Another two parter – this time with airlines doing nice some altruistic (sort of) things for people.
I like KLM’s surprise for social media users (spotted via @tara_lawson). And though it was just a bit of an experiment, it worked for them, with over a million mentions on twitter alone. Someone, somewhere will be able to tell me how much that is worth to a brand.
(And someone is going to pull me up on the meaning of the word “altruistic” too, aren’t they?)
The best bits for me were that they were taking ordinary people in an ordinary situation and making their lives just a bit better and then they were not just giving gifts out, but that those gifts were considered and tailor made for each of the recipients. That shows real thoughtfulness because those are the gifts that mean the most – even to a “stranger”.
And they’re right: “Doing something that creates a real smile on somebody’s face is much cooler than attaching a smiley face”.
Nice work, Ogilvy.
Meanwhile, er… Ogilvy have created a brilliant campaign for KLM’s rivals, British Airways, on the back of the Ashes tour to Australia.
With England set to win the final match (and the series and the Ashes with it) tomorrow, BA have launched an online promotion for flights from Sydney to London, offering to discount flights by the largest amount of runs England scores in a single Ashes innings.
Apparently:
The tongue-in-cheek campaign is running on Australian sites only, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, and uses the strapline “Do something you never thought you would do. Cheer on England”.
Andrew Boggs, business director for the British Airways account at Ogilvy London, said: “The idea was to offer Australian cricket fans some consolation in defeat – without resorting to triumphalism or condescension.”
Right, Andrew. I’m sure the Aussies don’t see it as triumphalism or condescension. *cough*
Because they have been so very dominant in the series, England haven’t actually had to have too many innings’. However, I think I’m right in saying that their knock in the current match in Sydney was their best at 644 (A$644 = £415) – knocking about a third off the cheapest flights to London.
Throw in some cricket lessons for them as well and I think that’s a pretty good deal.
While I can’t comment on the KLM promotion the BA one is a copy of a Virgin Atlantic promotion from 2005 and perhaps other airlines subsequently.
The 2005 promotion was dubbed a Flintoff fare and was something like whatever Flintoff’s final run tally was the discount off a full fare ticket.
I got 2 tickets to Sydney for something like 600 quid total, so not bad going.
Reflex > Still trying to find out when this one was launched – were they protecting themselves, maybe?
Although realistically, they couldn’t have expected to take a hit like A$644 per ticket, could they?
What they normally do is make it a discount off a full priced fare and then limit seats available.
Availability will also only be out of season so in effect you are filling up an aircraft that would have had otherwise empty seats.
Reflex > You surely don’t mean that “Terms and Conditions apply”? 😉
Bang goes BA’s altruism as well.
Try getting stranded in a hellhole called Schipol and see how altruistic KLM is when they cancel your flight, make you stand in a 12 hour rebooking queue, offer no clear communication and then take over a week to reunite you with your luggage. KLM can kiss my pert behind.