Facebook surprised everybody in 2012 when it purchased Instagram, the photo-sharing app (which now shares videos, too) for a jaw-dropping $1 billion. The reason behind this purchase was simply the power of photos in social media.
Since then, many airlines and hotels have adopted Instagram extensively to engage with users, gain customers, and promote their brands. (See our earlier article on tips for hoteliers to manage Instagram.)
SimpliFlying, the aviation marketing company, has studied in detail this Instagram usage by airlines and has compiled the ten best campaigns that airlines executed on Instagram.
A few highlights:
Lufthansa launched a campaign called "#DeinBerliner" where it appointed an Instagrammer by the name of Lisa to lead the show. Lisa goes to all the places in Berlin that the user community suggests. Suggested places could be a small bar or a famous tourist spot. Lisa takes picture at the location and shares it via Instagram.
EasyJet took a user-generated-content approach, where it asked users to take pictures of their travel and destination, and share it on Instagram with the hashtag "#easyjet". Today there are about 35,000 posts with this hashtag.
Finnair took a different approach. It created two Instagram accounts by the name of Finnairtomi. One is managed by Finnair's pilot Tomi Tervo and the other account (Finnairnoora) is managed by the airline's flight attendant Noora Kunttu.
Tervo posts pictures (refer to the screen grab below) that highlights the flight's operation, cockpit, security service etc, whereas Kunttu posts pictures that brings out safety measures and in-flight services.
The usage of hashtags has taken the front seat in majority of the airlines campaigns. One shouldn't be surprised with Facebook's decision to add the hashtag feature to Facebook posts.
Also, eight out of the ten airlines campaigns were based on pictures, while two airlines took advantage of the app's recently launched video feature.
"Top 10 airlines on Instagram" presentation from SimpliFlying: