Showing posts with label Airlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Airlines. Show all posts
Friday, April 20, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Social media becomes critical for airlines
By Priyanka Joshi, Business Standard, Mumbai, February 28, 2012
Around 56 per cent of conversations by Indians online involve the airline industry, with Facebook and Twitter emerging as the most interactive and consumer friendly platforms.
When frequent traveller Swamy R was told by Air India staff at the New Delhi airport that his flight would take off three hours late due to "unforeseen delays in the incoming aircraft," he (like many other fellow travellers) posted his views about the airline on the micro-blogging site Twitter and updated his Facebook status accordingly.
Most co-flyers, recalls Swamy, openly shared their frustrations and woes on the social network of their choice. "I did a quick location-based check of tweets generated due to delay of the flight at the Delhi airport and it was clear that several stranded passengers tweeted their opinions vocally on Twitter," he said.
Such has been the impact of social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and user blogs that both domestic and international airlines now maintain an active presence on the social web and strive to address user issues actively. In fact, a recent survey by MindShift interactive that tracked over 11,000 conversations across all the social media platforms reveals that 49 per cent of user views were aired on Twitter, followed by Facebook at 33 per cent and Forums & Blogs at nine per cent.
Zafar Rais, founder & CEO of MindShift Interactive, a digital outreach firm, predicts, "The airlines present on social media are beginning to understand their consumers better while those airlines that have low or no presence will start investing and integrating social media strategies to communicate better and faster with their consumers." According to MindShift, Jet Airways had the biggest footprint in social media, followed by SpiceJet and Kingfisher. "Air India and GoAir are at the bottom, showing their need to get onto the bandwagon and make their presence felt," points Rais.
Around 56 per cent of conversations by Indians online involve the airline industry, with Facebook and Twitter emerging as the most interactive and consumer friendly platforms. According to industry data, Twitter has nearly five million Indian users and Facebook has about 40 million Indians.
The report underlines that for the airline industry, Twitter plays a vital role in customer relations and engagement while their customers are at the airport as well as while offering specific deals to targeted users. Similarly, platforms like YouTube play a role in showing consumers an experience visually, prior to experiencing it live, satisfying an important channel of decision making.
Another reason why airlines are watching the social media closely is the fact that 75 per cent of frequent flyers would fly an airline if it is recommended by a friend, rather than flying the cheapest one, as per MindShift data.
Frequent flyers such as Nirupam Deolali agree. A Pune-based corporate legal advisor, Deolali says, "My friends, especially those who travel with families for leisure or those on last minute assignments, often rely on me for recommendations since I fly regularly for work. So, I began actively sharing my feedback on airlines on my Facebook and Twitter pages."
YouTube, however, is the least leveraged social media platform by airlines. "While looking at conversations for each sector on each platform, we can see that more than 90 per cent of the online conversations are on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter due to engaging activities and quick response," says Rais.
In 2012, Mindshift estimates that airlines will further explore social media by first understanding the needs of the consumer and accordingly create strategies to reach out and engage with them.
"Implementing social advocacy, CRM and creating positive experiences will be seen predominantly within this sector. Another element will be integration of social media with other marketing activities," says Rais. Data suggests that 40 per cent of airlines are expanding their social media team, bringing in employees from marketing, customer service, e-commerce, corporate communications and other departments.
TECH ON-BOARD
* India's travel category garnered the second largest share (42 per cent) of total Internet visitors in Asia, with 17.8 million average monthly unique visitors in the 1st quarter of 2011.
* Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the most popular and effective social media networks for marketing within the tourism and hospitality industry
* Men dominate the social conversations at 79 per cent, with women holding a 21 per cent share of social voice. This is an indication that men are actively involved in making travel decisions and reviewers of the experience.
* Air India boasts of being the most talked about brand on social media with 50 per cent share and yet it has just about 340 followers on Twitter with about 5 tweets till date
* SpiceJet had the highest Positive: Negative (4:1) Conversation Ratio
* With over 3,18,000 fans, Jet Airways leads the way on Facebook
* With over 14,200 followers, Kingfisher dominates on Twitter amongst Indian airlines
SOURCE: MindShift
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Top Ten WoW Initiatives by Airlines and Airports
Top 10 Wow Initiatives by Airlines and Airports
View more presentations from Shashank Nigam
Top 10 Wow Initiatives by Airlines and Airports
by Shashank Nigam on Jan 23, 2012
- 421views
Airlines and airports have been doing a great job of connecting with their customers on social media. Here are some campaigns that have lit big smiles on their customers’ faces.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Goodbye Rico: a collection of the best moments of Air New Zealand’s furry mascot
On the morning of December 1st 2011, the world woke up feeling a little empty and sad: Rico, the Air New Zealand mascot, had been “killed”. Eleven days after the unthinkable happened, and thanks to the help of Rico’s Facebook followers the “killer”, Richard Simmons, confessed his “crime”.
Even though he is no more, for marketers and air transport professionals alike Rico will live forever as part of our memories, presentations and as a source of inspiration for future strategies. What follows is a resume of his brief but well-lived life that, hopefully, will help us remember his best moments and better understand the marketing strategy for which he was created, due to which he thrived, lived and, sadly, was done away with.
Rico’s character was originally launched in October 2010 to promote Air New Zealand’s premium economy space seats. Even though what sort of animal he was and where he came from always remained a bit of a mystery, his fluffy persona was apparently designed as an effort to differentiate the advertising campaign by not using a human being. As Rob Fyfe CEO of Air New Zealand explained in his interview with SimpliFlying “if you put a human into the ads, you stereotype people’s image of what sort of people you’re trying to engage with.”
RICO’S FIRST VIDEO:
He quickly became an internet sensation and started interviewing celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, David Hasselhoff and even recorded a rap video with hip-hop signer Snoop Dogg.
RICO WITH SNOOP DOGG
However he also stirred up a lot of controversies, and was often criticized for his sexual innuendo, south American accent and, according to some, for not having anything to do with New Zealand and being off-brand. The strongest controversies, at least amongst the general public, were clearly related to his manners, as one of his critics put it:
“Air New Zealand has kindly created a verbal rapist and let him loose upon the world. I can’t imagine anything worse than having to sit next to a pervert like Rico on a flight – even if it were only Auckland to Hamilton – and whenever I think about Air New Zealand now, I get a vaguely uneasy feeling”
RICO AND “THE INTIMATE ART OF TOUCH”
In response to his critics Rico often said that, while it was clearly not from New Zealand, he loved the country and its airline, more than any other thing in the world. Unfortunately for Rico and despite his huge popularity on the internet, it seems that his explanations were never convincing enough, and amidst controversy over his effectiveness Air New Zealand decided to let him go.
On the 1st of December 2011 the news of Rico’s “demise” began to spread over the internet. According to the information released by the airline, the “crime” took place while Rico was hosting a party in his Los Angeles mansion where several celebrities had been invited.
With one last touch of class Air New Zealand used a smart strategy to ensure that even Rico’s passing away would generate favourable buzz for the airline. The airline teamed up with Hasbro to create a Cluedo-themed internet game where users were asked to find out which one of the celebrities who attended the party had killed Rico.
The hunt for Rico’s killer spread virally through Twitter and Facebook, reaching thousands of people, until finally the murderer confessed the crime during a Youtube interrogation where Rico’s puppeteer played the part of a policeman and the murderer, Richard Simmons, played himself.
THE KILLER’S CONFESSION
We, at SimpliFlying, bid goodbye to Rico and hope Air New Zealand copes with their loss (and the world’s) by doing what they do best: producing many more great campaigns
Friday, January 6, 2012
The future of loyalty programs will be powered by social media [Infographic]
Did you know that over 80% of members of an airline loyalty program never earn enough miles to redeem a flight? And most of the other 20% fly so much that the last thing they want to do is to step on another plane! Do you see why some loyalty program managers are worried?
For airlines, the future of frequent flyer programs programs is now a pressing question, given the growth of social technologies. As such, many airlines are now rushing to find ways of driving social loyalty. Some of these have been covered in our slide-deck on the Top 10 Social Loyalty Initiatives by Airlines.
To dig deeper, we partnered with Cranfield University in the UK to conduct a study on how frequent travelers (who travel at least five times a year) use social media. And here are some highlights of what we found:
- There are more airlines on Twitter than there are airlines with frequent flyer programs (191 vs 179)
- Almost 90% of frequent flyers use Facebook regularly, and over 65% “Like” at least one airline on Facebook
- To frequent fliers cheapest fare is the least significant loyalty factor among customer service, earning loyalty points and onboard experience
- 72% of frequent fliers would join a social loyalty program
- Over 65% of frequent fliers would like to earn social loyalty points via check-ins or by contributing ideas to an airline’s Facebook page.
- Over 80% of frequent fliers would like to earn social loyalty points by recommending the airline to a friend or providing positive feedback.
In the infographic below, we have summarized the findings of the study, and will soon release a detailed presentation of these findings too. Special thanks to Gavin Tan and Prof. Keith Mason from Cranfield University for their tremendous help with this study.
UPDATE: You can find a detailed presentation with some more exclusive insights gleaned from the survey here.
(Click here for a high-resolution image for printing and pinning on your desk)
Do let us know what you thought of this infographic. Does it resonate with you? Is it contrary to expectations? Would you like some other stats covered? If so, which ones? Would you like to suggest ideas for future infographics?
Do speak up 
We’re listening! Leave a comment below or tweet us @simpliflying.
We’re listening! Leave a comment below or tweet us @simpliflying.
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