Airport World Magazine, Dec/ Jan 2014 - SimpliFlying’s David McMullen and Shubhodeep Pal discuss the rise of airport investment in social media. To gain a deeper understanding of airport investments in social media, SimpliFlying surveyed nearly 50 of the best airports on social media, for its annual Airport Social Media Outlook 2013/ 2014.

1. EXCHANGE
MARKETING
IRPORT
MARKETING
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SCALING NEW HEIGHTS
SimpliFlying’s David McMullen and Shubhodeep Pal discuss the rise of airport
investment in social media.
T
he shift in airport attitudes towards marketing and in
dealing with the new-age traveller is quite apparent –
especially in Europe.
While airports have struggled with the dilemma of the
‘unknown passenger’ for a fair while, they have finally realised
that the increasing use of public social networks offers enough
valuable information about passengers that can help them
drive key business goals.
Many airports today offer real-time customer service via Twitter
and have immensely engaging Facebook pages. In fact, airports are
launching some of the most innovative social and mobile campaigns
today – all in an effort to tap into the ‘digisocial’ revolution and
enhance the travel experience of today’s connected traveller.
Social media outlook 2013/2014
While a rising number of initiatives is good empirical evidence of
airports’ keenness to invest in social media, SimpliFlying wanted
to delve more deeply into the functioning of airport social teams
themselves by asking questions such as: What are the kind of
budgets allocated to social media? How many staff are being
dedicated? What is holding airports back from becoming better
in using social media?
In addition, we especially wanted to understand the internal
priorities, business goals, and, not least of all, budgeting for 2014.
To study these parameters and gain a deeper understanding of
airport investments in social media, SimpliFlying surveyed nearly
50 of the best airports on social media, for its annual Airport Social
Media Outlook 2013/ 2014.
Compared to last year’s numbers, we definitely see a
significant upward trend in terms of investment in airport social
media. In fact, many airports are bullish about the prospects of a
more aggressive social media strategy for 2014.
Budget, staffing and training
Compared to a year ago, more airports have put in more money
to social media in 2013, and the allocation of a bigger budget
is a testament of the increasing importance of social media on
the business agenda of airport organisations.
Advertising on social networks appears to be the top
spending in the social media budget, with training as the
second top spending.
This year, more airports have also dedicated more
man-hours to social media, compared to 2012 when
many of them were still exploring the usage of social media.
A good half of the airport respondents this year have
dedicated man-hours equivalent to one full-time staff to
social media, while more than a fifth overall has allocated
man-hours equivalent to two full-time staff to social media.
Internally, there is an interesting shift sighted among
airports this year with most marketing departments
contributing more budget but less manpower to social media,
and corporate communications departments contributing
less budget but more manpower.
The majority of the airports invested in at least one day of
social media training for their staff. Compared with gateways
in North America, airports in Europe are leading this front.
In fact, 40% of respondents from European airports had
invested in three days of social media training or more for its staff.
Airport social media: Business goals,
campaign tactics and KPIs
Qualitatively speaking, there is no denying the fact that many
airports are engaging their passengers on social media to raise
awareness of their brands. In Europe especially, with the season of
snow looming large, it seems most airports are putting social
Source: SimpliFlying Airport Social Media Outlook 2013/2014.
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AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2013-JANUARY 2014

2. MARKETING
Source: SimpliFlying Airport Social Media Outlook 2013/2014.
media customer service and crisis communications
teams (which happen to be among the top three business
goals driven by social media) high on their social media
agenda. Even news channels today source the latest
news from social media channels – the recent shooting
at LAX and the Asiana Airlines crash at SFO are evidence
of the fact.
However, currently there seems to be a gap between
what airports are measuring on social media and the
business goals they seek to drive with social media. A
large majority of the airports are using ‘likes’, comments,
shares, and size of fan base as key social media
metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). They need
to delve deeper and explore using average rates of
response times and issues resolutions as KPIs. At the
same time, they need to mine the data from various
social media metrics to refine their campaigns – most
of which involve online contests and user-generated
content as the top components, among six other
components polled.
What’s in store for 2014?
While most airports face similar challenges from last
year – with ‘insufficient resource allocation’ as the
biggest challenge of seven – there is a higher level of
optimism to increase social media for 2014.
Only a very small minority (4%) are due to reduce their
budget. What is noteworthy is that 51% of
airports have indicated that they will be increasing
their social media budget for 2014. And interestingly
enough, it seems that the European airports are
leading this front.
A significant change underway
The numbers from SimpliFlying Airport Social Media
Outlook 2013/2014 are emphatic evidence of a
change under way – airports are increasing their
investments in social media.
The tectonic plates of airport marketing have shifted
radically in the last few years due to widespread adoption
of smart devices, social networks and near-constant
Internet connectivity. This has extraordinary implications
for every airport as the new connected traveller expects
airports to be accessible in their ‘pockets’, whilst
receiving excellent customer service and a tailored airport
experience on the go.
While our Airport Social Media Outlook survey research
provides some answers and guidance to marketing in this
age of the connected traveller, airports need to continue
experimenting with different social media campaign formats
and tactics to refine their marketing strategy and work
towards achieving results that map back to their business
goals – such as customer service, loyalty and revenue – in
innovative ways that travellers cannot afford to ignore.
The full infographic for SimpliFlying Airport Social
Media Outlook 2013/2014 can be found at
j.mp/AirportSMOutlook14 ahead of the January 2014 release
of the full report, which will form part of the quarterly
SimpliFlying Airport Marketing Benchmarking Report. AW
About the authors
SimpliFlying has worked with over 40 airlines and
airports globally to help them think differently about
aviation marketing. David McMullen is VP for airports.
Shubhodeep Pal is VP for products & operations.
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