Top 10 Crowdsourcing Initiatives by Airlines

Featuring:

Top 10 Crowdsourcing
initiatives by Airlines and
Airports.

Helping airlines & airports engage travelers profitably

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Case-study 1
Finnair + Helsinki Airport: “Quality Hunters”

It all started in September 2010…

…when Finnair launched a campaign to hire 4
“quality hunters”. The original job offer read:

“The Quality Hunters' mission will be to travel to cities in Europe, Asia and the US
throughout October and November, assessing flights, airports and destinations. As
independent advisors to Finnair, they are expected to communicate their impartial
views and recommendations to the company on a regular basis throughout the two-
month period. In addition, the Quality Hunters will share their thoughts and
adventures with the public through personal blogs.”

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… and expanded in 2011
The original campaign received more than 5200 job applications and generated a
considerable amount of positive exposure for the company, both online and
offline, with the website being visited by more than 10.000 people on the busiest days.

In 2011 the campaign was re-
launched, but this time in
partnership with Helsinki
Airport and searching for 8
quality hunters.

Each specialized in a different
“field” of quality, from
socializing to business class
services.


Invited other users to share ideas too!
This time however the program also included several “additional” social media
based tools to allow other users to suggest and discuss new ideas.

The idea meter was a particularly successful tool as it allowed on-site discussions as
well as Facebook and Twitter discussions, with dedicated Twitter hashtags for each
idea.

Quality brand focus

The greatest achievement of the strategy behind the quality hunters campaign
however is perhaps a less obvious one…

By creating this crowdsourcing challenge both Finnair and Helsinki Airport have
created a strong association between their brand and the concept of quality.

This was achieved mostly through the media coverage of the challenge and the buzz
that it generated on the social web.


Case-study 2
Lufthansa: “Cargo Innovation”

Going green!
In November 2011 Lufthansa Cargo launched a competition aimed at improving its
operations in two key areas:
Green Solutions: aimed at reducing the company’s environmental footprint

Add-on Services: aimed at identifying additional services that could improve the
company’s portfolio or streamline its current operations


Social innovation!

The initiative has recently achieved the
100 submissions mark, and is constantly
growing.

Once posted, the ideas can be browsed
trough a tag cloud on the competition’s
website and discussed using either a
dedicated twitter account, a dedicated
facebook tab, or the website itself.


A noble initiative generates considerable buzz!

The contest is scheduled to end
in mid December 2011, with the
winners being announced in
February 2012.

So far the initiative has proven to
be very successful, generating a
considerable amount of buzz.
This achievement is even more
remarkable if the lower lever of
“glamour” associated with air
cargo is taken into account.


Case-study 3
KLM: “Bright Ideas”

A very social company goes crowdsourcing

Recently, KLM launched a new Facebook tab, dedicated to crowdsourcing
ideas to improve their products and services, where it invited its Facebook
followers to share their ideas and discuss them freely.


Facebook focus
By concentrating its crowdsourcing efforts on its Facebook
page the airline was able to appeal directly to its existing user
base. This also empowered its fans to share and discuss the
ideas amongst themselves while at the same time generating
large amounts of social buzz and exposing the users to other
features of the Facebook page.


The results start to show

The program is still relatively new but some of the feedback and ideas obtained
from it are starting to be implemented with very positive results.


Case-study 4
Estonian Air: “My Estonian Air”

A renewed vision at the top!
The arrival of a new CEO at Estonian Air has brought a wealth of new ideas and
innovative management techniques to the airline.

One of the most remarkable changes has been the launch of a crowdsourcing
campaign to:

“..firstly, to get ideas from
people and see what they
think and expect from us.
Secondly, it gives us a perfect
opportunity to explain why
certain things are done in
certain way and also sell our
service”
[Tero Taskila, CEO, Estonian
Air]

My Estonian Air

Right from its very start the crowdsourcing campaign invited users to get involved
and, most importantly, to take ownership of the airline, helping shape its future.

The initial reaction was
overwhelming with over 300
responses on the day the
website opened. Furthermore
the concept proved so
successful that the airline,
after implementing some of
the proposed solutions, was
nominated for several industry
awards for its outstanding
initiatives and product
offerings.


Actually implementing the ideas!
Building on the recommendations and ideas
put forward by its customers the airline was
able to considerably improve its service
offering. One of its most popular initiatives
has been the “gourmet flights” where
passengers are offered a special in-flight
meal designed and presented by local chefs.


Case-study 5
Air France: “Design competition”

Pioneering the crowdsourcing wave!
The Air France design contest of 2009 as well as being one of the first and finest
examples of airline crowdsourcing was also one of the first to pre-select participants
by only accepting applications from:

“students and young
people who graduated less
than 3 years ago from
design schools, graphic
arts schools, industrial
design schools, fine arts
schools in France, the
Netherlands, Belgium,
Switzerland, Italy and the
United Kingdom”


Ensuring quality results
By limiting its pool of candidates to selected groups of culturally relevant and
appropriately trained young professionals, the company was able to receive a large
amount of high-quality submissions that ultimately led to some extraordinary results.


Strategic marketing background
From a marketing point of view however, the most important aspect of the
competition was the subtle association it created between the concept of high-
quality design and the airline itself.

This core association was
further exploited by the
airline in its advertisements
that often featured
design, fashion and quality
related themes.


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Case-study 6
WestJet: “Cutting costs with employee
innovation”

Ask your employees

It is often said that a company’s employees are its most valuable asset since they
are the ones closest to the end customers and the day to day operations.

Knowing this, WestJet’s
management decided to
run a crowd sourcing
exercise, asking their
employees for ideas on
how to reduce costs and
help the company trough
the though economic
situation.


Handling the response

Soon after announcing the new crowdsourcing strategy the company run into some
trouble. As one of WestJet’s senior business analysts put it :

“We were inundated with ideas, to where we just couldn't handle them
administratively”

The response had
been so enthusiastic
that over 450
employees registered
to help within a few
days of the original
announcement.


Enlisting the help of pros
In order to cope with the overwhelming response the airline enlisted the help of
Spigit, a company specialized in crowdsourcing solutions. With the help of Spigit
the number of employees taking part in the program rose to over 2000, and the
results could be processed in an orderly fashion.

The results were soon
evident, and according
to some estimates were
responsible for over
10 million dollars in
savings


Case-study 7
American Airlines: “Stay connected”

Outsourcing Creativity

American Airlines recently completed an investment program to include new
features to its service offering. Amongst these features are new mobile phone
apps, in flight Wi-Fi, live video-streaming and power ports. In line with its
innovative offer it also decided to crowdsource the creativity for its marketing
campaign launching the Stay Connected challenge.


Guaranteed purchase

The crowdsourcing
campaign was designed
in co-operation with
crowdsourcing website
poptent.net

The company asked the
website’s users to
produce a 90-second
video illustrating the
benefits of the new
features and promised
to purchase the best
video for $ 7500.


Impressive response rates
The contest has not ended yet, however it appears to have been very successful
since the challenge has been accepted by over 550 users.


Case-study 8
Ryanair: “Ancillary revenue competition”

What should we charge you for today?

When it comes to finding
additional revenue sources
European low cost carrier
Ryanair is certainly one of
the most proactive (and
provocative) airlines
around. However, it seems
that even they had some
problems finding new
“revenue streams”.


The crowd has a sense of humour
The company ran a crowdsourcing contest where it asked people to submit ideas for
new extra fees, promising 1000 Euros to the winner. The response from the crowd
was exceptional and often included a good deal of humour.

These are some of the best
proposals received by the
company:

•Charging for toilet paper –
with O’Leary’s face on it,

•Charging €2.50 to read the
safety cards,

•Charging €50 for bikini clad
Cabin Crew.


Two years later people are still worried…
The contest turned out to be an excellent marketing tool for the company,
reinforcing its image of a low cost company willing to do anything to lower its
fares. The legacy of the contest also had a surprisingly long lasting effect
generating a considerable amount of buzz and urban legends still circulating about
the possible implementation of some of these measures.


Case-study 9
SAS: “New summer routes”

Summer routes
If you are an airline manager and have successfully identified 21 out of the 22
summer destinations you were asked to find, but cannot decide on the 22nd do you:

a) Start looking immediately for
an expensive market analyst?

b) Ask a magic mirror?

c) Go on Facebook and ask your
customer where would they
like to fly ?

(Hint: Magic mirrors do not exist)


Sommerflyet 2012
Being a very social airline with more than 110,000 followers, SAS decided to go for
option C and launched a campaign called “Sommerflyet 2012’ to let its followers
decide one of its 22 summer routes.


A clear winner
The company asked its followers to submit a destination that was within 5 hours’
flight-time from its Oslo hub and then included the top 10 suggestions into a poll that
was posted on its Facebook page.

This well planned approach proved very effective and provided both brand exposure,
social interaction with the community and efficient business intelligence.

The Turkish town of Alanya
emerged as a clear winner
and will become one of the 22
summer destinations for the
summer 2012 season.


Case-study 10
BA: “Menu design & great Britons program”

Crowdsourcing to support homegrown talents

As part of its efforts to
support British born
talent ahead of the 2012
Olympics, British Airways
launched a program to
search for 3 candidates:
a chef, a scriptwriter and
an artist.


An Olympic task

Each of the three candidates will have the
opportunity to develop his/her talent with the
help of a British celebrity.

At the end of the program the winners and their
mentors will develop an aircraft livery, an on-
board menu and an in-flight movie that will be
featured on British Airways’ aircraft during the
run up to the 2012 Olympic games .


A win-win solution
The four winners will be able to showcase their talent with the help of their mentors,
and be awarded free flights on BA to help with their career development. The airline
in return will be able to strengthen its association with Britain, and its role as the
leading UK carrier.


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Top 10 Crowdsourcing Initiatives by Airlines

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