1. MARKETING
A
irport marketing is waking up to the immense
opportunities in today’s age of ‘connected travellers’.
These travellers, ever more hungry for new experiences,
like to carry their living room with them as they travel – a
smartphone, an iPad, a laptop.
According to TripAdvisor, 91% of travellers post pictures of
vacations, 57% post status updates and 34% check-in while
travelling. Additionally, 75% of business travellers and frequent
fliers carry smartphones today. Just as many of them log-on to
airport Wi-Fi when it is free.
Airports are not just engaging these travellers and providing
customer service online. They are also gaining real-time, location-
specific customer intelligence, driving revenues and building their
brands simultaneously. Traditional airport marketing campaigns
are becoming ever more creative too.
A new regular column by SimpliFlying, the Airport Marketing
Exchange, will elucidate key issues and address how airports can
plan their marketing and communications strategy to affect and
measure results.
Drawing from consulting experience of having worked with over
30 airports and airlines, and internal research studies conducted
with hundreds of airports, this column will identify and confront
the key challenges faced in airport marketing, sharing
SimpliFlying’s expert opinion on how issues should be steered and
factored into future strategy.
In alternate issues, a special report will feature a Q&A exchange
with a senior executive working in the pursuit of marketing
excellence. The exchange between leading figures in airport
marketing will shed light on the latest trends and innovations,
by hearing about the success of airport marketing, directly from the
airport – combined with SimpliFlying’s own leading opinions, that
continue to question, inspire and reinvent global airport brands.
In this inaugural issue, we dissect the current state of
airport marketing and explore the gap between airlines
and airports.
The state of airport marketing in 2013 –
seven key trends
In The State of Airport Marketing 2013 report recently published by
SimpliFlying, seven key trends have been identified as definitive of
how airport marketing is evolving today.
1. Advocacy
Advocacy, by those who have experienced a product or service,
has always been the biggest driving force behind gaining new
customers. Today’s connected age provides even more potent
tools for travellers who are eager to share their experiences with their
social networks.
For instance, Eindhoven Airport’s Facebook VIP initiative offers
free perks, like valet parking and free meals, to randomly chosen
fans on Facebook in the hope of turning them into brand advocates.
2. Social care
Despite being willing brand advocates, today’s connected travellers
are keen to get information on the go and are not shy to vent their
frustration in an instant. Airports such as London Heathrow and
Singapore Changi recognise this and provide excellent customer
service over Twitter. Gatwick Airport has even installed an FIDS screen
that displays its live Twitter feed.
3. Story telling
At every airport, there are thousands of stories waiting to be told.
Socially caring airports not only create a memorable travel story but
pay attention their passengers’ stories too, building memorable,
long-lasting bonds with the community. Dublin Airport created a TV
show based on real stories of travellers passing through the airport.
Vancouver Airport even had a guest staying eighty days at the airport
and sharing a video blog each day.
4. Crowdsourcing
Crowdsouring takes bond-building with the community a step
further. Online platforms offer unprecedented opportunities for
inviting customer participation and tapping into great ideas for
product innovation. Helsinki Airport installed a book swap that
turned out to be hugely popular – an idea that came about from
its Quality Hunters initiative that has been tremendously effective
in tapping into what customers want.
AIRPORT WORLD/AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 201368
AIRPORT MARKETING EXCHANGE
THINKINGDIFFERENTLY
David McMullen and Shubhodeep Pal
discuss marketing innovation in the age
of the connected traveller.

2. MARKETING
5. Red carpet
The rise of a middle-class that is keen to travel, especially
from developing countries, means a rapidly expanding
travel market. Airports are keen to build bonds with
international communities too and make them feel at
home. Auckland Airport has become the first airport to tie
up with Chinese social network Weibo in order to reach out
to Chinese travellers and showcase its services.
6. Virtual shopping
An average traveller spends at least an hour waiting to
board his/her flight. How can airports and retailers
penetrate into gate seating areas and sell their products?
A number of airports such as Frankfurt, Gatwick and New
Delhi have installed virtual, QR-code screens that allow
passengers to shop groceries and duty-free goods while
they are waiting to board.
7. Innovative air service development
In order to trump competition, airports must develop a
sophisticated air service development strategy. This
involves segmenting potential passenger markets and,
ultimately, filling up planes for its airline partners.
Manchester Airport, via its ‘Fly Manchester’ campaign,
seeks to win back the four million passengers from its
catchment area who currently travel by road/rail to London
airports even though routes operate from the local airport.
The seven trends and case studies above are just
selections of the great work that is defining airport
marketing today. Rather than casting a wide net, airports
should focus their resources on one or two trends
that have particular significance to their current
marketing objectives.
Losing the gap with airline marketing
Airport marketing is beginning to shed its traditional
conservativeness and is catching up with its more evolved
counterpart: airline marketing. That said, our internal
research studies, Social Media Outlook 2013 for airlines
and for airports, still show that a significant gap remains.
The most glaring discrepancy is in the ‘effort’ being put
into social media management and campaigns. Whereas
over 55% of airports invest fewer than 100 man-hours per
month on social media, over 75% of airlines invest more
than 90 man-hours per month on social media. While about
40% of airports plan to increase their social media budgets,
over 70% of airlines plan to increase their social media
budget in 2013.
However, the commonalities are the most instructive:
first, both airlines and airports, have found that cross-
functional teams across departments work best for social
media. Second, the biggest challenge social media teams
are facing across both airlines and airports is the
insufficient allocation of resources.
If airport marketing is to take-off, the latter must change.
Rather than sidelining social media, airports should be
looking at how social media can be integrated into their
entire communications and marketing plans in order to
shore them up.
How can airports create a futuristic
travel experience?
Ultimately, airports need to ask: can they inspire
travellers to travel through their airport? Can they
become traveller-friendly spaces by creating memorable
travel experiences? From the evidence, a number of
airports already are. But a true evolution will begin
when most airports buy into this vision of the future
of travel.
The learning curve to successful airport marketing does
not end here.
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About the authors
David McMullen is vice president, airports, at
SimpliFlying. Shubhodeep Pal is the company’s
head of operations and innovation.
www.simpliflying.com
The next issue will feature a Q&A exchange with a senior airport executive, and we
encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter #airportmarketingX.
AIRPORT WORLD/AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2013
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