How an Airline Used Infographics About Flying Habits to Engage Passengers

Summary

Aer Lingus had a hard time engaging their passengers in their loyalty programme. Therefore Independent News & Media created an easy to read infographic presenting statistics for the Irish people’s flights per year. The article exceeded its KPI by 300%.

Publisher/Agency: Independent News & Media
Campaign: Aer Lingus Aer Club – Irish people travel more than they think
Brand: Aer Lingus
Country: Ireland

Aer Lingus’ new loyalty programme had endured a difficult start to life with technical issues creating a lot of negative press and bad reaction on social media.

Mission

To present Aer Lingus' own passenger information in an engaging way to promote their loyalty programme. Aer Lingus’ new loyalty programme had endured a difficult start to life with technical issues creating a lot of negative press and bad reaction on social media.

KPIs

10,000 views for the native article.

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Target audience

Everyone who flies regularly.

The single biggest barrier to people signing up for a flights rewards programme was the perception that it was only for Business Class traveller and very frequent flyers.

Strategic approach

Aer Lingus approached Independent News & Media with the idea to do native content but unsure of how to go about it.

The standout statistic from their market research showed that the single biggest barrier to people signing up for a flights rewards programme was the perception that it was only for Business Class traveller and very frequent flyers.

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However, to qualify for the Aer Club programme, you only need to take 4.5 flights per year on average. As Ireland is an island nation that’s only very slightly above the average. It was clear that the native campaign needed to convey to the Irish reader that they fly enough to qualify for the Aer Club programme.

Through experience, Independent News & Media knows that Independent.ie’s readers enjoy reading about what it means to be Irish. Articles that explore Irish habits and customs perform very highly on their site. As the biggest national news publisher, their site is a trusted resource for information considered of national importance.

The process required more input from the brand than would usually be required for a digital display campaign.

Creative Idea

The idea was to present the statistics for Irish people's flights per year in an infographic. At Independent News & Media’s request, Aer Lingus was able to supply them with their data about where Irish people fly to and how often.

The idea was then to present this information to the Irish traveller in a very easy to read way. Independent News & Media sifted through thousands of data points and a large data pool to isolate the relevant data and then created a very easy to read infographic.

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The process required more input from the brand than would usually be required for a digital display campaign. However, the results and the overall effect of the native campaign proved that better quality work is worth a higher level of collaboration.

Platforms

Independent.ie / Sunday World 

Content distribution and promotion efforts

• Social channels - Facebook and Twitter
• All the native articles were supported by Facebook Posts and tweets.
• There was no paid social on this campaign.

Results

30,000 views with a dwell time of 2:49 seconds

• The article was part of a wider campaign with four native articles in total.
• This part of the campaign alone exceeded its KPI by 300%
• 30,000 views with a dwell time of 2:49 seconds.

This case study is part of a collection of award-winning native advertising examples studies from Native Advertising Awards presented by The Native Advertising Institute.

We aim to acknowledge and reward great native advertising and promote inspiring, effective and creative work that helps organizations worldwide achieve their goals and tell great brand stories in a non-disruptive way.