Setting a marketing strategy to match the reduced appetite for travel (Slides presented during webinar Hosted by Terrapinn on 23 May 2020) Customers are not buying tickets right now, but airlines want to maintain brand awareness, so marketing strategy has to be adapted to right the current climate. On this webinar, marketing experts from Japan Airlines and Air Mauritius will discuss the dos and don’ts of marketing in a time of crisis, and how to avoid alienating customers whilst keeping your airline in the minds of the consumer.

1. Setting a marketing strategy to match
the reduced appetite for travel
The dos and don’ts of airline marketing in a time of crisis

2. MAURITIUS OVERCOMES COVID-19
• POSITIVE CASES REGISTERED IN
MAURITIUS: 332
• COVID-19 RELATED DEATHS IN
MAURITIUS: 10
• SUCCESSFULLY TREATED PATIENTS IN
MAURITIUS: 322
• NEW CASES REGISTERED TODAY (0n 20th
May 2020) : NIL
• ACTIVE CASES IN MAURITIUS: 0
As of Wednesday 20 May, no new cases
have been recorded in Mauritius for 24
consecutive days.
Source : https://www.tourism-mauritius.mu/
https://besafemoris.mu/general_news/covid-19-statistics-
wednesday-20th-may-2020/

3. COUNTRIES BEATING COVID-19
Source :

4. Source : artizans.com
The Travel & Tourism industry has been hit hard by COVID-19

5. Source : artizans.com
All Airlines have been impacted
Source : Aylien blog

6. Current context
• Covid-19 Pandemic
• All borders closed
• Very little or almost no commercial flights
• Start of Domestic flights
• Humanitarian (Cargo & Repatriation flights) to bring back or carry stranded people
home
• Almost the whole world on lockdown
• 3rd week of March to end of May 2020 (more than 2 months)
• Very strict control on movement
• The Air Transport Industry is on Life Support (consequence)
“an event with the following attributes. First, it is an outlier, as
it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because
nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility.
Second, it carries an extreme impact....
The Black Swan

7. Customer Behaviour evolved fast during lockdown
•People switching to online
• Discovery of ecommerce for many
• More time to browse internet
• More active on Social Media
• More sharing among their own network
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Messaging Apps
• What’s App
• Line
• Weibo & WeChat

8. Source
Marketing strategy

9. Marketing Strategy in time of crisis
Stage1
• Communication on the current situation
• Current status
• Flight cancellation / Rebooking & Refund / frequent flyer Miles & Tier status
• Flight operations (future)
• Special dedicated website page for Covid-19 updates
• With Links to important pages
• Link to local health authorities site(s)
• Johns Hopkins for world wide update
• Link to WHO
• Link to IATA update on border control evolution

10. Airline CEOs communicating with customers (informing them of
the situation)

11. Provide clear information about flight cancellation,
rebooking & refund and vouchers

12. Provide clear information about flight cancellation, rebooking &
refund and vouchers
some airline leveraging on AI / Chatbot (AVA used by Air Asia)

13. Re-assure customers about their miles expiry

14. Covid-19 Update
• Make it available & easy access on all
media & devices (mobile first)

15. Stay in the mind of your customers and people at large
Engagement through relevant content
Stage2
• Contextual
• Relevance
• Useful
• Creative
• Content that resonate with your audience
• Instant sharing
• Quiz, Polls
• Engaging content (rich media) / cross sharing form stakeholders
• Video
• Photos
• UGCs

16. Stay in the mind of people – engage with your audience
Examples of campaigns
Source : KLM Air Mail campaign

17. Stay in the mind of people – engage with your audience
Examples of campaigns
Source : Air Mauritius “Creating
Memories Together” campaign

18. Leveraging on good actions & news for PR
• Humanitarian flights
• Lots of patriotism expressed
• British Airways Cabin Crew helping NHS

19. Supporting authorities in their mission
• Thai Airways giving miles for staying at home (4 hrs)
• Recruit new members to its Loyalty programme
• Supports the Thai government efforts to combat
COVID-19 by rewarding Thai citizens and residents
who stay home to stop spreading of the virus.
• Runs on an application platform
• Gives a total of 1,000,000 Royal Orchid Plus miles to
participants, rewarding 1 mile for every 4 hours of
staying at home

20. Gifting 100,000 free tickets to frontline healthcare professionals
• Qatar Airways is gifting 100,000 free tickets to frontline healthcare
professionals to say thank you for their heroic work during the
current COVID-19 pandemic
Open to healthcare professionals who had
to register their details via the Qatar
Airways website.
The winning applicants will receive an
email from Qatar Airways containing a
promotion code which can be used to
make a booking via the airline’s website.
Tickets must be booked before 26
November, with travel valid until 10
December 2020.

21. Quiz & poll to engage with customers
Source : Thai Airways

22. Involving & engaging the whole organisation to be
creative
Source : KLM & Air Caraïbes

23. Create inspiration & the love for travel
Source : Emirates

24. Leverage on whole network of stakeholders to be
present in people’s mind and resume in due course
• Example
Tourism information site, Vietnam.travel, continued to offer inspiration, as well as travel advice, during the
lockdown as this was one of our few shop windows to the world. They had millions of hits as people watched
our 360° virtual tours so that they could dream about and plan a future trip.
Source : Vietnam Travel
Vietnam out passing Thailand as a safe destination ready to
welcome tourist. Tap on new Travel Bubble which include
Vietnam, China, South Korea, & others to follow

25. Leverage on whole network of stakeholders to be
present in people’s mind and resume
• Example
Tourism information site, Vietnam.travel, continued to offer inspiration, as well as travel advice, during the
lockdown as this was one of our few shop windows to the world. They had millions of hits as people watched
our 360° virtual tours so that they could dream about and plan a future trip.
Source : Vietnam Travel

26. Leverage on whole network of stakeholders to be
present in people’s mind and resume
• Example
Tourism information site, Vietnam.travel, continued to offer inspiration, as well as travel advice, during the
lockdown as this was one of our few shop windows to the world. They had millions of hits as people watched
our 360° virtual tours so that they could dream about and plan a future trip.
Source : Vietnam Travel

27. Get ready for recovery
Stage3
• Reassure your customers on health & safety measures you are taking (Clean, Hygiene & Care)
• Understand demand
• Use Innovative way to generate Cash flow
• Market your Cargo flights
• Offer flexible booking possibilities (Travel Pass)
• Control your “Cost of Sales” - SEO & Organic
• Creating Landing Pages for all routes and deals & Offers
• Have localised pages for each
• Optimise content for SEP
• Responsive Booking Engine
• Use of Promo code for Closed User Group (partners, Frequent flyers)

28. Reassurance on Clean, Hygiene & Care
• Communication on the new normal (tell your customers what you are doing
to take care of them for their next flight with you)
• This should cover all stages of the customer journey at the airport
throughout
o Check-In at the airport
o Boarding
o On the flight
o At Arrival

29. New Health & Safety measures (example)
Source : Air Canada
Check-In at the airport

30. Boarding
Source : Air Canada

31. Onboard
Source : Air Canada

32. Onboard (contd.)
Source : Air Canada

33. Market your cargo flights to generate cash flow

34. Leveraging on Loyalty programmes to engage with
customers & even generate revenue..
Air Canada Aeroplan
miles - Generating
Revenues from selling
miles
Source : Aeroplan

35. Understand demand / closely watch trends
Source : https://www.everymundo.com/flight-demand-tracker/
Or IATA Travel Pulse
(new Product)

36. Understand demand / closely watch trends
Source : Google Trends

37. Marketing future flights & routes
• Offer Soft currency benefits
• Bonus miles
• Free access to lounge (for first xx bookings)
Source : Thai Airways

38. Use Flight Pass from Option Town (subscription scheme)
Source : Air Canada, Option Town for Ethiopian

39. Some innovative initiative
We all can’t wait to travel again. But today, what our world needs is for us to stay safe and
apart. Though, that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to dream big about where we will go next.
#travelagain from
Provide passengers with the ability to purchase a
future travel certificate today that incrementally
increases in value over timeSource : PLUSGRADE

40. Until things return to normality, airlines
• Must continue to stay in the mind of travellers
• With various marketing initiatives on Website, Social Media & Earned media
• Inspiring them with rich media and engaging content
• Get ready for recovery and the new normal
• Reassure customers on health & safety measures they are taking (Clean, Hygiene & Care)
• Work with national health authorities / Civil Aviation, Airports, Tourist Board and all travel stakeholders
for a common strategy
• Adopt best practices as guided by IATA, ACI, ICAO, EASA
• When we have visibility on operations, make use of Website, SEO strategy, email campaign & Social Media
marketing to market domestic flights, then regional flights & finally long haul International flights
• Gradually introduce Paid media campaign to market strategic routes (in due course)
• Support all above with right data / tools / marketing, social, health, economic intelligence as far as possible.

41. Thank you / Merci
https://www.linkedin.com/in/youvraj-seeam