So this past week I was traveling all over the east coast for various events. I had a couple flights which lead me to make some observations on effective marketing in airports.
First, while waiting to board a flight you have a zillion people waiting in a small area. Several times while waiting to board I was forced to listen to some guy on his cell phone having a conversation for all to hear. Well, what if you were to loudly have a ’fake conversation’ promoting your product? It’s a quick way to get 100+ to hear about you, and then you simply move on to the next boarding area. While this idea might be obnoxious, it’s free and will definitely work.
Second, there is a huge opportunity while waiting at a baggage claim. I would love to see airlines adopt the strategy of hotels; give away cookies. Hotels often give away cookies when you sign-in. An airline could do the same right after a flight ends and while people are milling about waiting for bags. Making the baggage claims more ’social’ through cookies (a warm reception/thank-you) could lead to opportunities for external marketing partnerships with hotels, area events, sports games, etc’
Finally, in other airline news, I recently noticed an article indicating that Southwest is soliciting bids for in-flight wifi in an attempt to appeal more to business travelers’ that would be a huge move.