Trends that transform how airlines are marketing their brands

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24/07/2014 by WiT

The State of Airline Marketing report lists seven key trends in 2014 with accompanying case studies, which show how airline marketing is undergoing a radical transformation.

Co-published by airlinetrends.com, an industry research agency, and SimpliFlying, an aviation consulting firm based in Singapore, the trends are based on over 350 campaigns analysed from more than 70 airlines around the world.

The seven trends are:

Micro events: Surprise onboard events that passengers keenly spread word about, such as Air New Zealand’s inflight same-sex marriage
Cool tech: Airlines that team up with the creative and technology classes to co-create new applications, such as the 24-hour travel hackathons by American Airlines and Emirates
Visual culture: Taking cues from the popularity of video-sharing and the rise of Instagram and Snapchat, such as the Kobe vs Messi selfie shootout video, and app campaign by Turkish Airlines
People power: Moving beyond crowdsourcing to test out “crowd clout” concepts for commercial purposes, such as Singapore Airlines’ “Like to Unlock” campaign
Emerging markets: Initiatives tailored to resonate with the local culture of emerging markets, such as Air New Zealand’s safety video “Your Romance Guide to Safety Onboard” for China
The innovation is the marketing: Airline service innovations designed for marketing purposes, such as smart watch digital boarding passes by Vueling and AirBerlin
Outdoor creativity: Unconventional outdoor advertising that really piques people’s interest, such as Cebu Pacific’s “Rain Codes” campaign in Hong Kong

Shashank Nigam, CEO, SimpliFlying said, “Today, airline brands are shaped by management direction as well as the goodwill of social advocates. If you’re not where your customers are, you’re going to lose a lot of business.”

• Download the free report here.

Below: video illustrating the trends

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