Commentary

Industry Watch: Airlines: Mobilize and Socialize

Airlines soar into Facebook and Twitter territory

industrywatch411Airlines, with their on-the-move customers and dependence on fluctuating conditions - like a foot of snow in 12 hours at JFK in New York - have extra incentives to max out their mobile and social media connections with consumers. Spurred on by each other, JetBlue, Delta and Virgin America have upped the ante on marketing and customer service efforts on Facebook, Twitter and mobile apps as air passengers' patience wanes.

JetBlue
JetBlue sought to boost its Facebook community with a program that let customers earn rewards when they used Facebook Places to check in at airports. By mid-February the airline had 470,700 "likes" on Facebook, far below its rival Southwest Airlines, with 1.3 million "likes."

From January to mid-March, members of JetBlue's TrueBlue rewards platform who registered on the company's Facebook page received 25 TrueBlue points every time they checked into an official JetBlue airport location on Facebook Places.

In addition, the first 100 customers who checked into airports in Boston, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Long Beach, Calif., and at JFK airport received 100 points. To put that into perspective, consider that it takes 5,000 or more TrueBlue points to get a free flight. Facebook was tapped again in March for Virgin America's Operation Chihuahua. The company partnered with San Francisco Animal Care & Control to welcome onboard orphan puppies to travel to New York, where they are in high demand among apartment dwellers. News and pictures of the dogs entering the plane via the main cabin door were posted on the social network and served as buzz bait among dog-lovers.

On Twitter, JetBlue held a promotion on @lightheartednyc, with the city of New York that aimed to drum up food donations and help people forget the disrupted flights. During the weekend of Feb. 18-20, the first 20 people to mention the tweet and bring two or more cans of food to a booth in Times Square got free JetBlue tickets. Other donors received discounts on future flights.

Mobile marketing included out-of home ads for a JetBlue vacation giveaway that linked online and mobile marketing. An oversized barcode was used as a graphic element in the ads and as a way to ask people to use their cell phones to get more information. In the corner of the graphic code was an actual code that you could photograph with your phone to access more information.

Virgin America
Scrappy upstart Virgin America focused on entertainment to make the flying seem like less of a chore. Founded in 2007, the company targets Web-savvy professionals who expect direct contact with a brand. Indeed, the company receives about 350 Twitter messages per day from its 166,000 Twitter followers. (In comparison, JetBlue has 1.6 million followers.) In February, when the company announced new service to Chicago starting in May, it threw itself at the feet of its Twitter community with a #vxChicago trivia game. Questions about arcane Chicago facts were posted regularly and the first person to reply correctly with the designated hashtag got a T-shirt.

Last year when the airline added service to Toronto to, they worked with analytics firm Klout to identify Toronto-based key influencers on Twitter.

The influential group was sent an email offering a free round-trip flight between Toronto and San Francisco or Los Angeles and an invitation to Virgin America's Toronto launch party on June 29. Yet the influential guests didn't have to post anything or promote the brand in any way unless they wanted to.

On Facebook, Virgin America had attracted only about 80,000 "likes" by January 2011. To boost its fan base, Virgin America offered free in-air access to Facebook for its passengers throughout February, eliminating the normal $8 Wi-Fi access fee. During the month, the company's Facebook page cajoled its traveling visitors with first dibs on flight discounts and numerous contests for free flights and hotel rooms. Facebook "likes" rose slowly to 86,000 by March 1.

Delta
Delta doesn't have the trendy tech appeal of JetBlue or Virgin, but it has been working on its customer service reputation as a marketing hook. Facebook and Twitter have been integral parts of that effort. Much like Virgin America, Delta conducted research that showed that when passengers log on to the airline's in-flight Wi-Fi, Facebook is the site they most often visit.

Consequently, last year it introduced a Ticket  Counter app that lets customers who "like" the airline's Facebook page book  flights without ever leaving the social network. While initially you couldn't buy a ticket using rewards, you were encouraged to share your travel plans with friends. With the new app, the airline also had a way to create repeat business mid-flight. The company is careful to keep the Ticket Counter app from encroaching on the chitchat and travel discussions happening elsewhere on the Facebook page, where hard selling is avoided. By March 1, Delta had 115,000 "likes" on Facebook.

On Twitter, the brand has about 140,000 followers, lagging behind both JetBlue and Virgin America. To help it catch up, Delta used the platform to capitalize on its Grammys' sponsorship in February. Delta tweeted during the show and at after-parties with commentary about the gowns, the winners and behind-the scenes looks at the hoopla. The promo wrapped up with a giveaway of swag from a Grammys after-party. "We are really actively looking at the technology that our customers are using and developing applications for what they are already using in their daily lives," says a Delta spokesperson. Being stranded in the latest "snow storms of the century" has only accelerated the pace for both air travelers and airline marketers.

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