In my quest to peel under the success of Lufthansa social media strategy, as part of my coursework for Squared Online, brings me now to the final post in the series.
If you haven’t read the other posts, you can find them at:
Why was Lufthansa in the top 10 in Social Brands 100/ 2013?Part1
Why was Lufthansa in the top 10 in Social Brands 100/ 2013?Part2
In the Social Brands 100 2013 Lufthansa was 3rd in the list. In my previous two posts I have identified some of the elements that their social media channels, namely Twitter and Facebook have, which makes them so successful within the social media landscape .
This post will look into some of the elements that their YouTube channel has which, combined with Twitter and Facebook accounts, earned them 3rd place in the prestigious Social Brands 100 2013.
Lufthansa’s YouTube
(If you want to see a larger version of this screenshot just click on the image.)
At first glance you can see that they have 11,737 subscribers. This is a very healthy number of subscribers.
How are they optimising this channel to engage with their customers and potential customers?
Again there are several elements that really work well in their YouTube channel. I will select a few for the purpose of this blog to illustrate, how they are optimising this channel for engagement.
They use humour. They have a channel aimed at the German market, named ‘Alfons geprüft’ (Alfons tests). This is a channel that seems quite popular, if we are to deduce by the number of views which each video gets. Integrating humour makes their content more shareable.
You can see from the above infographic how crucial it is to use video. For example videos are shared 12X more than links and text posts combined.
According to Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe authors of The Viral Video Manifesto: Why Everything You Know is Wrong and How to Do What Really Works
Lufthansa’s ‘Alfons geprüft’ channel taps into those positive emotions and in doing so, it diffuses the reach of its brand further.
Lufthansa has also a playlist titled Lufthansa TV spots. Again demonstrating an integrated approach to marketing plan. By recycling their TV spots they capitalise on a whole new set of viewers. According to YouTube statistic page there are;
- More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month.
- Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube – that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than last year.
- 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
This offers a plethora of potential opportunities to Lufthansa.
Another playlist, is the Scene Spotter: ‘Facebook application filled with great tips from both travel enthusiasts and locals — people who love exploring a city just as much as you do!’
If you would like to find out more watch their video explainer below:
Scene Spotter playlist enables Lufthansa to continue threading the story outside Facebook. However, by watching one of the mini-city guides, you have hyperlink text in the description, encouraging you to continue engaging with Lufthansa brand narrative by directing them to the app in Facebook.
Keeping the engagement alive.
Lufthansa always keeps in mind their different audiences when planning content in their different channels. For example, for the aviation geeks (#avgeeks), they have a whole playlist titled Boeing with videos showing their fleet, etc.
This is what Andy Sandoz means by providing “user centric” content. Andy states that smart business with smart customers have to be user centric if they want to keep them engaged . Lufthansa, by providing content that appeals to its different market segments, is reaching out to their needs and making them feel special.
From their selection of playlists above, two have caught my attention, one being the Lufthansa #UpgradeChicago and the other which is out of frame is their Corporate playlist.
#UpgradeChicago was an experiential marketing campaign. “The promotion was designed to draw attention to the debut of Lufthansa’s new Boeing 747-800 aircraft on a daily flight the carrier operates between Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and Frankfurt, Germany. With this major upgrade in aircraft serving ORD, Lufthansa decided to expand on the “UPGRADE” concept by randomly awarding upgrades on products, services and events throughout Chicago between November 11 and 17 2013” (Extracted from first2board.com).
This campaign created a lot of media buzz. It was fun, “fresh”, exciting – people in Chicago could be surprised at any moment with an upgrade when they went about with their daily lives.
By reading the description of the videos highlighting the different upgrades, one would find a link linking back to Facebook, cross pollinating the brand message.
Also because the #UpgradeChicago campaign ran over 7 days, each day they released a video in YouTube, documenting the upgrades being offered to the citizens of Chicago. This was a great example of localised marketing to satisfy the needs of the local market, like the Klaus-Heidi example I used in my first post of this series, but with global reach.
There are more examples of their YouTube channel optimisation, which enables them to have had such a high standing in the Social Brands 100. However, I will conclude with an example from their corporate brand channel.
As per the previous channels, Twitter and Facebook, YouTube is also used to propagate their brand’s five pillars of corporate responsibility:
- Economic sustainability
- Corporate governance and compliance
- Climate and environmental responsibility
- Social responsibility
- Societal responsibility
The above video communicates their commitment to their climate and environmental responsibilities. This video to date had 12,706 views. According to Chris Perks, the Squared Online tutor, brands when developing their social media strategy, must also develop the right appropriate social behaviour, namely by being:
- Truthful
- Honest
- Compelling
By uploading content such as their video; Lufthansa eTaxi: For an environmentally compatible ground operation, they are being truthful to their corporate responsibilities and being honest with their customers and partners.
Overall, Lufthansa’s use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) is very strategic , is well planned as part of an integrated marketing plan, that weaves digital and non-digital elements in a brand tapestry that is truthful, honest and compelling. Hence, the reason that it has achieved 3rd place in the prestigious Social Brands 100 2013.
Well done Lufthansa.
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Wishing you great success
