Airport, Estonia, Good for Business, Transport

This way Estonian Air creates history in loyalty marketing, being the first airline in the world launching social loyalty program, it claims.

Estonian Air is the first airline in the world to launch a social loyalty program fully-powered by social media and using the underlying Facebook platform. Estonian Air customers and fans can be rewarded for a variety of advocacy actions, like sharing their reviews of the airline on Facebook and tweeting a deal about the airline.

This is the first time in the world where customers will be rewarded for advocacy without even having to fly the airline, the carrier says.

Estonian Air is working together with SimpliFlying, the world leaders in helping airlines engage customer profitably.

“Today 88% of frequent flyers use Facebook and they are twice as active as ordinary Facebook users. Over 70% of them would like to be part of a social loyalty program too. Estonian Air’s pioneering effort in this field will intensify a pool of advocates for engaging with the airline online. The lessons learned from this can potentially change the course of airline loyalty programs globally,” says Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying.

“In addition to rewarding and sharing recognition to our fans and customers, we also see it is an innovative way to bring Estonian Air and Estonia to the world map. Estonia is a small market and in order to provide good connections at reasonable price for Estonians, the airline needs to also attract connecting traffic from outside Estonia. Social Media is one of the most effective ways to market and promote brands across the borders,” said Tero Taskila, the CEO of Estonian Air.