This plan highlights a Social Media Marketing Strategy for Spirit Airlines and was developed as a part of West Virginia University's Integrated Marketing Communications Master's Program.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. EXECUTIVESUMMARY
II. COMPANY OVERVIEW
III. OPPORTUNITY
IV. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
V. COMPETITION
VI. AUDIENCESEGMENT
VII. CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
VIII. MEASUREMENT
IX. SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
X. EDITORIAL CALENDAR
XI. CREATIVE SAMPLES
XII. CONCLUSION
XIII. NEXT STEPS
XIV. REFERENCES
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I. EXECUTIVESUMMARY
The travel industry is booming. In the United
States alone, the economic output generated
by domestic and international visitors reaches
approximately $2.3 trillion per year, and $2.7
billion per day (U.S. Travel Association, 2017).
We, as a society are traveling, and traveling a
lot. To destinations far, and near, and
consumers are looking for more affordable
means of traveling to their dream destinations.
As an ultra-low fare carrier, Spirit Airlines offers its consumers low cost air travel to a
number of destinations within both the United States and South America. This social
media plan’s goal is to increase the number of followers on three major social media
platforms including: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by engaging with consumers, and
promoting positive guest interactions on all platforms. Spirit Airlines will seek to resolve
any guest issues, and provide recovery for guests in order to boost guest service, and
increase the amount of consumers purchasing tickets from the brand. One year from the
beginning of this campaign, Spirit Airlines will aim to increase their social media following
on Twitter by 20%, generate 50,000 new followers between Facebook and Instagram,
and increase positive guest interactions on social media accounts by 40%. These goals
are set forth in order to increase revenue for the brand, and create a larger audience
across all social media.

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II. COMPANY OVERVIEW
Spirit Airlines was founded in 1964 as Clippert Trucking Company; however, it wasn’t until
1992 that Spirit found its current identity. With this new identity, the fresh Spirit Airlines
purchased jet equipment to begin its fleet, and began adding destinations such as Fort
Lauderdale, Detroit, Myrtle Beach,
Los Angeles and New York (Spirit
Airlines, 2011). The brand began to
focus on providing its consumers
ultra-low-cost-carrier (ULCC) fares
to a number of destinations across
the United States, and South
America. Consumers purchasing
these ‘barebones’ flights are able to purchase fares starting at $9, and then add on
additional items, such as bags, food/drink or extra legroom for purchase. The idea of a
barebones flight fare has taken flight, and other competition within the airline industry has
taken notice. Larger brands such as United Airlines, American Airlines, United, and
Southwest have recently introduced bare-bones flights within their own markets in order
to compete with ultra-low-fare brands such as Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant. Over the 2016
fiscal year, the brand hosted an overall income of $291 million (Spirit Airlines, 2017).

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III. OPPORTUNITY
While Spirit Airlines retains its promise to its consumers to provide ultra-low-fares to over
50 destinations, the brand does not employ a social media marketing strategy. In order
for the brand to reach a larger consumer base, and increase its sales overall, the brand
will need to engage, and promote the brand through social media. Spirit Airlines has also
been dubbed the distinction as the “most-complained about airline” (O’Leary, 2014), with
consumer engagement, the brand will be able to gain its consumers trust, and assist the
brand with recovering from this negative publicity.
The goal of this campaign will be to establish a social media following on both Facebook
and Instagram, as well as increasing its following on Twitter. Currently, there are 316
million users active on Twitter, while 968 million users are active on Facebook daily
(Jackson, 2015). This leaves a huge opportunity for Spirit Airlines to grow its brand
identity, and increase its influence.

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IV. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Currently, the only social media account that Spirit Airlines utilizes is Twitter under the
handle of @SpiritAirlines. The brand currently has 18,000 Tweets, 73,000 Followers, and
is following 3,684 people. Typically, Spirit Airlines Tweets multiple times throughout the
day with weather advisories, special deals and promotions, and fan mail.

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V. COMPETITION
Spirit Airlines set the bar high when it comes to their extremely low-fare prices, and
according to CEO Ben Baldanza, Spirit’s fares are typically 40% lower than the
competitors (O’Leary, 2014); however, that does not mean that they are unrivaled. Spirit
Airline’s largest competition lies within two other low-cost airlines: Frontier Airlines and
Allegiant Airlines. Both brands are committed to providing its consumers with low-cost-
fare to world class travel destinations such as Florida, California, South Carolina and
Hawaii.
FRONTIER AIRLINES
Over the last two years, Frontier Airlines has rebranded itself to fall within the ULCC
business model. After a turbulent start and merging with other airlines, the brand now
operates flights to 55 destinations throughout the United States, Mexico, the Dominican
Republic and Cuba (Frontier Airlines, 2017). In 2015, Frontier Airlines had a total
operating revenue of $1.17 billion (Frontier Airlines, 2016). According to Frontier Airline’s
social media manager, Brittany Lincoln, Frontier chooses their social media platforms
based on which makes the most sense for the story that their brand is telling (Hendee,
2015). Today, the brand is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and
Instagram.
Facebook: 393,491 likes
Twitter: 86.2K followers, 1.8K following, 8,000 Tweets
YouTube: 1,501 subscribers, 514,000 views on 32 videos
Instagram: 32.5K followers, 245 following, 794 posts

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ALLEGIANT AIR
Allegiant Air is a travel company, based out of Fresno, California, dedicated to providing
low-cost fares linking small U.S. cities to world-class leisure destinations such as Florida,
Las Vegas, Phoenix, California, Hawaii and Myrtle Beach. Today, the brand offers service
to 88 U.S. cities, and charter service to Canada and Mexico (Allegiant Airlines, 2017). In
2015, the brand posted an annual operating revenue of $1.2 billion (Allegiant Airlines,
2016). Allegiant Air utilizes the following social media accounts: Twitter, LinkedIn,
YouTube, and Instagram.
Twitter: 47K followers, 5,300 following, 18.7K Tweets
YouTube: 898 subscribers, 5 videos
Instagram: 4,248 followers, 307 following, 446 posts
Overall, despite the similarities of the three brands and them focusing on the same
market, both Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air have a significantly larger social media
presence than Spirit Airlines. With such a direct competition, the brand should look to gain
their consumers attention in other ways than utilizing its risqué marketing antics. Social
media marketing is a huge marketing avenue for any brand, and for Spirit Airlines to not
take advantage of this, is a huge loss for their company. Today, consumers are looking
to engage, and build a relationship with a brand. By increasing their social media
presence, Spirit Airlines can gain an edge on their competition.

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IV. AUDIENCESEGMENT
Spirit Airlines as a brand goes out of its way to provide its customers with low-priced fares
to over fifty four destinations across the United States. These low-priced fares target
leisure travelers, business travelers, and those whom are budget conscious. With that in
mind, for this campaign, Spirit Airlines should target a specific audience within these
psychographics; this audience lies within the millennial demographic. Millennials make
up the generation that was born between 1980 and the mid-2000’s, approximately ages
10-35, and are the largest generation in the United
States, making up approximately one-third of the
overall population (The Council of Economic
Advisors, 2014). According to the U.S. Census
Bureau, due to immigration the number of
millennials is expected to grow to an astounding 79.2 million by 2050 (Fry, 2016). This
demographic is detrimental to the success of any brand, and can either push a brand to
success, or failure. According to a study by Mintel, millennials have a total buying power
of over $1.3 trillion annually, and 87% of millennials aged 18-29 use Facebook, 53% use
Instagram, and 43% use Snapchat. The same study also found that five out of six
millennials connect with brands through social media (Egan, 2015). The least popular
social media platforms for millennials aged 18-29 are Pinterest with 36%, LinkedIn with
34% and Twitter with 36% of the population with an account (York, 2017).
With approximately 75 million millennials within the United States, this demographic is
also the most racially diverse generation in our history with 19% being Hispanic, 14%
African-American, and 5% Asian (Marketing Charts, 2014). This diverse generation has

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a medium income of $25,000 for those 18-27,
and 28-36 of $48,000 (Cohen, 2014). The
millennial generation also has put a larger
focus on the attainment of post-secondary
education than the previous generations. In
2013, 47% of 25 to 34 year-olds received a
post-secondary degree (associates, bachelor’s or graduate degree) and an additional
18% had completed another additional post-secondary education. In 2012, an average
college graduate faces approximately $30,000 of student loan debt (The Council of
Economic Advisors, 2014).
With the millennial generation, travel is seen as a necessity, rather than a luxury. With the
rise of social media, those within the millennial
generation are traveling more, and sharing their
adventures through Snapchat, Facebook, and
Instagram with their entire friends list. According
to a study, millennials as a whole are on track to
spend $1.4 trillion on travel each year by the year
2020 (Clark, 2016). For millennials, the cultural
experience reigns higher than the fiscal
implications of their travel, and that correlates to this adventurous generation traveling
more than their predecessors.
With such a low median income for millennials aged 18-27 and a large amount of
millennials facing a high amount of student loan debt, the allure of a low-cost option for

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travel is extremely appealing to millennial travels, who yearn to get out and experience
the world. 51% of millennials said that they would compromise less leg room for a cheap
flight, 33% said they would stand, and 66% said they would sit next to the restroom
(Smith, 2015). Spirit Airlines boasts itself as an ultra-low fare carrier, and this is something
that they can utilize to their advantage within their social media accounts to increase their
sales and reputation. Millennials tend to have the highest customer service expectations
out of any previous generations (Smith, 2015), and with that in mind, a brand is not going
to win over its consumers without going above and beyond to deliver great customer
service to its consumers, which can start with its social media accounts.

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V. CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
1. ONE YEAR FROM THE BEGINNING OF THIS CAMPAIGN, INCREASE
THE NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS ON TWITTER BY 20%.
Currently, Spirit Airlines has 73,000 followers on Twitter. By aiming to increase the overall
followers by 20%, Spirit Airlines faces the objective of reaching 87,600 users in a one
year period. In order for the brand to meet their objective, they will need to gain an
audience of approximately 1,216 unique followers each month over the period of a year.
Since Twitter is the only current social media account that the brand uses, this is the
largest means of communicating with its clientele, currently. By increasing the following
on Twitter, Spirit Airlines will be able to significantly increase its overall audience, increase
its influence, and grow its brand identity. Increasing the number of followers on Twitter,
will also increase the overall ROI from its social media advertising.
2. IN 12 MONTHS FOLLOWING THE BEGINNING OF THIS CAMPAIGN,
GENERATE 50,000 NEW FOLLOWERS BETWEEN FACEBOOK AND
INSTAGRAM.
One important aspect of Spirit Airline’s new social media campaignis to expand its current
social media accounts. While Spirit Airlines does have a current Twitter account, the
brand does not have a Facebook or Instagram. In order for the brand to increase its
overall reach, the brand will aim to gain a following on both Facebook and Instagram, and
will aim to generate 50,000 new followers between the two social media platforms over
the first year. 50,000 new followers over a year equates approximately 4,166 users per
month. Spirit Airlines should utilize these accounts to promote the product, interact with
consumers, and deliver customer service and recovery towards the thousands of
consumers who travel the airline per year. Adding these social media channels, give the

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brand another opportunity to reach its consumers, and in return, another opportunity to
sell product and create relationships with the clientele that purchase tickets to fly Spirit.
3. INCREASE POSITIVE CUSTOMERSERVICE INTERACTIONS BY 40%
OVER SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS (FACEBOOK AND TWITTER).
Customer service is extremely
important to any brand, and if
consumers have a good
experience, then they are more
likely to recommend the brand to
their friend through WOM
advertising. With Spirit Airlines being ranked one of the lowest airlines in terms of
customer service, it is extremely important for the brand to make a 180, and engage with
its consumers, listen and resolve their issues in order to gain their trust. Just because
Spirit Airlines aims at selling barebones airfare, does not mean that their customer service
should be lacking. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, news of bad
customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service
experience (HelpScout, 2017). Overall, delivering great guest service does not cost the
brand anything, and will create a high ROI when consumers praise the brand, and return
time and time again.

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VI. MEASUREMENT
The first two objectives: “One year from the beginning of this campaign, increase the
number of followers on twitter by 20%” and “In 12 months following the beginning of this
campaign, generate 50,000 new followers between Facebook and Instagram,” Spirit
Airlines faces specific, numerical goals over a certain amount of time. With this, Spirit
Airlines should focus on quantitative metrics related to their followers on social media
accounts such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The brand should analyze their
current following weekly to ensure that they are on track for meeting their goals. If the
brand is not on track, the brand should re-evaluate the social media marketing strategy
in order to get the largest ROI on the various channels. One key tool would be the
utilization of Hootsuite or Google Analytics in order to give the brand insights on what
their social media channels are doing well, and what their audience responds best to, and
then framing the output from the channels to what gains the most audience response.
The third objective of ‘Increase positive customer service interactions by 40% over social
media channels (Facebook and Twitter)’ is vital for the brand. Spirit Airlines will need to
keep a close eye on the analytics, and ensure that the brand is meeting its end of the
bargain. Spirit Airlines’ social media team will need to constantly evaluate what is going
on throughout their channels, but respond to any concerns that their consumers have. In
order to do this, the brand will utilize a social media management tool such as Hootsuite,
which will allow them to easily respond and recover from difficult customer situations. This
management software will allow the brand to focus on increasing engagement and the
amount of interactions between the brand and its consumers.

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VII. SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
As of January 2017, 2 billion internet users
are using social networking websites such as
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat and
Tumblr to connect with and interact with both
people and brands from all over the world
(Statista, 2017). For a brand, it’s important to
create engaging relationships with
consumers both in face-to-face interactions
as well as through social media in order to
create and foster brand loyalty and promote repeat sales. Spirit Airlines is currently the
most complained about airline in the world, and if they continue on this slippery slope,
they might not be around much longer to deliver ultra-low fares to their consumers
(LeBeau, 2016). Being a barebones airline does not negate guest service. In order for the
brand to grow, they need to look at what both their direct competition, as well as larger
airlines such as JetBlue and Delta Airlines are doing right, and a lot of that deals with their
customer relations, and ability to diverge a negative guest situation. Currently, the only
outlet that Spirit Airlines is interacting with its consumers on is Twitter. In order for the
brand to expand its identity, engage its consumers, increase customer service, as well as
increase its overall yearly income, Spirit Airlines needs to get involved on other social
media platforms than Twitter.
This campaign will aim to introduce both Facebook and Instagram to Spirit Airlines’
social network portfolio, as well as increase the current following on Twitter. Facebook

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and Instagram are currently noted as two of the top choices of marketing for travel
marketing (Roesler, 2016), and both mediums have an exceptionally large reach for
prospective consumers. Social media is traveling the way that we travel. We are not
bound by traditional advertising, rather, people are spreading travel tips, and hacks
through social media websites. Word-of-mouth marketing is on the rise, as well as user-
generated content. While other social media platforms may meet Spirit Airline’s needs for
social media marketing, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offer the brand the largest
reach for their content, and will allow them to grow within their industry.
A. FACEBOOK
Facebook is the most used social media platform in the world, and currently sits
at 1.87 billion active monthly users (Statista, 2017) and is currently used by 95%
of travel companies (Roesler, 2016). With the travel industry, it’s important to stand out
for any brand. The utilization of Facebook would offer the brand a plethora of opportunities
for growth and consumer engagement as the largest social network in the world. With
Spirit Airlines creating a Facebook account, they would be able to create content, engage
with consumers, resolve guest issues, and increase satisfaction. Facebook would offer
the brand an opportunity to resolve guest issues, and create transparency with their
customer.
With Spirit Airline’s newly created social media account, they will need to focus on gaining
followers, and the best way to do that will be through creating unique, sharable content,
and get their consumers to share their content too: travel photos, vacation destinations.
Show the consumer where Spirit can take them for less! Spirit Airlines already has unique
branding, and they could utilize this to their advantage with their millennial market to gain

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a large following on their social media accounts. Beyond creating content, the brand also
needs to engage with its consumer and resolve their concerns in a timely manner.
B. INSTAGRAM
In December 2016, Instagram had over 600 million monthly active users and
this number is only increasing (Statista, 2016). According to a survey, 48% of
Instagrammers use the platform to choose travel destinations and 35% use it to discover
new locations (Walgrove, 2016). Instagram would offer Spirit Airlines an incredible
opportunity to expand their market and reach a whole new demographic. Their newly
acquired Instagram could highlight tourist destinations, and what they could do when they
get there, and what they can do with the money that they saved on their flight. The brand
should focus on engaging its consumers and getting them excited about the possibility of
traveling, and how much money they can save getting to their destination.
C. TWITTER
Overall, Twitter plays host to 310 million active, monthly users, and only 29.2%
of all U.S. social media users are Twitter users (Smith, 2016). Twitter is the
only current social media account that Spirit
Airlines currently uses. Currently, the brand has
73.6K followers, and has created 18.3K unique
Tweets on their account. While Twitter is not the
most popular social media platform, it is a great
way for a business such as Spirit Airlines to
connect with its consumers. Spirit Airlines does a great job creating interesting content
that targets its main demographic of millennials; however, their risqué marketing

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techniques could be a turn off for
prospective clientele. They have
previously created sales titled M.I.L.F
(Many Islands, Low Fares), ‘We’re having
a threesome!’ and WTF (World Traveler
Fares, of course!) (Patten, 2008). While
some might find it humorous, there’s a
fine line that the brand could be pushing
away possible consumers due to their
shock marketing tactics. Another aspect
of Twitter that offers a large opportunity for Spirit Airlines, is their ability to quickly and
effectively resolve consumer issues in a timely manner with flare. Consumers want to
engage with brands, and they don’t want to be talking to a robot. They want to know that
they’re communicating with a real life person who can resolve any issue that they may be
facing.

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VIII. EDITORIAL CALENDAR
‘Tis the season, for travel. The Christmas holidays bode an extremely busy time for
traveling. Whether it’s traveling home to be with family, taking a much needed trip away
from school with your friends, or celebrating the New Year. There’s so much opportunity
for the travel industry in the month of December, that this is such a prime time for any
travel brand. In 2012, AAAprojected that over 93 million people travel between Christmas
and New Year’s, and during this 10-17 holiday period traveling spikes by 23% compared
to the rest of the year (Ramon, N/D). With so many people traveling, Spirit Airlines should
take advantage of this busy travel period and try to get people to spend their money on
Spirit Airlines, instead of their competition. Christmas time is also the busiest period for
shopping throughout the year, and in 2016, the forecasted spending was expected to
exceed $1 trillion, which represents a 3.6% to 4% increase over the previous year

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(Pearson, 2016). To not focus on trying to wrangle in consumers during this peak period
would be trivial.
Since Spirit Airlines already has an established Twitter account, and is extremely active
on it (posting one to two times per day), the brand should continue with what they’re doing
when it comes to their posting. Spirit Airlines will be establishing a new Facebook and
Instagram account, which will need regular maintenance; however, the brand will
alternate between the two on week days, and posting on all three mediums on weekends
and holidays, and during peak seasons, and focus on the major holidays within the month
of December. Beyond focusing on the holidays, so that not to over exhaust the message,
the brand should alternate between focusing on the holidays, and utilize messages
pertaining to places that you can travel with Spirit Airlines such as Disney World or Los
Angeles. For marketing purposes, Spirit Airlines should try to partner with major brands
such as Walt Disney World Resort, in order to utilize their image in their marketing.

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IX. CREATIVE SAMPLES
INSTAGRAM:
@SpiritAirlines: What are you doing this Holiday season? Book a ultra-low-fare flight
today! Your ADVENT-ure awaits! http://bit.ly/M6WjFQ #SpiritAirlines #FlyWithSpirit
FACEBOOK:
Finals getting you down? Don’t you deserve to go on vacation? Book a flight today!
http://bit.ly/M6WjFQ
TWITTER:
Where would you like to see yourself in the New Year? Go, live your dream!
http://bit.ly/M6WjFQ #NewYears2017

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X. CONCLUSION
The travel industry is constantly evolving, and consumers are now looking for low cost
ways to experience the world around them. Millennials have a lower than average median
income than their Gen X and Gen Y predecessors, and thus, are looking for cheaper
alternatives to the expensive, full service airlines. Spirit Airlines offers its consumers just
that, and with proper marketing, social media, and customer service, the brand’s low cost
business model can lead the brand to have a huge selling point over its competitors.
However, in order for the brand to grow, they must engulf themselves within the social
media game, and use it to their advantage in order to get the message out to its possible
consumer base.
The only social media platform that Spirit Airlines currently uses is Twitter, which only
offers them a possible audience of only 319 million active monthly users (Statisica, 2016);
however, with the active user base dimishing, and its share of the social media market
shrinking, it would be extremely wise for the brand to branch out to other mediums
(eMarketer, 2016). Utilizing Facebook and Instagram offers Spirit Airlines a much larger
possible audience, and increase the success of their marketing, and ability to interact and
engage with their consumers.

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XI. NEXT STEPS
The next steps for Spirit Airlines would be to begin looking at how to implement their new
social media channels with Facebook and Instagram, and how to begin gaining followers
since Spirit Airlines will be creating a following from nothing. The brand needs to focus on
creating engaging content, and building relationships with their consumers in order to
produce brand loyalty.

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Allegiant Airlines. (2017). Company profile. Retrieved from
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Clark, S. (2016). 4 ways millennials are changing the face of travel. Retrieved from
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complaints.html

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Pearson, B. (2016). Holiday spending to exceed $1 trillion --- and 11 other surprising
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US/Spirit%20Airlines%20History.pdf
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ranked by number of active users (in millions). Retrieved from

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number-of-users/
The Council of Economic Advisors. (2014). 15 Economic facts about millennials.
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York, A. (2017). Social media demographics to inform a better segmentation strategy.
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