Qatar unveils 'tweet miles' social media campaign for fliers
Posted on Jul 11, 2012 by equimedia
Qatar Airways has launched an innovative social media campaign, encouraging fliers to use Twitter to earn 'tweet miles'.
The objective of the Tweet-a-Meet campaign is to encourage connections between people from different parts of the world, forging new friendships and eventually meeting up with their tweet partners.
Run as a competition, contestants pair up with another person in another part of the world, exchanging messages through the tweet-a-meet.com microsite about their flights for which they receive 'tweet miles'.
Points are accumulated for every message that carries the hashtag #tweet-a-meet, with the overall aim of achieving the highest number of tweets when the global race comes to an end.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al baker believes the campaign takes full advantage of the cohesive nature of social networking and micro-blogging communities, which supersede cultural and border boundaries.
"A good percentage of our bookings come from online channels, so most of our passengers are very social media savvy," he said. "As a result, Qatar Airways has been actively looking at a variety of different distribution channels using new technology to reach out even more to our customers."
Meanwhile, British Airways (BA) have taken an altogether more unusual approach to advertising their brand this summer.
The official London 2012 Olympic sponsor has created a new campaign carrying the tagline "Don't Fly. Support Team GB."
Although this seems a peculiar approach from the airline, the intention is easily explained.
"We're asking the nation to join together, to give our athletes the greatest home advantage we can give them," says BA on its Facebook page. "It could be the difference in seconds and millimetres, turning silver into gold."
The campaign also carries a hashtag #HomeAdvantage and is supported by a new advert and Home Advantage documentary, showing how much difference a supportive crowd can make to the success of athletes.
