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Hawaiian Airlines Case Study
- 1. Case Study | Google Display Network Taking Off Hawaiian Airlines uses the Google Display Network to boost revenues during tough times. Is it really that hard to convince people to visit Hawaii? At first glance, Hawaiian Airlines’ core service would seem to sell itself. “Actually, it’s a complex market and not quite as easy as you might imagine,” says Reid Ichiki, senior manager of Internet marketing at Hawaiian Airlines. “It’s very competitive, and we have to counter the perception that getting to Hawaii is a lengthy – and expensive – flight. It’s really only a Who they are five hour trip to paradise!” • Hawaiian Airlines • www.hawaiianair.com No one needs to sell Reid on the beauty of Hawaii. A native of Maui, he moved to • Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii the mainland to attend college and work in digital marketing, and then returned to • Airline serving 20 domestic and become part of the Hawaiian Airlines marketing team. “For me, Hawaiian Airlines has international destinations always been synonymous with Hawaii,” says Reid. “I was excited to be able to use my experience in online advertising to help build an excellent brand.” Goal • Increase brand recognition for Hawaiian Airlines • Stimulate additional sales • Convert more leads into bookings “With the help of the Display Network, Approach we didn’t just weather a tough time, we • Worked with their digital agency, Razorfish, to develop display ads accelerated through it.” • Ran a series of tests on the Google Reid Ichiki, senior manager of Internet Display Network • Used display ads to highlight Hawaii’s marketing at Hawaiian Airlines unique attributes as a destination • Used display ads to fuel search campaigns and reinforce campaign messages Results Onto the runway • Increased revenue by 3% year-over-year during a challenging time for the airline When Reid joined Hawaiian, the company advertised online in a singular way. industry “Hawaiian was mainly focused on search campaigns to drive direct response,” Reid • Now focus more than 15% of their total online advertising spend on the Google recalls. “But we wanted to make sure we were taking advantage of all of our online Display Network opportunities.” He turned to Razorfish, Hawaiian Airlines’ trusted digital agency partner, to develop a plan to test a range of campaign combinations to achieve efficiency, scale, and reach. “We were thrilled to work with someone who knows online advertising so well,” says Danny Huynh, associate search director with Razorfish. “Reid was focused on building a strong online presence for Hawaiian Airlines to increase online orders, return and reach, through brand loyalty and awareness. He understands the value of diversifying search and leveraging its full capabilities. As a result, we worked with Reid to develop an experience and connections strategy, which included a test and learn approach to Hawaiian’s online campaigns.” Razorfish and Hawaiian Airlines used search as a mainstay with their Google AdWords™initiatives, but had yet to try the Google Display Network, which is comprised of hundreds of thousands of high-quality websites, news pages and blogs that partner with Google to display targeted AdWords ads. Historically, Hawaiian
- 2. Airlines had minimal budget allocated towards display advertising. Reid and About Google AdWords Razorfish decided to first develop a limited set of display ads in order to run test Google AdWords™ is a performance- campaigns on the Display Network. based advertising program that enables businesses large and small to advertise on Google and its network of partner web Wild blue yonder sites. Hundreds of thousands of businesses “The approach was to extend our search text ads to the Display Network, garner worldwide use AdWords for text, image, and video ads priced on a cost-per-click (CPC) tactical learnings, and then apply those insights towards managing display ads,” Reid and cost-per-impression (CPM) basis. Built explains. “The goal was to attract our target audiences – families planning vacations, on an auction-based system, AdWords is a baby boomers, and seniors. We felt display would get across our core messages, highly quantifiable and cost-effective way to and support them with the visual power of the Hawaiian Islands, while meeting our reach potential customers. business marketing objectives.” For more information, visit www.google.com/adwords Results from the tests exceeded expectations. “We hit every goal we set and were pleasantly surprised by the response rates and online sales. People really connect About the Google Display Network with the images, especially Hawaii imagery.” Based on the success of initial tests, they planned a more ambitious program for the summer of 2008. The Google Display Network offers text, image, rich media, and video advertising on “That summer was a challenging time,” Reid recalls. “Record-high fuel prices impacted Google properties, YouTube, and millions the economy, changing the vacation mindset. We were trying to do more with less, while of web, domain, video, gaming, and mobile partner sites. From mass media to niche keeping ROI as high as possible. But, even in that tough climate, based on our results sites, advertisers can find the most engaged with the Display Network, we never considered pulling back our online advertising.” audiences, place ads on the most relevant pages, and achieve performance at scale It worked. The campaigns increased online ticket orders and revenues by three through our innovative targeting technology. percent year over year. “With the help of the Display Network, we didn’t just weather a Using our tools, advertisers can build ads, tough time, we accelerated through it.” measure results, optimize campaigns, and expand their advertising reach to specific audiences all over the web. Island hopping For more information, visit Reid and the Razorfish team then rolled out another creative. “Based on our business www.google.com/displaynetwork cycle, we decided fall would be a good time to build brand awareness and loyalty that would translate into sales down the line.” “The idea for the campaign was ‘What Island Am I?’. Many people visit Hawaii and may not know where to go or what to do. So we developed a brand application that asks people five simple questions about their interests and lifestyle, then recommends the right island for them.” By using the Display Network to place this application on relevant sites, Hawaiian reached new potential customers, while helping passengers plan their stay. “The level of targeting and control on the Display Network has helped us pinpoint the exact audiences we want to reach,” says Brooke Boyle, search manager at Razorfish. “The ‘What Island Am I?’ campaign performed better than all of the other media we purchased, and branding with display paid off and fueled our search campaigns.” Strong tail wind “The Display Network performed better than all other placements we’ve explored,” Says Reid. Today, it represents more than 15 percent of Hawaiian Airline’s total paid advertising. “Display ads are now part of our core advertising initiatives. We always want more intelligence on our target markets, and the Display Network provides the accountability and metrics we need in this competitive space. Our latest ads are designed to appeal to specific demographics and we’re using third party ad serving.” As Reid continues helping would-be vacationers decide what part of Hawaii they should experience, and ensuring they travel with Hawaiian Airlines, he’s confronted with his own vacation conundrum – if you live in Hawaii, where do you go on vacation? “That’s a tough one,” says Reid. “There are a lot of great places, so I’ll have to do some searching myself.” © 2010 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. 100525_1601598