1. The #newAmerican is arriving
Transforming the iconic American Airlines brand through Social Media

2. The #newAmerican is arriving
Merger
Announcement
SXSW 2013
Sponsorship
Rebranding
Announcement

3. Objectives
05/09/13 3
• Demonstrate that the iconic American Airlines brand is evolving to
become more modern, refreshing and innovative
• Use digital and social media to connect and engage consumers with
the new and evolving direction of the airline in a meaningful way
• Use several pivotal moments in American's history to change the
way people see the company in 2013

4. Strategies
405/09/13
1. Leverage several major transformational announcements and sponsorships in 2013 to
effectively communicate, engage and bring consumers into American's transformation
using Social Media
2. We built major individual social campaigns around American’s rebranding launch, the
merger announcement with US Airways, and American's sponsorship of SXSW 2013,
but positioned them all under the #newAmerican flag at a macro/ongoing level as an
overall campaign, designed to demonstrate and drive conversation around the
transformation of the brand.
3. The Social Media strategy was deeply integrated into the larger business strategy for
each of these events and the larger transformational campaign, across Customer
Relations, traditional PR, Marketing, Sales, Loyalty, etc.

5. Tactics & Execution – Rebranding Launch
505/09/13
• Teaser messages across 8 social
platforms - “stay tuned” to drive
anticipation
• Digital site and video for launch/reveal of
new logo/livery
• Social hooks/sharing imbedded throughout
reveal site (share the new logo, etc.)
• Began switching all social channel creative
to new branding in real-time (Twitter icon,
Facebook cover photo, etc.)
• Activated Influencer, Blogger and Advocate
relationships with personal messages from
the team
Content, events, video, promotions
tagged/branded with #newAmerican

6. Tactics & Execution – Rebranding Launch
605/09/13
• Behind-The-Scenes Video series
explaining the thought process posted
to YouTube
• Paid Social – we knew the logo/livery
would be inherently viral, so we used paid
social media to promote the Behind the
Scenes video so that more people would
get the “Why“ and how thoughtful we
were about the process
• Live events showcasing the new look –
attendees encouraged to share using
#newAmerican
• Social Promotion encouraging users to
share an image of a journey using Tw/FB
or Instagram using #newAmerican
• Response – use dedicated team to
respond to everyone on TW
Content, events, video, promotions
tagged/branded with #newAmerican

7. Tactics & Execution – Merger Announcement
705/09/13
• Announcement social messages
• Co-branded content shared socially by
both companies
• “Stronger Together” video highlighting
strengths of merged company on
YouTube and promoted across Social
channels
• Socially promoted Advertising
campaign
• Dedicated Social response, answering
questions, business as usual, loyalty
programs, etc.
Content tagged/branded with #newAmerican

8. Tactics & Execution
– SXSW 2013
805/09/13
• Digital Lounge – conference-goers could
recharge, interact with products, get a
massage
• Connected Photo booth – tweet photos
from our booth
• Digital Promotions – multiple Twitter
promotions around #newAmerican (drove
#1 most-mentioned SXSW sponsor)
• Digital Mosaic – capturing and displaying
social conversation including
#newAmerican
• FourSquare check-ins and specials
• Travel Hackathon with AT&T – opened
American data to developers for a contest
to build the next great travel app
• Paper Napkin pitch contest Content, activation, promotions
tagged/branded with #newAmerican

9. Tactics & Execution
– Other promotions and messaging
905/09/13
• Vine promotion celebrating the launch of
the new 777-300ER to London, using
#newAmerican
• Twitter hashtag promotion celebrating 9
new routes out of LAX with 9 winners of
9,000 AAdvantage Miles
• Twitter Retweet promotion featuring our
777 Walk-up bar, using #newAmerican
• Other social messaging and content
featuring transformational stories
• #newAmerican used by American brand
channel in responses to customer
questions and comments
Content, promotions tagged/branded
with #newAmerican

10. Results – Overall
05/09/13 10
• Drove measurable positive sentiment shift for the American Airlines
brand in 2013
• #newAmerican trended several times throughout the campaign
• Consumers and media began and have continued to use
#newAmerican in their posts and content
• Numerous positive coverage placements
#WINNING

11. #newAmerican was mentioned 43,555 times between
January 1 and May 8
• These mentions have created over 54M impressions
• A campaign sentiment score of 93% - highly positive
Results - #newAmerican
1105/09/13
*Data from Netbase
Rebrand Merger SXSW

12. Overall brand sentiment for January 1 – March 31 was 32% out of -100%
to 100%
• January 22%
• February 39%
• March 40%
Results - Brand Sentiment
1205/09/13
#newAmerican
*Data from Netbase

13. Results – Word Clouds
05/09/13 13
Most-used terms Most-used sentiment-related
terms (emotions)
*Data from Netbase

14. Results – SXSW Coverage
1405/09/13
“Al Gore and American Airlines
stole the digital conversation at
SXSW.”
“Thanks to an active Twitter
presence, American Airlines was
the most-mentioned
SXSW sponsor.”
Top SXSW Tweets - Day 1
#1. American Airlines
(#2. Depeche Mode)
Lounges trending on Twitter:
Lucky Blogger, New American
41 Total placements