which disables potential customers to voice their opinions. Solutions: The use of visuals should be consistent throughout all social media platforms and tied into what travellers see on their Air Canada flight to remind them of their experience that got them on their seats. Air Canada should merge there French & English content where possible to increase engagement and potentially save costs. Consistent use of hashtags across all campaigns to help track engagement. KPIs: Campaign: Making Your Dreams Travel Engagement: Measuring and increasing likes and followers as well as positive comments as it is a key indicator of strong engagement. Click Through Rates & Sales Revenue: Measuring the number of clicks to determine total conversions on the website come from Social Media. Issues Resolved: Proactively addressing negative comments and turning it into a positive experience for consumers will enhance the reputation of Air Canada Customer Service. Campaign: Air Canada CleanCare+ Shares &Mentions: This is an indicator that people are willing to recommend Air Canada to friends and family. Measure the number of hashtag usage of #AirCanada #ACcleancare+ to review the amount of organic conversations. Impressions & Web Traffic: Review impressions per day to see if the campaign goals are being met. Measure the amount of traffic from digital marketing to website conversions and adjust content as needed. HOLISTIC OMNI-CHANNEL DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
  • 11. AIR CANADA RECOMMENDATIONS & KPIs Goal: Boost in Social Media Posts, Banner Ads in Travel Aggregator Solutions: Google Ads: Use Google Ad Campaigns to achieve targeted reach for customers looking to book domestic flights. Also, use Google Ad Display to market on other popular websites. We will submit a variety of different creatives so ads rotate effectively as they will show different trip options as per their adgroup. Banner Ads in Travel Aggregator Sites: Contact media and marketing representatives from some of the travel aggregator sites to promote our Dream Destinations. Example; https://advertising.expedia.com/solutions/products/display-advertising Organic and Boost in Social Media Posts: Use paid promotions on posts on Facebook and Instagram. Ghost posts for Facebook. These ads do not appear on our customers timeline and they do not appear in our customers feeds. Instead, they show up as sponsored content in the feeds of users you’re specifically targeting. General posts in Twitter for our organic followers. KPIs: Click Through Rate: 3% for search ads and 1% for display ads, 2% for Facebook/Instagram *Facebook/Instagram - 0.93% (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - 2.18% (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - 0.47% ( “Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average). Average Cost Per Click: $1.50 for search ads and $0.42 for display ads, $0.50 for Facebook/Instagram *Facebook/Instagram - $.0.68 (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - $1.53 (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - $0.44 ( “Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) Conversion Rate: 4% for search ads, 1% for display ads, 3.5% for Facebook/Instagram *Facebook/Instagram -2.91% (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - 3.55% (“Travel Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - 0.51% ( “Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) Cost Per Conversion: $40 for search ads and $90 for display ads, $15 for Facebook/Instagram *Facebook/Instagram - $21.99 (Industry Average for “Hobbies and Leisure”) / Google Search - $44.73 (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) / Google Display - $99.13 (“Travel & Hospitality” Industry Average) INCREASE / IMPROVE PAID ADVERTISING: (*Source: Google https://www.searchenginejournal.com/data-whats-good-ctr-cpa-conversion-rate-adwords-2018/248947/#close) (*Source: Facebook/Instagram https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/02/28/facebook-advertising-benchmarks)
  • 12. AIR CANADA RECOMMENDATIONS & KPIs Goal: To increase Brand Affinity by giving consumers a compelling reason to choose air Canada over other airline carriers. Air Canada is among the Top 50 most valuable Canadian brands and one of Canada’s fastest growing brands. As much as the airline is an industry leader it is still behind in one of the most basic customer service offerings: Prompt and effective customer service across its various platforms which include social media, chatbots, and apps, in addition to its call center. Solutions: Creating Impact: Most airlines do not put the customer first. The customer is at the center for all of Air Canada’s marketing strategy by endeavouring to carve out a unique place in the customer’s heart. Air Canada through an omni-channel digital marketing strategy will strengthen its brand affinity with customers by addressing the needs of customers need to travel and be kept safe and healthy during the current pandemic situation and assuring customers that they come first is the most important thing to them and that their destinations are still within reach, albeit a little closer to home. Content available on all platforms will be relevant, timely, practical and aspirational. KPIs: Mentions on Social Media: Shares of Air Canada content, positive recommendations, and likes will indicate strong brand affinity. Compared with mentions in passing, complaints, or general conversations can indicate brand awareness without any positive sentiment. Brand Search Volume: This is a good indicator of Brand Affinity since it specifies the number of people going out of their way to navigate specifically to the Air Canada website in search of either campaign. A brand with a strong affinity tends to see this number climb at a steady rate over a period of time during an effective campaign. Time Spent with Content: An individual’s investment of time spent on digital platforms with a particular brand is a strong method to quantify brand affinity. By using Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and YouTube Analytics as well as looking at bounce rate on the website, MailChimp Analytics benchmarked monthly basis through the campaign we should be to see these numbers increase over time for Air Canada. INCREASE BRAND AFFINITY
  • 13. AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN In the midst of COVID-19 travelers are weary to fly and are projected to begin their vacations domestically as flight anxiety lessens. The content plan attempts to target consumers at all stages of their buying journey. Logically releasing content building towards the Paid Search and Display campaigns when the consumer will seek to make a conversion. The content plan also works in tandem with the goals established by the Air Canada digital audit: Holistic Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy Increase/Improve Paid Advertising Increase Brand Affinity To enact these goals, this marketing strategy focuses on two omni-channel campaigns. Making Your Dreams Travel - Encourage Canadians to go out and explore their country as consumers come back to air travel and start their postponed vacations. Air Canada CleanCare+ - Give consumers confidence that the Air Canada brand makes customer safety a priority and is taking all the necessary precautions to keep air travel safe. PROGRAM OBJECTIVE:
  • 14. AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN Roadmap: The social media campaign will begin immediately in early June, bringing awareness to the campaign but continuing long enough to coincide and encourage consumers to make conversions during the Paid Search and Display campaigns. Air Canada social media platforms will be interlaced with themes from both campaigns focusing on different messaging each week. A Paid social media campaign will run alongside the current social media campaign with the messaging of our current campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Content: The Making Your Dreams Travel campaign will focus on highlighting a different travel hotspot within Canada each week. Each platform will feature similar hashtags, visuals, and copy to create a holistic digital experience. The Air Canada CleanCare+ campaign will focus on different health and safety messages each week, along with the assurance that consumers are correct in placing brand affinity with Air Canada because of the brand’s exceptional management of the pandemic. Once again, each platform will work together to create a holistic digital experience with similar hashtags, visuals, and copy. All facets of the social media campaign will appear on and be optimized for desktop and mobile. Budget: The content strategy relies on engaging and relevant graphics, videos, and communication, which is why we have devoted a quarter of our budget to social media. This tactic will also require a range of designers, ad specialists, and content leaders to be successful. Being the largest demographic and with no implementation of Paid Ads, Facebook has been allocated the largest amount of the budget. Instagram and Twitter being the other dominant social media platforms are given a sizable portion of the budget, along with a similar amount being given to YouTube because although it’s reach is less relevant to our brand it is more expensive to produce video content. Linkedin and Pinterest take up the smallest amount of the social media budget as they are smaller and less relevant platforms to our campaign. SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN:
  • 15. AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN Roadmap: The Adwords campaign(s) will be the main approach to creating conversions, once so much campaign awareness has been created on other digital mediums. The bulk of the campaign will run through July and August, but preliminary CleanCare+ ads will build awareness in June. The Banner Ads on the enRoute site will come earlier as they will be part of the awareness stage of the campaign as well. Next, Native Ads will be placed on Expedia (with messaging from both campaigns) as Air Canada will need to present itself as the premier source for domestic travel and Expedia is not only a major competitor but also markets itself aggressively. Lastly consumers will be encouraged to make a conversion through the Paid and Display campaigns which will be supported by an ongoing social media campaign. Content: Display and Native Ads will follow a similar style to the social media visuals and copy as part of the holistic experience. Ad copy will prompt consumers to explore Canada and let them know that their Dream Vacation is available through Air Canada. As well copy will reassure consumers that the brand makes safety a priority. As affordability is essential to many travelers, Search copy will include Sitelink and Callout Extensions offering discount coupons and travel packages. A Sitelink Extension will also be used to prompt consumers to download a CleanCare+ travel safety guide. Budget: Another quarter of the budget will be devoted to Adwords and Native Ads. Air Canada will bid on highly competitive keywords for a long duration in an attempt to be presented as the premier option for travelers returning to flying. As well as that, Expedia Native Ads are another highly competitive space that Air Canada will be looking to advertise. The banner ads will once again require appropriate graphics to accompany them. The Air Canada website will also require SEO to reflect the intentions of the Dream Travel and CleanCare+ campaigns. To see the Adwords and Native Ads campaigns through, a team lead, strategists, and ad specialists will need to be hired. PAID SEARCH / NATIVE & DISPLAY ADS PLAN:
  • 16. AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT PLAN Roadmap: Both campaigns will be announced in the physical and digital enRoute magazine as well as the website at the start of June to build awareness. Relevant landing pages will be featured on both the Air Canada Website, and mobile app for the duration of the campaigns. An email campaign featuring newsletters will help build awareness through June. Content: The landing pages and website content will feature messaging similar to the social media campaign. The newsletter will contain similar messaging and feature discount coupons prompting enticing consumers to fly early in their buying journey. Budget: All of these additional expenses are estimated to consume the other half of the budget. The Air Canada and enRoute websites will require updated SEO and landing pages. Content creation, graphic design, and copy are necessary for the websites, landing pages, and newsletter. The Air Canada App is in dire need of near total redesign. 20% of the budget will be designated for analytics software and analysis. Team leads, content creators, developers, and analysts will be required. ADDITIONAL DIGITAL CHANNELS PLAN:
  • 18. AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN WEEKLY CONTENT
  • 19. CAMPAIGN: MAKING YOUR DREAM TRAVEL MOBILE AC WEBSITE DISPLAY AD - EXPEDIA GOOGLE ADS EMAIL SOCIAL MEDIA
  • 20. CAMPAIGN: AIR CANADA CLEANCARE+ MOBILE AC WEBSITE DISPLAY AD - EXPEDIA GOOGLE ADS SOCIAL MEDIA EMAIL
  • 21. REFERENCES Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2019-12-09-Air-Canada-Named-Best-North-American-Airline- for-International-Travel-by-Business-Traveler-USA Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://www.statista.com/topics/4505/air-canada/ Lombardo, C (2019), Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://strategyonline.ca/2019/10/11/air-canada-brings-canadian-values-to-global-travellers/ Zhang, B (2019), Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-airlines-world-oag-2019-3#15-latam-airlines-group-6 Jayce (2017), Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://www.pointsnerd.ca/aeroplan-overview/ Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://www.statista.com/statistics/751440/aviation-industry-aircraft-fleet-age-by-region/ Bhasin, H (2019), Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-air-canada/ Retrieved April 29, 2020 https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/airlines/4268-air-canada.html Molenaar, D (2020), Retrieved April 30, 2020 https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/post-covid-airline-industry-strategy.aspx Whitley, A (2020), Retrieved April 30, 2020 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-04-24/coronavirus-travel-covid-19-will-change- airlines-and-how-we-fly Retrieved April 30, 2020 https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2020-04-21-01/ Firshein, S (2019), Retrieved May 10, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/travel/4-ways-to-travel-better-in-2020.html Retrieved May 10, 2020 https://www.airtransat.com/en-CA/Corporate-information/About-Air-Transat https://www.rezgo.com/glossary/expedia TOTAL WORD COUNT FOR CONTENT PLAN: 997 Moorman C. & Finch T.A. (2017, Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/2017/01/24/who-has-the-biggest-marketing-budgets/ Air Canada Website, (2020, Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2020-02-18-Air-Canada-Reports-2019-Annual-Results Hallman B. (2020, Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://vtldesign.com/digital-marketing/content-marketing-strategy/percent-of-revenue-spent-on-marketing- sales/ Raphael. (2017), Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://www.sekkeistudio.com/blog/adwords-biggest-spenders/ Donnelly G. (2019), Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/08/13/google-ads-mobile-benchmarks Sherwood M. (2014), Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/air-canada-spends-more-than- ever-on-marketing/article18739469/ Santo A. (2019), Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://www.brafton.com/blog/content-marketing/the-ultimate-list-of-marketing-spend-statistics-for-2019- infographic/ Leone, C. (2020), Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://www.webstrategiesinc.com/blog/how-much-budget-for-online-marketing-in-2014 Sailer B. (2018), Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://coschedule.com/blog/marketing-department-structure/ Durling R. (2019, Retrieved 11 May, 2020 https://www.rakacreative.com/blog/marketing-strategy/how-much-does-an-in-house-digital-marketing-team- cost/ Morgan J. (2018), Retrieved 10 May, 2020 https://www.case48.com/swot-case/19813-Air-Canada-Flying-High-with-Information-Technology Healing, D (2019), Retrieved May 10, 2020 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-air-canadas-520-million-bid-for-transat-unlikely-to-harm- travellers/
  • 23. CURRENT CAMPAIGN – TRAVEL LIKE A CANADIAN Air Canada is leveraging its Canadian values of multiculturalism, diversity and openness as it targets international markets for the first time in the new digital campaign – “Travel like a Canadian. “We want to represent the very best of Canada and bringing the best of Canada to the world, and vice versa”, Managing Director of brand at Air Canada, Andy Shibata says as the airline’s strategy is to expand its network beyond North America. It felt “steeping a campaign in Canadian values” would resonate just as well abroad as it does with domestic audiences. Air Canada’s new digital campaign Spokesperson, Sandra Oh can be seen acting ‘Canadian’ - friendly, courteous peacemaker and fellow traveller, introducing an international audience to the wonders of over-apologies, poutine and Caesars. This is the airlines first big international campaign supported by an omni channel strategy, targeting both leisure and business travellers in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. The campaign aims to position Air Canada as an alternative choice to domestic airlines when flying through hubs like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The goal for the campaign is broader awareness, Shibata says in a very heated competitive global environment price is a factor in that competition and loyalty is key: if the customer experience is not exceptional it doesn’t matter what kind of price or loyalty points are offered.
  • 25. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT - YOUTUBE Total Followers: 34.1K Total Views: 49M Total Videos: 345 Average Videos per week: 1.5 Average interactions per day: 1.5 Engagement Type: No Replies, Mostly negative. Comments are turned off for most videos. Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation Content Availability: EN/FR Tone: Formal & Informative Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona. Distribution of Interactions (30 Days): Likes: 623; Dislikes: 29; Comments: 32 Top Posts YouTube Summary: Air Canada’s YouTube page is very formal & informative. They focus on portraying their proud nationality and has separate videos in English & French. They have turned off the comments section in majority of the videos and does not have any paid advertisements. YouTube Recommendation: Air Canada should invest in video advertisements to leverage potential customers viewing similar travel video to reel them in to their YouTube page. The KPI can be measured by increased number of followers and views. We also believe that opening up comments will add additional metrics whether it is kudos or customer complaints to drive the business towards the right direction. (*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
  • 26. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – PINTREST Total Followers: 1.5K Total Monthly Views: 107.5K Pintrest Summary: Air Canada’s Pinterest account needs some work. They have one single post this year and their previous posts are old plane models, black and white trip destinations and seem to give off more of a “business” oriented point of view. They have infographics to communicate plane functions, staff procedures but no information toward Air Canada flyers. Pintrest Recommendation: The page still brings in 100.4K monthly views and they should consider making the page more traveller friendly and blend in trip destinations offered through Air Canada. They have stunning imaging of their planes, staff and inside the cabin and should incorporate bringing in images from these destinations they promote. They have tons of great examples in their ENRoute magazine that they can explore. (*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
  • 27. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – MOBILE APP Total Followers: 34.1K Total Views: 49M Total Videos: 345 Average Videos per week: 1.5 Average interactions per day: 1.5 Engagement Type: No Replies, Mostly negative. Comments are turned off for most videos. Hashtags: #FlyTheFlag; #AirCanadaFoundation Content Availability: EN/FR Tone: Formal & Informative Persona: Very proud to be “Canadian”, Canadian Persona. Mobile Summary: Air Canada’s YouTube page is very formal & informative. They focus on portraying their proud nationality and has separate videos in English & French. They have turned off the comments section in majority of the videos and does not have any paid advertisements. Mobile Recommendation: Air Canada should invest in video advertisements to leverage potential customers viewing similar travel video to reel them in to their YouTube page. The KPI can be measured by increased number of followers and views. We also believe that opening up comments will add additional metrics whether it is kudos or customer complaints to drive the business towards the right direction. (*Source: https://account.socialbakers.com/)
  • 28. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – AC WEBSITE ANALYTICS Paid Trends For Air Canada Website: Average Search Engine (Google) ad position is between 3 to 4. (Source: www.ispionage.com) Paid Trends For Air Canada Website: Total Number of PPC Keywords – 2019-2020. (Source: www.ispionage.com) Monthy AD Budget For Air Canada: 12 Month Ad Budget – 2019-2020. (source: www.ispionage.com)
  • 29. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT – WEBSITE ENROUTE Enroute Website performance: The website performances poorly, majorly due to unused CSS. The site speed is for First Contentful Paint is 5.4 s and First Meaningful Paint is 6.4 s, making it a slow websites. (source: www.web.dev/measure/) Enroute Website Summary: Enroute is a standalone blog site of Air Canada. Entire traffic to the Enroute magazine website is organic. The website is content rich with a variety of different topics including fashion, wellness, food and drink, how-to's and must see destination ideas. The layout of the site is bright and colourful, clean, and well organized. It also emphasizes a lot of ‘Canadiana’ for the domestic audience. However, CSS and JS features has negatively affected the website’s performance. The website scores high on the parameters of Search Engine Optimization. Enroute Website Recommendations: Website performance needs to be enhanced maintaining the quality of the content. Following topics in consideration of the current pandemic situation should be covered in the posts/blogs: Photo Essay: Top 10 select #ACMakingYourDreamsTravel destinations List: CleanCare+ Plus Travel Tips to Healthy Flying Short Read: Mental health benefits of travelling after lockdown Interview: Behind the scenes- Flights Post-Covid Traffic share: 100% of the traffic is organic and no traffic from the paid ads. (source: www.spyfu.com)
  • 30. AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT ROADMAP AUGUSTJULYJUNEMAY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS – FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE NATIVE ADS ON TRAVEL SITES / GOOGLE DISPLAY ADS FEATURE – AIR CANADA WEBSITE FEATURE – AC VACATIONS WEBSITE ENROUTE MAGAZINE & WEBSITE 2020 – Q42020 - Q3 GOOGLE AD WORDS CAMPAIGN MOBILE APP CONTENT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (DEALS / H&S INFORMATION) BRIEF AGENCY AGENCY - CREATIVE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT – MONITOR TRENDS AND NEWS AND ADJUST CREATIVE AS NEEDED WEBSITE / MOBILE TESTING AGENCY TO MONITOR & OPTIMIZE TO CREATE AWARENESS AND CONVERSIONS
  • 31. AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN CONTENT CALENDAR
  • 32. AIR CANADA GOOGLE AD CAMPAIGN ACCOUNT: AIR CANADA CAMPAIGN: MAKING YOUR DREAMS TRAVEL CAMPAIGN: AIR CANADA CLEANCARE+ We plan on using keywords that have a minimum of 500 monthly searches.* Historically, some of these keywords have a lower monthly search. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that we will see an increase in COVID-19 keywords now that airlines are taking more health and safety precautions for their passengers. Cheap Flights Canadian Flight Package Flights to Quebec/ Flights to Vancouver Flight Coupons / Expedia Flights Flights to Toronto / Family Flights Cheap Flights from Toronto Toronto to Calgary Flights Toronto to Vancouver Flights Areoplan / Enroute Top 10 Canadian Destinations Places to Visit In Canada Canadian Travel / Dream Desitinations Air Canada Flights / Air Canada Expedia Explore with Air Canada / Fly Like A Canadian / Travel with Air Canada Social Distancing Policy in Flights Social Distancing Flights Airline Health & Safety Air Canada CleanCare+ What is Clean Care Plus? Air Canada Passenger Safety Air Travel Safety / Air Canada Policy Covid 19 Air Travel Covid 19 Air Travel Airline Insurance / Airline Safety Tips Air Canada Safe Travel Covid Traveler Insurance / Family Flight Cancelation Policy Credit Card Insurance / Air Travel Policy Safest Airlines / Healthy Flying AIR CANADA FLIGHTS DREAM DESTINATIONS AC CLEANCARE + HEALTHY TRAVELING
  • 33. CAMPAIGN: MAKING YOUR DREAMS TRAVEL ENROUTE WEBSITE LANDING PAGE ENROUTE MAGAZINE COVER SAFETY FIRST, ALWAYS
  • 34. CAMPAIGN: AIR CANADA CLEANCARE+ ENROUTE MAGAZINE COVER SAFETY FIRST, ALWAYS ENROUTE MAGAZINE CLEANCARE+ SPREAD