SpiceJet’s novel way to introduce their new menu on board their flights using social media is very innovative. In addition to promotion of its new menu on-board their flights and using the usual advertising route on lifestyle magazines, the method adopted is a welcome change.
Objective
SpiceJet Ltd. has entered into a partnership with TajSATS and Café Coffee Day (CCD) for its new in-flight menu, titled ‘Hot Meals, Warm Smiles’. Under the partnership, the airline will offer an array of pan-Asian cuisines and gourmet snacks. The veg/non-veg meals come under the categories of Breakfast, All-Day Hot Meals, Gourmet Glee, Sandwiches and Quick Picks.
SpiceJet is also offering guests the facility of pre-booking meals while booking tickets online. This will entitle guests to a 25 per cent discount on the meals, as compared with on-board prices.
Execution
The campaign started with a support to SRH using the #withallourheart all the way back in April and culminated on May 24th when the winners for the contests were announced on Facebook.
The execution of the campaign from start to finish was covered in all the airline’s social media presence – Facebook, Twitter and Youtube – all bearing the ubiquitous #withallourheart. The company cleverly planned its communication to coincide with the T20 series and the fever associated with the cricketing tournament. That they do everything #withallourheart including providing “hot meals, warm smiles” was brought in towards the end of the campaign.
Prominent cricketers from Sunrisers Hyderabad were part of the campaign the company ran. One such interesting contest featured Dale Styen where participants could win player signed tees and goodies. Another one was featuring Shikhar Dhawan cheering for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the true #OrangeArmy style.
The common #withallourheart continued to make an appearance in these contests.
A similar format was followed on twitter with #withallourheart, in the same fashion as on Facebook, however there were some extra contests that came about – like creating your own fan song for SRH. The contest on Twitter seemed to have started out first with winners being announced in sets for each contest.
All the contest material on the channels was very cleanly executed – with an eye for design and production as is the case with all Spicejet communications.
Positives
The company created enough buzz about their association with SRH and #withallourheart received quite a decent response on their twitter feed. There was enough and more support shown to the SRH team in the cricketing tournament through the campaign.
The contest received very enthusiastic response and the Facebook page was high on engagement as was their twitter feed. The company also received decent number of views for the Shikhar Dhawan, Darren Sammy, Dale Styen and the cheering videos on Youtube.
Areas for improvement
The message: The message that their campaign was trying to send out was that they do everything with all their heart; be it cheering for SRH, dancing, serving, making meals – everything they do as part of their airline proposition. But somewhere along the line it kind of felt that the integration of the campaign for supporting SRH overshadowed their main objective of highlighting their concrete proposition of introducing a new menu on board.
The platforms used: Twitter and Facebook carried the same messages. Photographs and videos associated with what you do with all your heart. This is great. However, apart from dancing and cheering and showing off tattoos there are probably so many other things people do with all their heart – singing, helping, exercising, cooking and eating. The company should have brought in cooking and eating as part of the contest and subtly brought in the new menu there.
Also since the new menu was the focus, appetising photographs of the menu could have been shared on these platforms, pinterest and instagram. That would have reduced a few caustic messages the company got on the Facebook site. The social pages were just full of contests that were related to SRH support and a little disconnected from the main message – hot meals, warm smiles for the introduction of the new menu. Pre-booking meals to get a 25% discount could have been subtly introduced in the campaign.
Alliance content sharing: Since CCD and TajSATS were menu partners, their social media presence could have been used to further leverage the visibility of the new menu campaign
Conclusion
Spicejet probably started off with planning the campaign right and it appeared that they were forced to integrate it with the sponsorship of the SRH team. Reviewing the campaign was a little difficult because there were too many messages out there and it was difficult what Spicejet was trying to tell. Though engagement was high, a lot more visibility to the main campaign – doing everything #withallourheart and the introduction of the new menu could be increased several times over if more visual platforms – youtube, instagram and pinterest were more effectively used.