Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Business, Communication Strategy, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Customer Service, Insight, Management, Marketing Fail, Standards, Stubborness, Tourism
So a few weeks ago, I was in Amsterdam and about to fly to London.
I was quite excited because apart from going ‘home’ for the first time in well over a year – even if it was just for 18 hours – I was going to fly into London City airport for the first time and I was interested to see it.
OK, that’s not why I had chosen to pay the higher fair – I had to be in the city at a specific time – and so that airport made things super convenient for me.
About 30 minutes before we were going to board, a member of British Airways came up to me and asked …
“Mr Campbell, would you be interested in catching a later flight that lands at Heathrow. We will provide you with a €25 voucher if you do.”
Now for those of you who don’t know, Heathrow Airport is not in the middle of London and while it is obviously well served with transport links, it’s a much longer journey and probably costs more than the €25 they were offering.
Because of this, I asked …
“Does anyone ever accept that offer?”
The representative looked at me rather sarcastically and said …
“Yes, lots of people actually”.
Now maybe I was a bit jet-lagged.
Or maybe I just didn’t choose the right words.
But I found myself replying with …
“That must explain why you’re no longer the World’s favourite airline”.
OK, that was a majorly dick move, but I still can’t work out how an airline thinks it’s OK to offer an alternative flight that goes to a completely different airport and a voucher that doesn’t come close to covering the higher price I’d paid for my ticket [so I could fly to that specific airport], let alone the probable cost of getting into the city from this new destination.
I get things change and alternative plans have to be made, but brands need to remember that the best way to deal with screwing up is to offer a genuine level of compensation, not something that literally rubs salt into the wounds.
Have they learnt nothing from their war with Virgin?
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Insight, Marketing, Relevance, Tourism
I’ve written a lot about the state of tourism advertising.
To be honest, there’s very few categories that do it worse.
A mass of generic vignettes that shows every possible activity you can do with a bad line stuck at the end that generally tends to be some over-promising superlative placed before the name of country the ad is about.
There have been a few exceptions.
The original ‘100% Pure’ New Zealand campaign is one, but there’s not been many more.
Which is why I loved this poster that appeared in Helsinki …
OK, so they are preaching to the converted – given anyone who saw it happened to be there anyway – but it’s just a great way to make someone feel special and welcomed.
I love it.
I love it for so many reasons.
I love how they celebrate their visitors while also acknowledging they’re bloody nutcase.
I can imagine a tourist seeing that, agreeing it was a mental thing to do and then walking away smiling … feeling better about their decision and themselves.
That’s pretty impressive. Especially for a poster.
Which all goes to show that brands that are self aware can connect to culture better than brands that are bland egomaniacs.
Filed under: China, Comment, Government, Technology, Tourism
… yet despite that, it may also be one of the most thought-provoking.
And potentially scary.
Even scarier than the start of yet another week, and not because it features my voice.
[Though that is also very scary]
So errrrm, enjoy.