iCrossing 2014 Connected Brand Index for airlines EMEA

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Research produced by our German team scoring airlines across five key metrics that form the Connected Brand Index: Visibility, Usefulness, Usability, Desirability and Engagement. Given the industry’s fiercely competitive climate, iCrossing believes airlines must go beyond simply providing services to delivering positively memorable experiences across the customer journey. A connected brand connects with a targeted audience by being visible across relevant digital channels at the right time; by offering useful products and services at all lifecycle stages; by making sure website content is easy to find and usable; by building a desirable brand through consistent emotional brand values; and by being engaged in dialogue with customers across key social media.

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    2Copyright 2014 , iCrossing GmbH July 2014 Connected Brands Index: Airline industry

    The air transport services industry is well established and caters tomillions of customers worldwide each day. Guided by international

    organisations like IATA, member airlines across the globe follow stringent

    quality guidelines, and technological advances have made flying safer

    than ever. Yet despite its rich history, the industry continues to be heavily

    impacted by advances in internet technologies.

    In the early 2000s, airlines and online travel agencies (OTAs) were forced to provide customers

    with unprecedented price transparency. Then, in late 2000, the growth and prominence of social

    media platforms, combined with advances in mobile technology (smartphones, tablets), increa-

    sed the need for customers to converse and engage in new and challenging ways.

    With competitors a click away, airlines must constantly seek new opportunities to differentiate

    themselves. When it comes to digital marketing, important strategic partners, such as OTAs, may

    become competitors in search engines, on blogs and in travel forums. At the same time, digital

    consumers have become savvier and expect fast, personalized support whether to book a flight,check in, check luggage restrictions or plan a holiday.

    Given the industrys fiercely competitive climate, iCrossing believes airlines must go beyond simply

    providing services to delivering positively memorable experiences across the customer journey.

    A connected brand connects with a targeted audience by being visible across relevant digital

    channels such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Advertising (SEA) at

    the right time; by offering useful products and services at all lifecycle stages; by making sure

    website content is easy to find and usable; by building a desirable brand through consistent

    emotional brand values; and by being engaged in dialogue with customers across key social

    media. To this end, iCrossing scores airlines across five key metrics that form the Connected

    Brand Index (CBI): Visibility, Usefulness, Usability, Desirability and Engagement.

    This research is an analysis of the connectedness of some of the most established airlines in

    Europe and the Middle East. We identified best practices, but also found potential for airlines to

    fully embrace the power of connectedness. The framework used in this analysis was developed and

    established by iCrossing. To analyse the performance of the airlines in the Middle East region,

    iCrossing partnered with Sekari, headquartered in Dubai. Sekari is a leading provider of search

    optimised content marketing in the Middle East.

    FOREWORD

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    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    FRAMEWORK

    METHODOLOGY

    DETAILED ANALYSIS

    OVERALL RESULTSVISIBILITY

    USEFULNESS

    USABILITY

    DESIRABILITY

    ENGAGEMENT

    CONCLUSIONS

    IMPRINT

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    5.

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    TABLE OF CONTENTS

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    IMPROVE VISIBILITY THROUGH MORE LOCALIZED MARKETING CONTENT

    European airlines have an excellent opportunity to engage with Arabic customers by speaking to

    them in their own language. During our analysis, we discovered that many European airlines haveyet to embrace this opportunity. Lufthansa, for example, flies to 10 Arabic-speaking destinations

    including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but only provides website content in English for these

    countries. A localised approach must address the issue of website content and other content

    across the digital ecosystem. This also includes search engine marketing efforts. Generally,

    Middle East-based airlines offer more content in European languages than vice versa.

    iCrossing believes it is important to offer Arabic language content as there is a shift in the attitude

    of the regions travelers to new booking channels. The Middle East has seen online bookings grow

    by almost a third in 2012 to reach just under US$10.4 billion, up 31% on 2011 figures. Recentresearch on the Middle East travel market, conducted in association with global travel market

    research company PhoCusWright, shows an upward trend and is predicted to continue with

    online bookings and is expected to account for 22% of all travel bookings made in the region

    within the next two years, with a total value of US$15.8 billion.

    In the past, where perhaps Arabic content was not deemed necessary, it is now one of the fastest

    growth sectors and markets globally.

    ENGAGE USERS WITH MORE-CONSISTENT BRAND VALUES ACROSS CHANNELS

    The airlines we analysed are not consistent enough in how they present their brand across the

    digital ecosystem. The Emirates former #AllTimeGreats campaign featuring two world football

    stars one former and one current player is still highly visible on some social media channels.

    Since the ad campaign is now over, having it still available and being pushed and seemingly

    promoted on some social media platforms over others makes for a jagged brand experience,

    which is confusing to the consumer. While this is just one example of inconsistent brand experi-

    ences with differing logos and visual styles old, irrelevant content are evident among all airlines

    and their assets.

    1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    Aggressive competition across digital channels along with competingOTA partners has increased the need for a comprehensive digital marketing

    strategy. iCrossing has identified multiple ways for airlines to better connect

    with their audience in the European and Middle Eastern markets.

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    IMPROVE WEBSITE USABILITY AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT

    Few airline brands other than KLM offer free, instant customer support, something iCrossing

    considers best practice for global ecommerce sites. In most cases, customer support numbersare difficult to locate and not available for all countries at all times. In addition, most airlines

    display too many distractions (call-to-actions) and should focus efforts on reducing the number

    of steps to complete a booking.

    KLM, considered by iCrossing to be the most engaged airline company, uses Twitter to answer

    questions or requests and informs users how long it will take to receive a reply from one of its

    customer support agents. iCrossing continues to see great potential for innovation in this area

    thereby creating a greater user experience.

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    ONE GOALThe goal of this research is to evaluate how well certain brands perform according to iCrossings

    Connected Brand Index (CBI). And the methodology of our research comprises of analysing

    the brand experience.

    TEN BRANDS

    The selection of brands is based on the user-generated results of the 2013 Skytrax World

    Airline Awards*. Using Skytrax as a benchmark, iCrossing selected the top-10 rated internatio-

    nal airlines (according to customer satisfaction) within Europe and the Middle East.

    These airlines are: Lufthansa, British Airways, Turkish Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines,

    KLM, Air France, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Emiratesand Etihad Airways.

    TEN COUNTRIES

    We selected 10 key markets where the above airlines operate: Germany, United Kingdom,

    Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Netherlands, Qatarand the United Arab Emirates.

    >180 PLATFORMS

    We analysed the activity and impact of each brand across Paid, Ownedand Earnedmedia,

    including websites and the largest social networks in Europe and the Middle East: Facebook,

    Twitter, YouTubeand Google+.

    >700 DATA POINTS IN FIVE CATEGORIES

    The Connected Brand Index consists of five characteristics of a connected brand that help

    in evaluating the airlines from the digital users perspective: Visibility, Usefulness, Usability,

    Desirabilityand Engagement.

    *Source: http://www.airlinequality.com/Airlines/AirlineA-Z.htm

    2. FRAMEWORK

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    3. METHODOLOGY

    Local languages covered

    Domain popularity

    Quantity of back links

    Google Page Rank SEO, SEA and social visibility

    Loading speed of the website

    Important information available at a glance with instructions to fill in forms / search fields

    Flight search box returning instant search results such as available airports

    Existence of an instant and free hotline / online chat / social media customer support

    Offering travel tips for a variety of destinations, such as must-sees, local information, etc.

    Short and simple booking process with breadcrumbs to orient the user

    User-friendly design with well-structured navigation menus

    Main categories and subcategories being differentiated

    Links and buttons prominently displayed

    Consistent look of the links, different from the rest of the content

    Locations, shapes and colours in use, helping orient the user

    Form fields and interactive elements logically placed

    Official Facebook accounts (Global & Local)

    Official Twitter accounts (Global & Local)

    Official YouTube accounts (Global & Local)

    Official Google+ accounts (Global & Local)

    VISIBILITY

    USEFULNESS

    USABILITY

    Consistent brand positioning, language, images, layout and general design of the website and

    across all channels and platforms

    Facilitating and inviting dialogue between the brand and the user / customer

    Home and product pages integrating social media links to increase sharing

    Facebook: fans, fans growth, followers, own posts, user posts, comments, shares, likes, talking

    about, engagement rate

    Twitter: tweets, follower growth, following, retweets, engagement rate

    YouTube: channel views, uploaded video views, subscribers

    Google Plus: followers, in their circles, have them in circles, follower growth, own posts,

    comments, shares, likes, engagement rate

    DESIRABILITY

    ENGAGEMENT

    The CBI comprises over 80 key performance indicators (KPIs) across each of the five metrics below.iCrossing uses a standardised scorecard that compiles the KPIs to produce an overall score between

    one and 10 for each metric. Each metric carries the same weight that produces an overall score of

    between one and 10. All of the data was compiled between April and June 2014.

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    The best performing brands overall are Lufthansa, British Airways and KLM with 6.9 points followed

    by the top contender in the Middle East, Emirates (6.6). There was little to choose among the top

    five airlines, with all performing solidly across most categories, with a few exceptions. The overall

    average of the analysis is 6.1. For this analysis, Middle Eastern brands include Emirates, Qatar

    Airways, Etihad Airways and Oman Airlines.

    Overall, brands obtai-

    ned the highest scores

    in Usefulness (7.4) and

    generally are weakest

    in Visibility (4.0) and

    Usability (6.2).

    In total, five brands

    scored below average

    and five airlines scored

    above average.

    The analysis shows a strong variance in performances - not only among the

    individual brands, but also among the pre-defined characteristics. No airline brand

    is yet fully connected with their target audience. Improvements, especially in terms of

    engagement, would lead to more satisfied customers.

    OVERALL RESULTS

    Lufthansa

    British Airways

    KLMEmirates

    Turkish Airlines

    Qatar Airways

    Swiss Int. Airlines

    Oman Air

    Etihad

    Air France

    6.5

    5.5

    4.74.3

    4.3

    3.0

    2.9

    3.7

    2.4

    3.0

    7.7

    7.8

    7.57.7

    7.6

    7.4

    7.2

    6.6

    6.9

    7.2

    7.0

    7.1

    6.66.3

    6.6

    6.2

    6.6

    6.9

    6.9

    5.1

    7.3

    6.7

    6.87.0

    6.9

    6.3

    6.9

    6.4

    6.9

    6.2

    6.0

    7.5

    9.07.5

    7.1

    6.5

    5.3

    5.6

    6.0

    5.6

    6.9

    6.9

    6.96.6

    6.5

    5.9

    5.8

    5.8

    5.8

    5.4

    Ranking Airline

    AVERAGE

    Visibility Usefulness Usability Desirability Engagement Overall

    4.0 7.4 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.1

    1

    2

    34

    5

    6

    7

    8

    9

    10

    Figure 1: Overall classification (1 to 10, with 10 the highest)

    Figure 2: Overall scores (1 to 10, with 10 the highest)

    4. DETAILED ANALYSIS

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    Lufthansa obtained the highest score in this category (6.5), mainly due to good rankings in natural

    search results on a broad international scale. The top-5 above average airlines are: British Airways,

    KLM, Turkish and the Emirates. Overall, most airlines struggle in this category, indicating a need for

    both on-page and off-page site optimisation.

    Generally, airline routes, target markets (and, thus, business strategy) and geographical

    presence have an impact on Visibility. While the focus of this analysis is Europe and the Middle

    East, some airlines have a stronger US presence than others. Backlink strength gained in

    non-EU and ME markets likely impacts SEO profiles and as a result the Visibility score in

    EU and ME. Of the airlines examined, key European and Middle Eastern traffic sources include:

    UK, Germany and France along with the local markets of the airlines themselves. The US

    was a frequent key traffic source for many airlines after the local market. British Airways,

    interestingly, gains over half of its traffic from the UK in comparison to Lufthansa where Germany only

    makes up roughly a quarter of all traffic. Airlines that score lower in Visibility tend to be those withsmaller home or target markets. However, iCrossing feels that brands with an international presence

    in larger markets have an opportunity to improve their Visibility profile with the right digital strategy.

    VISIBILITY

    Visibility reflects how competitive a brand is on the web. The iCrossing Visibility metricfocuses primarily on a brands competitiveness in Google and across social media plat-

    forms. One key factor in determining Visibility is how well each brand performs in SEO.

    Our ranking takes into account several metrics that impact organic rankings (and Google

    Page Rank), such as the overall back-link profile of each site. In addition, iCrossing looks

    at each sites on-page SEO, paid search campaigns and social media presence.

    Figure 3: Visibility scores. Average score is 5.8

    Emirates Qatar Airways Etihad Airways Turkish Airlines Lufthansa Swiss KLM Oman Air British Airways Air France

    4.3

    3.02.4

    4.3

    6.5

    2.9

    4.7

    3.7

    5.5

    3.0

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    Figure 4: Sample flight SERP(Source: google.ca, 22 May 2014)

    Google continues to innovate with its search algorithms. The blue arrow in Figure 4 below shows a

    recent innovation from Google results that shows flight schedules for a London to Dubai flight. Search

    engine result pages (SERPs) give good examples of the strong competition within the travel industry.

    Many airlines are not visible on the first page for frequently searched keywords or phrases.

    iCrossing has noticed that several airlines are paying for more-prominent positions for important

    flight-route search terms where previously only OTAs were visible (see red arrow in Figure 4

    above). Nevertheless, OTAs are proving to be airlines strongest competitors and occupy top

    positions both in paid and organic search for many destinations.

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    Figure 5: Sample flight SERP(Source: google.co.uk, 8 May 2014)

    Figure 5 shows another example of a destination, paid ads, organic search and how Google is

    innovating its algorithms by showing flight schedules.

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    Figure 6: Sample flight SERP(Source: google.com.sa, 4 June 2014)

    Figure 7: Sample flight SERP(Source: google.ae, 4 June 2014)

    Query: Trip to London

    Query: Trip to Paris

    Figure 6 shows an example of a destination entered in Google Saudi Arabia for the search terms

    Riyadh to London and using Arabic.

    Figure 7 shows an example of a destination entered in Google AE using Arabic.

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    The test-user scenarios used for evaluating each airline included common user website goals.

    Lufthansa, British Airways and the Emirates lead the pack, but on the whole, airlines obtain their

    highest scores in this category, indicating that great efforts are being made to create sites that

    answer users needs. Given the high price for paid media campaigns, it is easy to understand whythis is the case.

    USEFULNESS

    This category evaluates how well a brand caters to users website needs at differentstages of the customer lifecycle or journey. A user who wants to book a flight requires

    different information than someone who is looking to complete an online check-in.

    Airlines should be able to attend to every users needs to build stronger relationships

    with their audiences.

    Figure 8: Usefulness scores

    Emirates Qatar Airways Etihad Airways Turkish Airlines Lufthansa Swiss KLM Oman Air British Airways Air France

    7.77.4

    6.9

    7.6 7.77.2

    7.5

    6.6

    7.87.2

    iCrossing has identified two critical points that warrant attention for most of the brands: thecomplexity and length of the booking process and the lack of seamless on-site customer support.

    While the former borders on website usability (see Usability), iCrossing graded the booking

    process and steps involved as a feature element in order to grade its Usefulness.

    Airlines need to provide a fast, easy process where users can enter and select destinations, dates,

    seats and payment details. At the same time, airlines must generate cross- and upselling oppor-

    tunities, such as premium-class offers, hotel and car rental services and holiday ideas during the

    booking process. iCrossing believes there is space to innovate and optimize in the booking process.

    Generally, airlines must look to decrease click steps but also not overload pages and create long

    lists that could frustrate users.

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    Figure 9: British Airways - Website(Source: britishairways.com, May 2014)

    Generally, iCrossing believes airlines can do more to provide easy-to-find, free and instant

    support online. While some airlines provide better support than others, most airlines give the

    impression of being difficult to reach via phone. And depending on the topic and location of the

    user, there is often too much information to get through to find the right contact number except

    for KLM.

    However, Emirates does include a Help Centre menu item within the navigation, which

    iCrossing considers best practice. British Airways offers similar information under Information

    and Customer Service within the navigation.

    iCrossing found British Airways Cancellations, delays and baggage problems page particularly

    useful. Here, users can find answers to common topics such as What to do if your flight is de-

    layed or cancelled.

    While slightly less prominently displayed, Lufthansas reservation and flight booking hotline is

    available 24/7 for some countries, including Germany and the UK. Calls are charged at local rates.

    The BA site (Figure 9) scored highly in Usefulness due to its clear layout and the short steps

    needed to complete tasks.

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    Figure 10: KLM Contact Section - Considered Best Practice(Source: klm.com, May 2014)

    iCrossing considers KLMs approach to customer support the best among all airlines (see below

    screen capture). It offers a dedicated contact button that once clicked routes you to a dedicated

    page with steps showing how you can contact customer service representatives and how long it

    will take.

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    Figure 11: Qatar stopover section on qatarairways.com(Source: website, July 2014)

    Other than telephone, email and Facebook support, many airlines have FAQ or content sections

    that provide answers to common topics. Qatar Airways, for example, has an informative section

    about what to do in Qatar during a stopover.

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    USABILITY

    Figure 12: Usability scores

    Emirates Qatar Airways Etihad Airways Turkish Airlines Lufthansa Swiss KLM Oman Air British Airways Air France

    6.3 6.2

    6.96.6

    7.06.6 6.6

    6.9 7.1

    5.1

    The flight search box is one of the most important site features. This should be placed prominently.

    iCrossing considers the top left- or right-hand side of the home page to be best practice. We were

    surprised that Emirates a top performer in most categories has opted as a default to hide the

    flight search box. Users must first click on the right-hand navigation button to open the box. Inaddition, the Emirates home page includes many side elements that we feel are distractions or

    interactive elements that do not behave as expected.

    The top navigation categories also do not describe the sub-elements within them as concisely

    as some other brand page menus did. For example, terms such as The Emirates Experience,

    Destinations and Plan & Book are either inaccurate or leave too much to the imagination. For

    example, users can manage bookings under Plan & Book.

    Lufthansas navigation, by comparison, includes both Plan & Book and Manage My Booking.

    We feel BAs Flights and holidays, Manage My Booking and Information categories are more

    concise and accurately describe the sub-categories contained within them.

    BA and Lufthansa again lead the pack in this category with 7.1 and 7.0 points respectively, thanks to

    their clear design and navigation terms. Many brands share similar approaches: large background

    images, videos and dynamic content with a varying multitude of call-to-actions that may distract the

    user from some of their primary targets, like booking a flight or checking in.

    Usability focuses more on how user-friendly a site is. To use a travel analogy, if Usefulnessis a review of the best attractions (features) at a destination (the website), Usability is a

    review of how easy it is to get to those attractions. For this, iCrossing reviewed the layout,

    navigation and design along with terms used to help users navigate around.

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    Figure 13: Emirates home page(Source: website, July 2014)

    A second navigation menu to the right on the Emirates page in red also blends too much into the

    large home visual, which is static, making it almost invisible. This includes terms that are more

    concise, such as Book a Flight and Find Hotels and Cars. However, the button colours and

    space usage do not give them a prominent enough position. Combined with other red site elements,

    the home page feels cluttered.

    iCrossing considers a less is more approach to website design more beneficial to facilitating goal

    completion. Brands must strike a blance between delivering good content and using space sparingly

    to avoid overloading the page with distractions. Brands must be clear about the main goal of each

    web page and strive to facilitate and structure it accordingly.

    Generally, brands that score between six and seven, while not poor in terms of usability, must be

    more goal oriented and selective about what content really is deserving of prime website real estate.

    Air France just misses out on a score of six or higher, but we like the visuals and navigational ele-

    ments. Nevertheless, we feel the call-to-action could be clearer and space usage better managed.

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    Figure 15: Air France home page(Source: website, May 2014)

    Figure 14: Lufthansa home page with slider, search box as standard and well categorized sections(Source: website, May 2014)

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    DESIRABILITY

    Desirability looks at how well brands portray consistent imagery and messagingacross their websites and digital channels.

    Figure 16: Desirability scores

    Emirates Qatar Airways Etihad Airways Turkish Airlines Lufthansa Swiss KLM Oman Air British Airways Air France

    7.0

    6.36.9 6.9

    7.36.9 6.8

    6.4 6.7

    6.2

    Emirates could score higher if they give their former #AllTimeGreats advertising campaign less real

    estate on its home page as this is creating a broken rather than seamless experience for its customer

    journey. iCrossing believes that since the campaign is over, it should no longer feature prominently on

    any of its assets.

    When a customer interacts with a brand, it is important for them to have a consistent image of

    the brand during their interaction with a brands assets whether their interaction is through

    a website, microsite, App, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or traditional offline advertising and

    marketing efforts. When it comes to desirability, Lufthansa scores highest (7.3) followed by the

    Emirates (7.0). Air France achieves the lowest score in this category (6.2) due to inconsistencies

    between key visuals across all its platforms and its website. Turkish Airways and Etihad (both 6.9)

    just miss out on a score of seven due to minor inconsistencies in the presentation of their

    claim / slogan. This is due to a key message, visual or slogan featuring prominently on one or more

    channels, but not on all. Alternatively, font, size and colour variations also contribute to markdowns.

    Figure 17: Emirates AllTimeGreats campaign on social media was not visible on the home page(Source: Facebook and Google+ Fan Pages, May 2014 | As of July 2014, the campaign has been removed)

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    Figure 18: Air France lacks consistency across digital platforms(Source: Twitter, Google+, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest, May 2014)

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    Figure 19: Positive emotional visual featuring Turkish Airlines slogan and logo(Source: Facebook May 2014)

    Air France scored below average and shows lack of consistency with visuals and branding across

    all of its platforms, but the airline did score well in terms of desirability by being interactive and

    participatory between the user and the brand (6.2). Swiss International Air Lines misses out on

    a score of seven (6.9) due to some English language issues in key visuals on the website that we

    believe diluted the brands overall Desirability.

    Turkish Airlines also misses out on a seven score due to the rigid and slightly functional feel of

    the site. This detracted from good emotional messaging, visuals and content found on Facebook

    (below).

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    With an average score of 6.6, this category is the second highest-performing metric. Its a good indi-

    cator of how most airlines are utilizing some opportunities to connect with their audience. KLM is the

    best-engaged airline (9.0) followed by Emirates and British Airways, both scoring well (7.5) followed by

    Turkish Airlines (7.1). Lufthansa performs solidly in this category, but does not stand out on any one

    platform. Other airlines were less successful in building dialogue with fans or customers. While some

    airlines point to their market share as a reason why they have fewer fans, likes and followers, the oppor-

    tunity to create buzz over social media should not be governed by the size of a companys revenues.

    ENGAGEMENT

    Social media networks are powerful instruments for engaging with audiences beyond abrands own website and third-party travel portals. Most of the scores for this metric are

    quantitative, with fans, likes, followers, content (visual, text, video) ratio and engagement

    rates playing an important role.

    Figure 20: Engaged scores

    Emirates Qatar Airways Etihad Airways Turkish Airlines Lufthansa Swiss KLM Oman Air British Airways Air France

    7.5

    6.56.0

    7.1

    6.0

    5.3

    9.0

    5.6

    7.5

    5.6

    Airlines that scored poorly in this category generally do not appear to have a social media strategy inplace, instead treating each platform independently and on an ad-hoc basis instead of having a

    consistent image of the brand through the entire customer journey (a 360 experience). Irregular posts

    lead to a lack of audience participation, and this has a direct impact on engagement rate, a KPI that

    indicates how many people like or respond to a post on Facebook. With constant changes to the way

    feeds are shown on Facebook, it is more important than ever to engage users regularly with exciting

    content. iCrossing considers photos to be the best type of shared content, but a Connected Brand also

    uses text and videos and links across social media platforms for maximum cross-channel impact.

    A few brands posted in local languages within their global accounts. On some occasions, fans asked

    the brand to post in English. iCrossing recommends that brands post frequently in English in order

    to ensure fans can relate to the content and ensure a constantly high engagement rate.

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    3. CONCLUSION

    The Connected Brand Index shows there are great opportunities for theairline industry to improve their digital performance, especially within

    Engagement and Visibility. A Connected Brand is able to connect the

    dots between each of the digital channels and platforms they inhabit to

    create a unified digital ecosystem and connect to the audience.

    iCrossing believes British Airways, KLM, Lufthansa, Emirates and Turkish Airlines perform solidly

    overall, but with a more-focused digital strategy can increase the value of their brand. Generally,iCrossing considers these airlines do a good job presenting their brand on each individual

    platform; however, there is room for improving cohesion between all of their platforms. A unified,

    360 strategy that targets both offline and online audiences through content and SEO strategies

    and across all channels will help these brands achieve a Connected Brand status.

    The bottom five brands generally had larger issues in two or more categories. iCrossing believes

    these brands must create a unified brand strategy, but also focus on individual channels in the

    short-term. Some brands were either inactive across social media or not consistent enough in

    how they presented themselves.

    Brands that score poorly in Usefulness and Usability must look at their Owned Media. Due to

    the fiercely competitive nature of the industry and high costs of running paid ad campaigns in

    search engines, it is imperative these brands create sites that are goal-oriented and easy to use.

    At the same time, a content strategy is crucial to increasing visitor length of visits that are not

    directly linked to flight bookings or checking in. These brands must make their sites knowledge

    bases for key travel phrases, so that visitors come back frequently for other topics.

    Overall, Visibility proved to be the sore point of the industry due to the competitive positioning

    of OTAs in both organic and paid search. Airlines can take a page from the top OTAs and focus

    their efforts on top search terms that generate traffic and sales. iCrossing sees great potential for

    airlines to create greater localised content for target markets, like Arabic-speaking countries. By

    adopting an approach that focuses more on audience interaction across the POE spectrum

    brands will position themselves to win greater market share.

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    IMPRINT

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    iCrossing, a unit of Hearst Corpo-ration, is headquartered in NewYork and has 900 employeesin 17 offices globally. For moreinformation, visit icrossing.comor its social spaces.

    Sekari is the leading provider ofSearch Optimised Content Marketingin the Middle East.

    We are famous for combiningsound strategic thinking and crea-tive innovation with highly-tunedoptimisation technology to con-sistently produce outrageouslygood results. Sekari strongly be-lieve in delivering local solutionsprovided by native Content andSEO experts within each country,emulating human behaviour ineach country.As strategic partners of iCrossingand with our head quarters in Du-bai, The United Arab Emirates, weare best placed to provide an inter-

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