User:Simpliflying/sandbox

SimpliFlying is an international aviation consulting firm based in Singapore, with presences in New York and Vancouver. SimpliFlying advises airlines and airports on customer engagement and branding strategies, primarily in the social media space.

The company was founded by Shashank Nigam, the youngest winner of the Global Brand Leadership Award 2009 by World Brand Congress. He has also appeared on major media outlets including BBC, CNBC , Mashable , Airline Business and Aviation Week.

The company is also known for its award-winning blog.

Blog
Established in 2008 by CEO and founder, Shashank Nigam, SimpliFlying started as a blog on aviation marketing and branding insights and soon won worldwide acclaim.

The blog, which is regularly updated, consists of articles by in-house consultants, infographics, podcasts, presentations, case-studies and interviews with industry stalwarts. SimpliFlying also publishes research reports and whitepapers such as the annual Airline Social Media Outlook and Airport Social Media Outlook that analyze how airlines and airports allocate resources to social media. In 2011, SimpliFlying partnered with Cranfield University in UK to conduct a study on how frequent flyers use social media.

Considered one of the Top 5 most influential on Twitter in airline marketing since inception, SimpliFlying has also been named one of the Top 2 aviation blogs by FlightGlobal, as well as won the 2011 Gold Travel Magellan Award by Travel Weekly.

Model Frameworks
Among the model frameworks that SimpliFlying has developed, the 6X Model of Airline Branding was selected and published by Interbrand’s Brandchannel.com in Summer 2008. SimpliFlying introduced a model for deriving an airline’s brand value by taking into account both the realities of business and the nature of the industry. It focuses on six key levers:
 * Brand Xpectation
 * Brand Xperience
 * Brand Xpression
 * Brand Xternalities
 * Brand Xtensibility
 * Brand X-Factor

Areas of Expertise
SimpliFlying offers consulting and training for airlines, airports, and creative agencies that work with aviation firms. It focuses on helping clients drive one (or all) of the following business objectives:
 * Social Customer Service
 * Customer Loyalty
 * Driving Ancillary Revenue
 * Crisis Management
 * Social Media Benchmarking

SimpliFlying also partners with International Air Transport Association to provide certification courses on airline social media strategy to global airlines.

Clients
As of 2012, SimpliFlying has worked with over 25 airlines and airports around the world. Its clients include:
 * Lufthansa
 * Emirates
 * Toronto Pearson Airport
 * Halifax Stanfield International Airport
 * Kuala Lumpur International Airport
 * LAN Airlines
 * airBaltic
 * Airbus
 * Bombardier Aerospace

Notable Campaigns
Some notable campaigns include:
 * Estonian Air's AirScore - As the world's first social media-based loyalty programme, AirScore has won the Mega Award by Airline Information in the category of the Best Social Media Campaign in 2011.
 * BalticMiles Brainstorm - This campaign seeked to create the world's first crowd-sourced membership tier for a loyalty program, receiving a twentyfold boost in its social media following within the first week.
 * SpiceJet - The campaign to launch the Bombardier Q400 in the India for the first time on regional routes was powered primarily by online customer engagement activities. SpiceJet achieved an 88% load factor in the first two weeks of operations.