Campaigns we like: Air France

Air France (and KLM) received a lot of publicity because of the Facebook page where you can find out and make friends with other individuals who will be sitting on the same flight as you. Regardless of how useful this is, or how many people will actually use it, it certainly got people talking about and engaging with the brand.

As it stands, they have 1,041,838 “Likes” on Facebook and 16,901 people currently talking about them. This, in turn, along with targeting new users via lead generation and email marketing has lead to more (well at least me) people signing up to the newsletter.

Why I like Air France emails
1. They don’t bombard me – I received a welcome email explaining they would send me information about attractive fares and inspiring destinations. Exciting competitions and other useful information when travelling. I have then received no more than two a month; each with a clear and targeted message.

2. When an airline emails me I am interested in cheap flights and possibly new destinations. The main body of the text clearly includes this information and doesn’t hide offers behind cheap one-way tickets or completely unfeasible times.

3. The subject lines are timely but related – E.g. When the snow came the subject line was “Need a break away from the cold?”

4. Some of the offers allow them to test subject lines while offering benefits to the reader. For example: “Use your mobile to book your flight and you will receive a 20% discount”.

5. I don’t like surprises so when it comes to booking flights, I like to consider what or where I might like to go. Many airlines send emails with “Book now for great savings” messages and within a few hours the seats are all gone. That is why I particularly appreciated the warning of the sale from Air France. The subject line of an email sent out on 30 December simply said: “Save the date; 5th January 2012”.

Then on 5 January, as promised, the follow-up email comes with targeted offers using the airport I selected as my preference when signing up and clearly stating the full return price.

6. Most of the email (80%) focuses on flight prices, but it also includes one or two related offers, insurance, car hire or competitions.

7. It is easy to share the information on email, Facebook or Twitter, which is actually really useful with flights for pleasure where you might want to share and discuss with other people travelling.

What’s not to like
Nothing really, a useful clear email marketing communications strategy with targeted messages. A couple of times my name gets missed of the “Dear” – but I can live with this as long as the actual information is relevant.

Overall a good clear creative, useful information and a great example of how social media can work with email marketing in a way which is beneficial for collection, awareness and communication and presumably sales.

Sara Watts, Director, Data Media and Research

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