KLM wants faces of Facebook fans on the side of an aircraft

In January we discussed an article about the “KLM Surprise”, where the Dutch Airline used Social Media and the information their customers revealed on the internet in order to give them a personalized gift at the boarding gate.

Now KLM came up with a new idea wanting to put the faces of Facebook fans on the side of an aircraft. The correlating article, written by Kevin May on the 28^th of April 2011 discusses an innovative way of using Web 2.0 in order to engage customers and create awareness.

The campaign is called “Tile & Inspire” and the idea behind it came from a popular Dutch tradition of placing ornate blue ceramic tiles, painted with pictures, around a person’s home. The tool used is a Facebook application that allows the airline’s page fans to place their picture and an inspirational message on a tile. If the project launches, KLM will be using a Boeing 777-200 and paint it entirely with the gathered “tiles” from their Facebook page.

This project is taking the use of Social Media one step further and will surely arouse a lot of attention. The good thing is, KLM will not be using just regular fans of their Facebook page but only those ones agreeing on the special application’s terms. In other words, KLM respects their customers’ privacy if they do not want to appear on the aircraft.

By introducing this new project, KLM again proves their creativity by using Facebook and engaging their customers. The “KLM Surprise” that we mentioned earlier, was a very successful customer loyalty tool and millions of people twittered about this experience. By picturing one’s own face on a passenger aircraft, this could create some real and authentic feelings towards the airline.

In our opinion this campaign is creative and revolutionary, and it could develop into a real marketing success. However, the high costs involved in repainting an entire aircraft, might exceed the return on investment of this campaign, so we question ourselves- is it worth it?

A cost-benefit analysis will show if this project is feasible and viable as a long term investment.

Source: http://www.tnooz.com/2011/04/28/news/klm-wants-faces-of-facebook-fans-on-the-side-of-an-aircraft/