content marketing cage match - the battle of the airline brands (king content)
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Welcome to the first in King Content's series of content marketing cage matches! One of the best ways to learn how to execute effective content marketing strategies is to examine what others are doing. Join us as we soak up the mistakes and triumphs of major brands adapting to meet their increasingly savvy digital audiences.TRANSCRIPT
The battle of the airline brands.
Welcome to the first in our series of content marketing cage matches!
One of the best ways to learn how to execute effective content
marketing strategies is to examine what others are doing.
Join us as we soak up the mistakes and triumphs of major brands
adapting to meet their increasingly savvy digital audiences.
The battle of
the airline brands.
Vs.
Qantas - Australia’s largest and best-known airline.
Virgin Australia - The young up-and-comer closing in on
Qantas as Australia’s preferred carrier.
One has almost 100 years of history, the other a celebrity entrepreneur for a founder.
Both are strong and recognisable brands, but how are they performing in the online
content marketing race for consumer engagement?
Let’s find out.
Introducing the airlines…
Blog Content
Online blogs form the heart of most content marketing strategies.
Blogs not only enable sustained communication through a shareable
content format, but when progressively published they amass into a
content hub or destination that provides cumulative value to both the
brand and those accessing the content.
So with travel blogs becoming one of the most frequently accessed
content types on the web, let’s find out how our airlines are utilising
their blogs to capture and engage the travel audience online.
Blog content
First up, Virgin!
When you visit the Virgin Australia blog, a couple of things become immediately
apparent:
1. It is neglected.
2. The content is being created and published without any kind of strategy.
Virgin has only published 10 blog articles in the past 12 months.
This is quite surprising considering Virgin Australia is one of the biggest airline brands
in the country.
This frequency not only demonstrates the lack of time and resources being put into the blog, but also the significance
of content marketing in their overall marketing strategy.
The blog clearly operates as an afterthought rather than a leading communication and engagement tool.
But what’s the content like?
Unfortunately, most of the blogs function like wordy PR press releases, introducing newly refurbished lounges or
smartphone check-in options. And while it’s great to keep your audience up to date on company developments, the
reality is that no one is going to subscribe or engage with a blog that churns out dull corporate PR.
In short, Virgin Australia is missing out on a great opportunity to engage both local and international travellers with
content.
Blog content
When it comes to blog content, Qantas’ Travel Insider certainly delivers more value
to their readers than Virgin Australia.
Their blog is updated regularly with editorially-driven articles on everything from
restaurant and hotel reviews, to detailed city guides and insider tips on destinations.
They also deliver this content in interesting series, like:
Ask the concierge
In these blogs, they interview concierges from hotels from around the world for their
insider knowledge of cities. See example.
One perfect day:
These blogs offer an hour-by-hour plan of the ‘perfect day’ in major international
cities. The detail provided is not only interesting, but super helpful! (I’ll be looking
these up when I go on my next trip). See example.
Featured City Guides - ‘The full Montevideo: Exploring the Uruguayan capital’
If you want to be inspired by a destination’s history, culture and attractions then
read these guides. They contain a lot of detail – too much detail, in fact, to operate
effectively with online attention spans. See example.
Blog content
Which brings me to the major problem with the Qantas Travel Insider blog:
It’s not actually a blog! Instead it’s repurposed print content from The
Australian Way – the Qantas inflight magazine.
Now I understand the value of repurposing content, especially content as
interesting, helpful and engaging as that now featured on the Qantas blog,
but while it may work for some formats (e.g. ‘Ask the Concierge’ and ‘One
Perfect Day’) for others like the ‘City Guides’ and some of the ‘Where I
stay’ posts, repurposing from print to online becomes clunky and
disengages the audience. Seriously, how can you fluctuate from a four-
sentence listing to a 4000-word feature article?
Newsflash, Qantas! Online content marketing gives you the opportunity to
communicate in a fresh and more immediate way. (Not on a month-to-
month basis.)
All in all, it’s fairly laughable that they’re only repurposing content designed
and written for print, therefore missing the whole opportunity to effectively
engage a much larger online audience with a new type of Qantas content
experience.
The verdict?
Qantas wins.
Even though they seriously need to re-evaluate their content marketing
strategy to utilise online-specific content, the Qantas Travel Insider blog
still provides a lot of interesting, informative and helpful content for
travellers.
By providing this value to their online audience alongside appropriate
calls to action, the Qantas blog is undoubtedly more effective than
Virgin Australia’s, as they have successfully created a branded content
hub that people return to for travel content, in turn building brand
reputation and loyalty.
Video content
As just about everyone is aware, video content is one of the most effective ways to engage online audiences.
So let’s take a look at how Qantas and Virgin Australia are utilising this tactic online.
First up, the numbers!
Qantas
Joined YouTube: 2006
Total videos: 204
Subscribers: 9831
Virgin Australia
Joined YouTube: 2011
Total videos: 12
Subscribers: 1443
Because Virgin joined YouTube later, we thought it only fair to examine the videos published in the last 12 months.
Videos published this year
Virgin Australia = 5 videos
Qantas = 64 videos
It’s pretty clear from this year’s numbers alone that Qantas is investing much more time and resources into their video
content, but quantity isn’t everything. Let’s take a closer look at the quality of the video content being produced.
Video content
Unfortunately the majority of the Virgin Australia videos have a pure
advertising/PR focus. This means they provide little or no value to the
viewer.
Prime example? The romance is back in the west
Let’s face it – Richard Branson exiting a plane in an akubra hat and then
shaking the hands of awaiting Virgin staff isn’t exactly enthralling stuff, even
if he is an inspiring entrepreneur.
While there are some glimmers of branded content potential in the ‘Behind
the scenes’ videos and Wellington video, none of these were produced in
the past 12 months.
Like their blog content, Virgin Australia’s video content overall falls a little
flat, failing to provide an already captive audience (1433 subscribers) with a
compelling value proposition.
Video content
With 64 (and counting) videos published this year, Qantas’ investment in
video demonstrates a desire to connect with and engage online audiences.
Qantas, like Virgin, has produced and uploaded a number of pure advertising
videos, (e.g. Qantas Singapore Lounge). But, unlike Virgin, they have also
taken the next step and invested in some branded video content that moves
beyond the sales pitch to try to engage online audiences in contemporary
ways.
The Mane Event Challenge videos are the perfect example of Qantas
branching out. Created in the lead-up to the 2013 British & Irish Lions rugby
tour, this series of videos brought together four British & Lions supporters for
a series of gruelling challenges against Australian rugby devotees. The
videos, while a little silly, are definitely entertaining and only sparsely
reference Qantas.
This movement away from a pure ‘products and services’ offering and
towards a valuable online content experience is also mirrored in the Atlas
video featuring musician Daniel Johns.
The verdict?
Qantas wins.
Qantas wins ‘Best in show’ for video content, not because of the
quantity they have produced but because they have made a sustained
effort to connect with their online audience through video content that is
not purely self-serving advertising.
Social media
Social media
How are they populating their page?
• On numbers alone, Qantas leads the pack with over
400,000 likes, a clear 100,000 ahead of Virgin. A comparison
of their engagement rates also puts Qantas ahead of Virgin
– 2.8 per cent versus 1 per cent.
• With a larger following, Qantas’s decision to leverage off
famous names and luxury in-flight services ensures their
visually-driven posts are received well. Shared every couple
of days, the content shapes a brand that displays exactly
what they have on offer – big toys, big-name flyers and a
definite association with the high end.
• Virgin’s posts, often just text, definitely lack the Qantas
allure. They are customised public service announcements –
which have a place, as we will discuss later – but don’t
appear to be attracting masses of new followers, or levels of
engagement that rival the Qantas page.
Social media
How are they populating their page?
• There is an obviously large crossover between
the Qantas Facebook content and Twitter
content, so the channel is not necessarily used
to its full capacity.
• Qantas has one handle, while Virgin operates
across two: @VirginAustralia and
@VirginMobileAus. Virgin’s Twitter content -
like their Facebook content - does
predominantly focus on customer-service
announcements, overlooking the opportunity
to engage with their followers through original
or creative branded content.
The verdict on social media content? Qantas wins!
Social media
Real time response strategies
• Virgin’s objective is in stark contrast to Qantas, and what Virgin
lacks in visual stimulation they make up for in personality and
vibe. Virgin appreciates their consumer and opens their channel
up to for communication with the consumer. With constant
updates on flight delays, cancellations and customer directions,
the page is definitely appreciated for its customer service.
• Qantas lacks this human approach. Their content lacks a
personal voice that speaks to their customer. Even the approach
they use to field queries is often inflexible, missing the
opportunity to shape a brand that is luxurious and driven by
consumer satisfaction.
• In light of the recent Qantas flight, where 26 passengers were hit
with a gastro illness, it’s interesting to see no word of this on
their Facebook page while it’s front-page news on news.com,
SMH, etc. Only last month Qantas committed another faux pas,
failing to adequately monitor the posts made on their public
page, leaving one nine-year-old boy very well versed in content
of a pornographic nature. Qantas’s defence to the post was that
it was made at night, meaning there was no one manning their
social spaces out of office hours. Real-time posts mean real-
time responses.
Social media
Real time response strategies
• Where the Qantas content does vary from Twitter to Facebook is
their incorporation of customer service-esque posts. They use
this channel to field public enquiries and infrequently issue
statements (such as one referring to the gastro incident).
• @VirginAustralia serves as a broadcast channel – making
announcements about delays, cancellations, as well as content-
driven posts. @VirginAusMobile is a port for enquiries received
online, and seemingly operates around the clock.
The verdict on real time response strategies? Virgin wins!
Final scores
Category Winner
Blog content
Video content
Social media content
Social media response
So who’s the airline grand champion of
content marketing? Neither
Both Qantas and Virgin Australia have
things to learn from one another,
whether that be the value of dedicated
blog and video content production or the
24/7 social media customer service
response that is now expected from
online consumers.
In reality, they both have a fair way to
go before they could be considered on
par with their international competitors.
Airlines such as KLM show such
dedication to content marketing that it
rivals that of Coca-Cola and RedBull.
Wrapping up!
Five content marketing lessons from Qantas and Virgin Australia
1. Don’t create a blog and then never post on it.
2. If you do post on your blog, don’t just reword a press release or copy and
paste an article written for print. Instead, write something for your online
readers.
3. Videos produced on their own merit – whether it’s to educate, entertain or
inspire – are always more engaging than salesy videos highlighting
‘products’ and ‘features’.
4. Images are more effective than plain text when creating and sharing
branded social media content.
5. Responding to customer service queries and providing real-time content is
the only way to become a truly social brand. (Great job, Virgin Australia!)
Presented by King Content, Australia’s most-awarded
digital content marketing agency.
Check out our blog for more ideas, facts and advice.
www.kingcontent.com.au
@King_Content