As you probably already know, KLM is one of the best players on Social Media. They are known for their genius and creative replies to people on Facebook and Twitter, and for their unique campaigns, like the one with the cute dog that brings people their lost belongings.
This month, KLM has started testing something new, called “FlightFunding”, as a kind of crowdfunding project. In this experiment, one person gets 24 hours to raise money for a flight using her social media. KLM daily receives tons of messages from people that wish to travel, but have no money. This campaign is meant to help these people (Emerce, 2015).
In the experiment, Juanita from Schijndel in the Netherlands, got the chance to raise enough money to fulfill her wish. Her wish was to be reunited with her family in Canada. The flightfunding-experiment was a great success. In only eight hours, they reached their goal to raise €1.200 (Van Gils, 2015). Because of this success, KLM’s Social Media manager, Karlijn Vogel-Meijer, states that it’s their aim to organise more flightfunding campaigns. This is not a “one-time thing” (Fygi, 2015).
In my opinion, this is a great marketing campaign of KLM. It’s creative, innovative, and joyful. I think it’s a great way to help people, who have a wish to visit a long-lost family member, for example. Even though, KLM isn’t doing great right now, this campaign is something refreshing, and it will definitely not harm their reputation.
I love it!! What do you think? Do you like the concept? Is it a good move from KLM?
Watch the video here:
Sources:
- Emerce (2015) KLM experimenteert met flightfunden, http://www.emerce.nl/nieuws/klm-experimenteert-flightfunden
- A. Fygi (2015) KLM bekijkt hoe het vervolg aan flightfunding-actie kan geven, http://www.adformatie.nl/nieuws/klm-bekijkt-hoe-het-vervolg-aan-flightfunding-actie-kan-geven
- van Gils (2015) Top marketingactie: ‘Flightfund’ je vlucht met KLM, http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/marketing/top-marketingactie-flightfund-je-vlucht-met-klm
It was very interesting to read this. I have not heard of this campaign yet but I think it is very creative for them to do so. I think it is a great move by KLM to do this. This is because of several reasons:
The first reason is that people that don’t have the money for a flight now manage to get the money to fly with KLM and therefore KLM will generate more revenues as more people will fly with them now. This is just a matter of money, not completely unimportant if you are not doing too well at the moment.
Besides, the opportunity for people to do this creates customer loyalty. Those that are helped in this way will be very thankful and therefore their next flight will be with KLM too. This is about engaging customers. A negative thing about this is that you are not sure whether these people can afford a flight in the future, as it is basically because of a lack of money people participate in this.
And a last reason for it to be a great move is that it is one of those successful campaigns that creates word of mouth advertising. People will be talking about it on social media and in real life and therefore it creates brand awareness. Together with the reasoning about customer loyalty, this might affect future revenues in a positive way.
I really liked to read this post. After the guest lecture, I realized that KLM is very strong in their Social Media strategy and since I didn’t know about this crowdfunding, it was an interesting addition to this weeks subjects and the guest lecture from a couple of weeks ago.
I really like the idea behind the crowd funding flights. It will attract people who are not fortunate enough to book a flight at KLM, and have booked budget flights like RyanAir or EasyJet for the past few years. With these crowdfunding flights, these people will have the opportunity to fly with KLM and will be able to experience the luxury of KLM. By doing that, there is a great possibility they will choose KLM in the future instead of those budget flights. In that way, this is a way to engage new customers, in an easy and cheap way.
I also think it is a good marketing strategy, since KLM is making it personal. Within the crowd funding, people’s personal story are included. So, KLM is increasing it’s sympathy, which increases the brand loyalty in the future. Customers will stick to KLM, and potential customers will choose KLM. They are showing to the world that they care about the story behind the flight tickets and dollars coming in.
So I really like the idea behind this concept, and I think is a good move!!
It is really amazing to read an article like this. Tourism is a really big phenomenon. Year by year more than a billion people in the world decides to travel and explore a different part of the world or visit friends and family.
KLM is doing an incredible job using social media like this. With their project more and more people can have the unique experience of visiting a different continent and culture. And when you have family far away, you can also see that person you miss so much. An airplane has the power to make many dreams come true and kill every kind of distance.
However, the world is still unequal. Travel is not something everybody can do. There is still 795 million of people that can not even eat everyday, and how can they think about travel? Still, the number of travelers is always going to get higher, but there is still a long way to go before it is possible for everyone. KLM brings this a little closer for people in developed parts of the world by using the power of social media, while on the other side, KLM benefits from it also with a better brand image and more income.
Interesting Post! KLM’s cute dog ad is actually fake, which is quite disappointing!
This innovative campaign benefits both the company and the person requesting the fund. The company can benefit from increased brand awareness, customer loyalty and also revenue generation and the person can benefit from actually reconnecting with their loved ones! However, people who can not afford to travel might keep using this platforms, which could isolate those who are actually in need of help!
This campaign is a good move, however, they should not repeat this too often as it might affect its uniqueness!