ETIHAD Airways’ social media campaign to launch its first Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 aircraft, along with its new cabin crew uniform, proved to be a success among the airline’s fans.
Running on multiple social media channels, the campaign yielded over 70 million impressions across Etihad Airways’ brand related hashtags within the first 48 hours of the launch, resulting in a staggering increase in the airline’s online brand awareness. Awareness reached new heights with the #Etihad and #Reimagined hashtag combination being the most popular, with more than 22 million impressions. This was followed by the combination of the #Etihad and #Fashion hashtag gaining over two million impressions.Overall sentiment on social media was positive, with unprecedented support received from the online community excited about the airline’s launch of its new style and image. Peter Baumgartner, chief commercial officer of Etihad Airways, said: “The campaign has achieved its initial objectives with the launch being widely popular and receiving extraordinary feedback across all our social media channels. “We will continue to build on the momentum with various other social media initiatives to boost excitement and engagement among our target audiences still further.” Etihad Airways produced four online videos as part of its campaign, including an A380 and B787 Air to Air video, a new Facets of Abu Dhabi livery documentary, and a behind the scenes high fashion-shoot video by the multi-award winning photographer Norman Jean Roy.Fans around the globe enthusiastically watched the videos on YouTube, doubling the total number of video views in the last 24 hours to over 75,000. The most watched video is the behind-the-scenes high fashion-shoot video with over 19,000 views and 91 per cent of users watching the video all the way through.The fashion-shoot images were also hugely successful on Etihad Airways’ Facebook page, with the main group shot garnering more than 18,000 ‘likes’, 1,200 ‘shares’ and nearly 600 comments.Etihad Airways was recently named winner of the Best Emerging Airline on Social Media Award at the SimpliFlying Awards 2014 and was revealed the most influential brand headquartered in the UAE by LinkedIn.