Social Media: The Air Asia Way

Day one of iStrategy 2010 kicks off with an insightful presentation by Kathleen Tan, Regional Head of Commercial, Air Asia group. (@empressrox) Here’s her presentation in a nutshell:

Kathleen starts off by emphasizing that social media is a commitment – it isn’t just about learning about theories and technologies, it’s about immersing yourself in social media as well. To her, that meant getting on these platforms and experimenting with them on a personal basis.

AirAsia’s has global social media presences on Facebook, Renren, Twitter and Sina, with Facebook leading the social media pack with 1,300,000 followers. Twitter comes next with 130,000 followers, mostly within a younger age group. Though they have a unified brand image, AirAsia takes an extra effort to localize; for example, they have set up 11 Facebook pages for different locations. Country heads determine what can or cannot be said, which is especially important in Asia, where political, social, economic and technological differences can affect conversations greatly.

Tiger Airways had many flights cancelled, AirAsia aggressively used the opportunity to present a cheeky brand image and they integrated their social media and offline media to poke fun at their competition. “Tsunami marketing” as quoted by Kathleen Tan, which she casually used as an analogy as efforts to create newsworthy news. Responses of this campaign? Customers felt the ad was smart and in fact, they grew to like the brand better. This ad got picked up internationally.

AirAsia uses social media not to socialize, but to:

• Generate buzz and consumer noise
• Enhance the brand experience
• Transform the PR landscape
• Humanize their brand
• Reduce marketing dollars.

Key takeaways:

AirAsia leverages on Twitter and Facebook to push real-time updates which are crucial in the travel industry in 2 ways:
1. Customer service
2. Crisis management (e.g. travel advisories)

AirAsia ensures that each and every employee is part of the social media conversation

This includes
– Top management (e.g. @tonyfernandez, @azranosmanrani)
– Employees on social media (including pilots and other internal staff) that act as brand evangelists
– Station managers: trained regularly in social media

AirAsia’s “special ingredients”:
– Top management support
– Total buy in
– Transparency
– Content
– Commitment
– Open dialoges with SM partners,
– A resilient attitude: test, try, fail, test again: don’t give up