AirAsia’s Social Media Campaign: Where’s Simplicity?

548 days ago by Roderick Low, in Business

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Roderick Low is a social media trainer and consultant at Adonai Training. He helps SMBs make sense of the social web and equip them with knowledge to engage with their audience. Catch him on his personal blog as he shares all things social media on a weekly basis.

AirAsia has recently kicked off a new campaign with the theme “Real People, Real Stories”. Before I start babbling my thoughts, allow me to explain the campaign in brief.

With consumers in mind, the campaign invites AirAsia travelers to submit their stories on how the budget airline has changed their lives for the better.

Launched on eYeka platform, consumers are asked to submit a 30 to 90 second video or animation to share their AirAsia stories. Here’s the carrot: At the end of the campaign (29 August), a total of 35 tickets worth up to USD$30,000 will be given away.

Alexandre Olmedo, the CEO of eYeka Asia describes this campaign with the following words:

“By engaging real people to share their stories on how their lives have changed for the better demonstrates AirAsia’s authenticity, openness and appetite for innovation.”

Where’s Simplicity?

I’m in favor of this campaign as it has the intention to engage and bond with the consumers (Kudos to AirAsia in this aspect). However, its success might be hampered by the mountain of tasks consumers face when creating a video or animation. Who would have the time and patience to work on it? Not many, and poor response is the end result. With 19 days to go, only 5 videos are submitted and the number of views isn’t looking great.

Simplicity is clearly lacking. AirAsia could have made it simpler for its customers to participate in this contest. Perhaps, uploading a picture or a simple tweet would suffice.

An apt and creative example would be Ikea’s Facebook photo tagging campaign. Participation is just a click away. It’s so simple that eager fans requested for more photos to tag. The contest hit its boiling point and Ikea had to put the contest to a halt. Now, that’s the beauty of keeping things simple, especially when getting fans to participate.

Tags: airasia, Ikea, Social Media

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WL

Well Said. Probably you can continue to watch how AirAsia Social Media will carry out next after this call for entries. Bet it will be 360.
http://twitter.com/williswee Willis Wee

yeap. we're tracking it
http://twitter.com/Rodericklow Roderick

Hi WL,

I will be monitoring their future social media campaigns. They have been pretty impressive thus far, especially with the 'Free Seats' one last year.
Scott Teng

Hi Roderick,

My name is Scott and I am the strategic planner at eYeka Asia. I happened to see your post, and as such I would like to clarify a few things from our perspective.

As rightly pointed out, as of my reply to you today we have 8 entries that have been submitted for the “Real People, Real Stories” campaign. The number might not seem high today, but one should not jump the gun and conclude prematurely about the campaign because based on our experience, the videos usually come in right before the end of the contest period.

While numbers are definitely important, it might also be wise to note that this is but part of a bigger campaign for AirAsia.

It is easy for consumers to tweet and post pictures — however, the qualitative output from that is far different from having consumer-generated videos. Videos will also have much more longevity than a tweet, and that is why video is the chosen medium.

The bar is thus set higher on purpose to leverage on eYeka’s creator in engaging in social co-creation for AirAsia.

We believe in targeting the right people for the right stage of the campaign. In the current stage one, creators who have the ability and the passion to create content are being targeted, following which in stage two of the campaign, AirAsia’s brand enthusiasts will be asked to view and vote for the video that they like the most. This is in-line with the 1-9-90 split of the internet audience.

We do hope that you will continue to monitor the campaign in its entirety.

Sincerely,
Scott
http://twitter.com/Rodericklow Roderick

Hi Scott,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post and I appreciate that. i understand your current campaign is part of a bigger campaign that AirAsia is going to roll out and I am anticipating it already.

As for the above post, it was just my opinion on how it could have been simplified and not meant to be malice, hope you understand.

Once again, I thank you for clarifying and hope that this campaign is a success. Cheers!

- Rod
Nathan

I do think it is a great idea, but are they missing the mark all together? I understand that they want to focus on “Real People, Real Stories”, but they only ask for stories on how the airline has changed their lives for the better. Only asking for good press defeats the purpose of Social Media. Isn't the purpose of Social Media to open a dialogue with consumers? Now I have never flown this airline, but I have never flown an airline that has changed my life for the better. It is a great idea, and a valiant effort, but I think it really missed the mark on several levels.
- Nathan
http://twitter.com/Rodericklow Roderick

Yes Nathan, I agree on that too. I think social media is about the people…the spotlight should not shine on the company.
Mario Andrade

“Videos will also have much more longevity than a tweet, and that is why video is the chosen medium.” – who says so?