Author: Philipp Bircher
Online communications is the perfect way to get in touch with your customers – it’s fast, it’s easy and supposedly the best method to reach a broad client base. Meanwhile, some would say that it is also very anonymous and lacks the personal touch which is such a crucial factor in doing business. Really?
That communicating online can be quite a different story becomes obvious when watching the example of the Royal Dutch Airline KLM. In fact, they showed that online communication is as personal as it gets when they made an exciting campaign whose core idea was to track down travelers at international Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam with unique gifts. The decision which present to bring to which customer was based on their social networking profiles such as Twitter or Foursquare. Just have a look:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-JRoY7_LU&w=530&h=297]
Online communications and Social Media have often two aims: to strengthen brand awareness and to enhance sales. I think that KLM’s campaign is a wonderful example of how to achieve exactly these goals by cutting through all the clutter of online communication activities that companies are engaged in today. Other than just sending out a customized newsletter to their customers with a gift voucher KLM managed to make online communication personal. Bet that the lucky ones in the clip are more prone to fly the petroleum blue airline next time (apart from becoming a lifetime Follower of KLM on Twitter)?
What we should not forget, however, is that online communications is strongly influenced by cultural factors. Especially gift giving in a cross-cultural context can be a sensitive subject. So what do you think: Would the same campaign also work on a Chinese, a Mexican or even a Saudi Airport with local travelers?