social media @virgin america: cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

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Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

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Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement. Innovation in the Skies. “A Multi-million Dollar IPOD. That Flies.” –. Needed Grassroots Support from Day One. “ U.S. GOVERNMENT SAYS VIRGIN AMERICA UN-AMERICAN” – Dec. 2006. “UNFAIRLY GROUNDED” – Dec 2006. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Page 2: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Innovation in the Skies

“A Multi-million Dollar IPOD. That Flies.” –

Page 3: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Needed Grassroots Support from Day One

“U.S. GOVERNMENT SAYS VIRGIN AMERICA UN-AMERICAN” – Dec.

2006

“UNFAIRLY GROUNDED” – Dec 2006

Page 4: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

May 2007: You ARE American

“VIRGIN AMERICA CLEARED FOR AUGUST TAKE OFF”- May 2006

Page 5: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

“Last year, the folks planning the launch of Richard Branson's soon-to-lift-off Virgin America line asked us if we'd like to name

one of their new planes.

After much swapping of emails among BoingBoing co-editors, we finally agreed on one name that that loyal readers of this

lowly blog will no doubt find meaningful: UNICORN CHASER.”

“Google maps takes flight in Virgin America…all the map data is cached on the plane's local

network, so it'll be even faster than sitting across the street from Google HQ at a Starbucks in

Mountain View.”

“...it just so happens to have the best cabin slash in-flight features we have seen on an airline. With that in mind, you should know we are rooting for them.

We too want air travel in the U.S. to be a pleasant experience.”

“The new planes from Virgin America theoretically have a whole bunch of cool gadget-friendly features such as a 110V plug, USB port, and RJ-45 (Ethernet) port in every seat. What's also cool is the touchscreen feature on the back of every seat. There are music, games, and movie features, plus you can chat with people in other seats or go into a chatroom for the WHOLE PLANE.”

“Like a Multimillion-Dollar IPod. That Flies…the planes have clearly been designed by people with a keen sense of design and an appreciation of technology's ability to make

people feel comfortable and happy.”

Geek’s Airline of Choice: Even before we launched

Page 6: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

PR Entering Virgin Territory..…

Page 7: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

VX Launched at a Time When Media Landscape Changing Dramatically

Page 8: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media Trends: 2010

Page 9: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media Trends: 2010

Page 10: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: Why Is It Important To Us?

Page 11: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Virgin America’s Social Media Presence

2 million video views

280k followers187k likes

Guest engagement very high and largely positive – highest airline positive social media sentiment.

SoMe audiences are brand advocates – and also have high expectations.

Page 12: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: Why Is It Relevant?

53% of our guests carry laptops

onboard.

Up to one-third of our guests are logging on to WiFi on

some long-haul flights.

Over 70% of bookings come from web channels.

The Apple store is next most likely purchase for our

guests – and #1 store for Elevate members buying

from Red Store.

Page 13: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

We Use Social Media Channels For

Brand Reputation/Engagement

Guest Service

Sales

Awareness, trial and loyalty

Informal, authentic way to connect with guests

New sales channel – where our tech-forward guests live

Avenue to address guest issues

Reputation management: battles won/lost in space

Page 14: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social media is relevant to our guests:

– 90% of our Elevate members are on Facebook and 35% are on Twitter

– High-value guests participate in TopGuest, other geo-local social media rewards programs

– 70% of bookings come from web

– Up to 1/3 of our guests are on the internet during flights

Effective Use of Social Media

They are also relevant for us: Real-time service, sales efforts, reputation management & engagement

Our social media channels have been widely recognized:

Page 15: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Alaska

American

British Airways

Delta

Frontier

JetBlue

KLM

Lufthansa

Qantas

Spirit

Southwest

United

USAir

Virgin America

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

*The @qantasairways @Name was created in November 2010

Sentiment: 2010, positive to negative ratio

Page 16: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: Engagement

Page 17: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: Building Customer Connections @ 35,000 Feet

• @alexiatsotsis tweets: Dr. Carla Munevar just graduated from med school, made shirts for her flight on @virginamerica #vx406 @lkr http://twitpic.com/72l9s

• @alexiatsotsis tweets: Go Dr. Carla!!! the people in row 11FED want to send her a drink. @virginamerica #Vx406

• @virginamerica tweets: Social Media experiment; make it

happen! RT: @alexiatsotsis:@lkr Go Dr. Carla!!! the people in row 11FED want to send her a drink.#Vx406

• @alexiatsotsis tweets: okay we're on the case - @lkr? #vx406

• @lkr tweets: Love it @virginamerica just tweeted about me and @alexiatsotsis!

• @virginamerica tweets: RT @alexiatsotsis: @lkr SOCIAL MEDIA FTW - we got Dr.Carla champagne, in honor of her graduation #vx406 http://twitpic.com/72kkl

Page 18: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

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Social Media: Sales

#FlyFwdGiveBack was our 4th highest sales day

Page 19: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: PR + Sales

4 hour sale =5th highest sales day of 2010

Page 20: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: Real-Time Guest Service

Page 21: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: Real-Time Guest Service

Guest Complaint/Question/ Feedback/Issue on Twitter1000-3000 Tweets and posts a Day

mentioning VX – 15-20% response rate

Page 22: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Guest Service Involvement

• Real time air-to-ground guest service. • Guests have tweeted for faster food service

– and ACARs messages sent air-to-ground, so ITMs can assist.

• Guests have posted worried over missing connections: BOS station alerted by SoMe team + waiting to whisk them to connection

Page 23: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

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Social Media: Real-Time Guest Service, Proactive Messaging

Page 24: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Guest ServiceDirect Response

Page 25: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement
Page 26: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Conversation/Feedback

Page 27: Social Media @Virgin America: Cultivating brand equity and guest engagement

Social Media: Observations

• PR is social + social is PR: this is the media world we live in• Brand reputation is an organizational priority – and social media is the front line. Just like PR crises, the organization must be able to act and adjust to social media

• Timeliness is key, but tried & true PR judgement is still king • You cannot manage every story/complaint: but staying honest, authentic and ethical will win out in the end

• Technology moving too fast for traditional, hierarchical organization to keep up:

8 Driven not only by new software/media products, but also significant increases in mobile capabilities and penetration

• Given real time expectations of guests, a flat, dedicated group outside of, but aligned to, traditional customer care is key

8 While email + snail mail can be answered in days without negative impact, tweets must be addressed in minutes/ hours

8 A department separate or matrixed to customer care may seem expensive, but likely reduces the number of written complaints to traditional channels that can be much more costly to address

8 Customer goodwill from immediately addressing service failure and acknowledging praise for a good job is significant