Presented at World Routes 2017

1. Content Marketing for
Route Development
Luke Bilton, Director - Digital & Content, UBM

3. Who ‘owns’ the customer?
“Half the online travel providers will go
out of business in the next 5-10 years.
They will just be too small with Amazon,
Google and Ryanair.com in the space
and people won’t be able to get
everything they need in one place.“
Kenny Jacobs, RyanAir

4. 90%
The rise of
content marketing
of marketers are investing in
content marketing in 2016.

5. +800%
increase in blog posts
published by brands
-89%
drop in social
shares per post
2016
Consumption
Production
Time
Volume

6. 36,006
11,340
8,455 8,288
2,731 1,980 1,928 1,668 1,324 974 864 850 780 759 537 514 478 455 350 340 222 146 89 75 15 0
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
Americas Airports
Social shares, last 12 months
European Airports
Social shares last 12 months
Source: BuzzSumo.com
51,981
19,666
16,39415,499
15,458
6,981 6,001
4,112 3,474 3,330 3,247 3148 2745 2,728 2,410 2,396 2,219 1,751 1,184 696 673 535 534 496 426 368 274 260 253 199 153 141 63 45 14 12 0
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
Which airports are doing it well?

7. How to find your content formula
B2B
What works for
Airline Execs?
B2C
What works for
Travellers?

8. Top performing B2B content
Source: Buzzsumo
Words used in headline
1. Growth
2. Market
3. Airline
4. Airport
5. UK
6. Airbus
7. Fleet
8. Europe
9. Farnborough
Ranking of ‘Power words’ for LinkedIn

9. Inside RoutesOnline
15
Daily route
announcements
2.1M
Page views per
month
#1
Route
development
media
Global
43% Europe
29% Americas
21% Asia

10. Top content read by Airlines
Source: RoutesOnline
Source: RoutesOnline.com, Google AnalyticsCONTENT MARKETING MASTERCLASS

11. Strong regional bias

12. Building an inbound marketing machine
Reach Act Convert Engage

13. A formula for airline engagement
Content Production
Non-biased insight, surprising stats and
stories that brings to life the growth
opportunities in your market
+
Through the lens of another Airline’s
experience
+
Regional, talk about direct competitors in
their region
Content Promotion
Build your own mailing lists &
social channels
+
Work with media partners to get message
to the right audience
+
Segment distribution by region / job
function
X
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14. Pull
Scenic beauty
Historical areas
Cultural attractions & events
Sporting events
Beaches
Parks
Recreation Facilities
Shopping
Push
Social capital
Escape
Self-Discovery
Rest and relaxation
Challenge
Adventure
Family togetherness
Health and fitness
Excitement
Tourism drivers
What do travellers want?

15. In 2016 Canary Islands achieved
• 150 new routes
• 90 airlines operating from the
island
• 40 million passengers,
Part of their success was
hellocanaryislands.com
Personalised content and
communications plan based on stated
motivations.
Producing materials for all partners to
unify the image of the destination”
Create content to address each driver

16. Travel media analysis
Analysis of 15,000 most shared travel media
posts reveals top headlines:
1. Photo of…
2. Things to do…
3. Best places to..
4. Where to eat…
5. This Week…
Websites analysed:
TimeOut.com CNTraveller.com lonelyplanet.com mrandmrssmith.com wanderlust.co.uk gogobot.com inyourpocket.com adioso.com seat61.com
coolcamping.co.uk skift. com gadling.com hipmunk.com londonist.com secret-london.co.uk slh. com i-escape.com welove2ski.com theweekenders.co.uk
501places.com thehotelguru.com greentraveller.co.uk baldhiker.com grumpytraveller.com travelfish.org travellerspoint.com tingo.com ifly.com
93%
Facebook

17. ‘Own’ destination-
related searches

18. ‘Own’ destination-
related searches

20. What are Finavia doing?
"We see Helsinki Airport as a challenger
brand. We believe that content with a
difference is one way to stand out from the
masses.
We don’t sell airline tickets or products, so
our marketing can’t be tactical marketing
with sales or price offers. Instead we must
provide rich content.”
Olli Lehtonen, Finavia

21. Consistent, daily publishing like Finavia

22. Facebook engagement like Vancouver

23. Creating sharable moments like San Francisco
San Francisco are creating socially sharable artefacts at the airport and online San Francisco Art Exhibitions Yoga room
Music events Aquarium, Musem, Local eats - all expressions of the region’s creativity.

24. Coming Home for Christmas
5,109,888 views
“Throughout their 70 years, Heathrow have
specialised in reconnecting people with their loved
ones, especially at this time of year, because
coming home for Christmas is the best gift of
all. Among the millions of seasonal passengers,
there are some extra-special arrivals that have
made it home in time for the big day…”
Tap into emotion & seasonality like Heathrow
• The most shared content about London in the last
12 months (BuzzSumo)

25. Bring routes to life like Dublin
Dublin target specific existing routes and create content that helps to stimulate interest, leads and sales.

26. A formula for traveller engagement
Content Production
Tone of voice, attitude to Stand Out!
+
Regular content that inspires and
taps into tourism drivers
+
Create/curate visual content –
photos, video - like Vancouver, San
Francisco, Dublin, Heathrow and
Helsinki
Content Promotion
Build your own mailing lists &
develop Facebook / Instagram
+
Segment distribution by travel
motivation
+
Create niche PR opportunities,
influencer and media partnerships to
get message to the right audience
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