Details the Strategy for Virtual world proposed for Air France. http://rahulnambiar.com

1. Metaverses and Advergaming Strategy and
Proposal
Rahul Nambiar, Master of Digital Marketing,
Class of 2010, IE Business School

2. Rahul Nambiar, Master of Digital Marketing, Class of 2010, IE Business School
Table of Contents
1. Company .............................................................................................................. 2
a. Background ........................................................................................................ 2
b. Disruption caused by Online Commerce ............................................................ 2
c. Key Marketing Initiatives..................................................................................... 2
2. Metaverses and Advergaming for Air France ....................................................... 3
a. Why a Metaverses and Gaming strategy?.......................................................... 3
b. Proposed Strategy.............................................................................................. 3
c. Key Elements of the activity................................................................................ 4
1. Viral Advergame – “Catch the flight”............................................................... 4
2. In Game Banner Ads ...................................................................................... 4
3. Virtual Worlds ................................................................................................. 5
d. Budgets Allocation.............................................................................................. 5
3. Key Success Factors ............................................................................................ 6
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3. Rahul Nambiar, Master of Digital Marketing, Class of 2010, IE Business School
1. Company
a. Background
In 1933 five French airlines merged to form Air France, and the new company set up its hub at the main airport
of the Ile de France Region in Paris. Seventy-five years later, that hub, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, had grown to
be one of the most efficient in Europe, providing the largest number of connections within the shortest time
span. By 2007 Air France had expanded its U.S. cities served to thirteen. In total that year, Air France served
185 destinations in 83 countries and its total fleet size stood at 383 aircraft. The traffic increased steadily over
the years and most recently the average increase in revenue per seat per available kilometer at 5.1 percent1.
Financially the company is still privately held hence the details of the balance sheet and budgets will not be
publicly available.
b. Disruption caused by Online Commerce
The travel industry was one of the fastest movers in the online commerce. With strong technology systems
backing the booking methodology, the travel industry were the fastest to tap on to the online commerce
methodology for booking tickets especially because the target category for the travel companies were
increasingly using online commerce for reducing time. With more and more intermediate companies and travel
agents coming up with online booking websites, the airline companies are finding it hard to catch up.
c. Key Marketing Initiatives
The typical customer lifecycle for the travel industry can be described as per the image below:
Figure 1 : Customer Relationship Cycle2
In the case of travel companies, the most important driver of revenues and booking patterns is the Loyalty and
Awareness of the offers, and it has been seen that customers are beginning to be more and more demanding
and less loyal, especially when we look at some of the key points raised at the Microsoft Travel Marketing
summit3 June’ 09. The highlight of the discussion point - “there has been 19% decline in brand loyal travelers
between 2006 and 2008.”
Looking from this angle the strategy adopted by Air France at a high level seems to follow this pattern:
1 Air France Internet Marketing White Paper by Kellogg School of Management
2 http://www.emergence-media.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/socialrep-customer-lifecycle.png
3 Forrester Analyst Report- http://blogs.forrester.com/ebusiness_strategy/2009/06/observations-after-the-microsoft-travel-
marketing-summit-.html
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4. Rahul Nambiar, Master of Digital Marketing, Class of 2010, IE Business School
 Generating high branding and awareness – Air France has just gone through a complete re
branding activity4. The SVP of Corporate communication of Air France in his press release – “This
new graphic identity aims to communicate what Air France is today: a company loyal to its national
identity and to the values to which it is attached, but also becoming—most notably through the
creation of the Air-France KLM group—a global brand with half of its clients being from countries other
than France”
 Keeping the right mix is the key – Brand versus Performance Advertising5
 Showcase travel safety especially after the recent crash6
2. Metaverses and Advergaming for Air France
a. Why a Metaverses and Gaming strategy?
Air France is going through a rebranding effort and with the advent of online commerce the writing on the wall is
pretty much clear that there needs to be created a high branding and awareness in their target customer segment
and a direct connect with the customer is needed to highlight all the key features of the brand:
 Economic
 On Time
 Safe Travel
 Great food and In flight entertainment
Advertising through Virtual Worlds and gaming brings some of the key elements required to help the strategy –
Engagement with the brand to highlight the features, viral effect and Buzz needed to maintain brand awareness.
b. Proposed Strategy
4 Air France Rebranding - http://www.brand-image.com/pdf/AirFrance_Brandimage_PR.pdf
5 Definition of the right social marketing metrics http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,53600,00.html
6 Hopes Dim for Air France Jet Missing Over Ocean http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124385144990571769.html
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5. Rahul Nambiar, Master of Digital Marketing, Class of 2010, IE Business School
The key strategy proposed for Air France is to divide budgets into 3 key areas 60% on Viral Advergame, 30% on
performance based online banners at online gaming sites and 10% for virtual worlds. The detailing out of each of
the activity follows.
c. Key Elements of the activity
1. Viral Advergame – “Catch the flight”
The Advergame which is to be developed will revolve around the concept of “Catch the flight”, an
interactive flash based game which will be hosted in the link: http://www.catchtheflight.com.
Highlights
 The game will need to bring in the key aspects of the objective of the program – Brand
Engagement, Safety, on time travel and In flight entertainment
 Multi level game will be scored and every 1000 game points will add 1 Mileage point to the
frequent fliers, Every 10 referrals will add 2 Mileage points
 Non- Frequent fliers will get an opportunity to win a ticket between any 2 destination of their
choice
 Game will be hosted on Facebook to attract the 200 Million users; referral program will be
applicable here for frequent fliers. The URL http://www.catchtheflight.com will be redirected to
the Facebook game page
 Idea is to bring in 2 key aspect of advergames together – Viral and Social Sharing
Performance Parameters
 Brand Engagement score will be generated for each user based on the following table
State of User Points
Starts the game 1 Point
Crosses a level 2 Points
Refers a friend 0.5 Points
Completes the Game 5 Points
The campaign has to generate an average Brand engagement score of 3.5.
 Other target numbers
Number of Users Played 100,000
Viral Video Views 1 Million
2. In Game Banner Ads
The popularity of games in the in the demographics of Male 25 + in age is evident. Hence, the proposal
to have banner ad campaigns in the major online gaming website is natural and goes with the strategy.
Highlights:
 Offer based online banner ads targeted at the online gaming community. The top 3 online
gaming website will be targeted through the online gaming ad network
 Cost will be CPM based, but success measurement through CPC and conversion
 Branding Led but Performance oriented
Performance Parameters
The value for CPM for Ads has been taken from internet7 . The table below shows the estimated
performance parameters which can be used for judging the success of the campaign
7 Advertising CPM’s http://executivesummary.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/virtual-world-biz-model-advertising-cpms/
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6. Rahul Nambiar, Master of Digital Marketing, Class of 2010, IE Business School
The average booking size and conversion rates are as per the SEM campaign report
3. Virtual Worlds
Popularity of second life towards the target segment is clear from the following Kzero report graphic:
The key virtual worlds to be present primarily for branding purpose are:
 Second life – 14 Million Users – US based target audience
 HiPiHi – China based target audience
Second Life is the most popular and hence the investment will need to be diverted in using the following
spaces in Second Life:
Branding of Aircrafts Airport Branding
Performance Parameter
Since, this is a branding led campaign; the performance of the campaign will be solely based on
Impressions. Target Impressions will be based on a daily budget which can be allocated.
d. Budgets Allocation
The following table describes the budget allocation for the program. The figures mentioned are purely an estimate and
does not reflect anything from the actual annual marketing budget. The marketing budget data was not available as
the company is private owned.
Estimating Marketing Spends from the Kellogg’s report, here we are looking at 5% of the online marketing budget to
move towards this initiative.
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7. Rahul Nambiar, Master of Digital Marketing, Class of 2010, IE Business School
% Spend for
Online Current
Annual Revenues Marketing % Budget Marketing % Budget Campaign Budget
$ 5,000,000,000 2% $ 100,000,000 5% $ 5,000,000 5% $ 250,000
We can budget the activities as below:
Total Budget $ 250,000
Sl.
No. Campaign Item Budget % Budget Value
Viral Advergaming 60% $ 150,000
Game Production and Creative
Development Costs 60% $ 90,000
1
You Tube Video Production 10% $ 15,000
Maintaining the Video Channel , Facebook
group and Game 10% $ 15,000
Email Campaign for Game 20% $ 30,000
In Game Ads 30% $ 75,000
2 Ad Creation 5% $ 3,750
Impressions cost 95% $ 71,250
Virtual World 10% $ 25,000
3 Banner Creation 5% $ 1,250
Media Space Cost/Impressions Cost 95% $ 23,750
Budgets mentioned are at an annually basis, the campaign management team will need to work out the allocation
based on a monthly basis. At an average we are looking at spending -$22,500 per month on these activities.
3. Key Success Factors
The key factors which can determine the success of the program
 Project Planning and Execution
 Getting the right team for managing the campaign
 Finding the right agency for creative and development
 Remember – Design is an output and not input8
 Integration with other marketing campaigns
 Measurement of the Parameters in critical
 Daily check on the performance of the campaigns
 Review meetings with top management to discuss on progress
 Adaptation of Campaign Strategy based on performance
 Promote and Cross Promote
 Monitoring Social Communities, listening and acting on the suggestions
 Game is social so Marketing also needs to track it closely
8 “7- Point plan for marketing in Virtual Worlds” - KZero Research
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