Hey everybody! Welcome back to Airport Marketing day at the SageRock blog. If it’s Tuesday, it’s airport marketing day.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) just had the first scheduled A380 route from China to the U.S. by China Southern Airlines.
LAX is posting pictures of the event on their Facebook page and making for some really sweet Airport Facebook marketing!
And people loved it!
Here’s a screen capture of the second post and the one that got the most engagement:
Interior view of LAX’s new A380 family member by China Southern Airlines. This is the first scheduled A380 route from China to the U.S.
So far this post has:
- 119 shares
- 1407 likes
- 79 comments
Those are pretty impressive numbers.
They currently have two other posts following this post about the A380. They are also doing well. But this interior picture post seems to be getting the most exposure.
This post came out on Saturday, October 13.
It’s neck and neck with the very first post about the A380 that was posted Thursday, October 11:
The Facebook lead-in for this is: “There’s a new A380 in town! Tomorrow China Southern Airlines launches Airbus A380 service between its LAX-Guangzhou, China route.”
This is useful for any company to consider.
On face value the interest here seems obvious enough:
Super big plane connects China and the U.S.
We can’t all get that kind of awesome at our airport or our manufacturing company.
But I don’t believe it’s size and distance that makes this report compelling.
It’s compelling because it’s unusual.
One of the posts reads, “This brings the number of airlines operating A380 service at LAX to five.”
A380′s are not something we all see every day.
I suspect most of us have never stepped foot on an A380. But most of us probably would like to. Or how about checking out one of the 8 luxury first-class suites!?
I talk about “News Values” in this post.
There are proven characteristics that go into a newsworthy story.
One big characteristic is: Unexpectedness: If an event is out of the ordinary it will have a greater effect than something that is an everyday occurrence.
Things that are unexpected are more interesting than things that are an everyday occurrence. Duh!
But we all have those.
Each airport I’ve been in has something unique and unexpected. Some Airport Facebook marketing ideas that are off the top of my head include:
- Cleveland has the weapon wall in security – what if you posted each new weapon that was found in the security check point.
- Las Vegas has slot machines – what if you posted pictures of people that won big in the airport.
- Akron-Canton, besides endlessly breaking passenger records every month in like forever, has an indoor playground for kids. Those pictures would be adorable.
- St. Louis has their animal rest area. Babies, puppies and kitties. That’s pretty much what makes the Web tick these days.
And then there are all you lucky devils that made the article: 10 of the world’s top airport lounges – CNN.com. Posting interesting updates and pictures from those would be cool.
Everybody has something unique. What could you do with your Airport Photos?
SageRock has 2 cats and a huge dog named “Tank”.
Anything that is unusual or unexpected becomes compelling to people.
It doesn’t have to always be directly tied to the product or service you offer. It just needs to be something that people maybe didn’t know about you. Or something that just happened that is unique.
That’s the secret to creating engaging stories as each airport thinks about its Facebook marketing strategy. Be unexpected.
I’ll get more into this on another post. But when you have something that people are loving, like the LAX China Southern Airlines A380, I highly encourage you to take that post and sponsor it on Facebook Ads.
You will reach a far greater audience instantly by using Facebook Ads.
With an airport the size of LAX you pretty much can’t go wrong with how you target the people you want to reach.
- Friends of fans
- People who like airplanes
- People on Facebook in China
- The entire world
Others of us who are mere mortals probably want to be a little more selective in our targeting.
But the point of this is that you already have a story that resonates really well with people. You know it works. Now get it out to the rest of your target audience using Facebook Ads.
Nice work, LAX!
Oh… can you get us a picture of those luxury suites? I gotta see that.
See all you airport marketers next Tuesday!
