Brandon Evans, RepNation and Tracy Sanford, JetBlue led a session detailing JetBlue's ambassador network, CrewBlue.
Tracy started things off by reviewing how WOM impacts JetBlue and marketing in general. JetBlue was a brand that was really built on WOM. Their research has shown that 81% of JetBlue fliers recommend us to a friend. Their focus was the bring humanity back to airline travel.
From JetBlue's perspective they want to help amplify the conversation that already existed among their customers. It's a fortunate situation to be in.
JetBlue's communications strategy has a number of components (shown below). One of their first initiatives was a series of commercials featuring letters read by actual customers. The commercials were genuine and honest. No shots of planes flying off into the sunset or airline pilot hugging a small child.
Another focus is their Blue Betty mobile marketing unit. This traveling JetBlue program allows people to experience the JetBlue way of travel.
Much of the content their receive from customers is shared via a microsite.
The next question is how do we introduce JetBlue to college students while maintaining the passion that many of their current customers feel.
Previous to 2005 JetBlue had never used an outsider represent them, previously it was always a JetBlue employee. The other issue is that JetBlue is part of the culture in New York, but it's not always so big in other markets.
Their goal was to become the air carrier of choice for college students. But, for the most part many students had never flown JetBlue.
The first step was to select the channels and markets. For JetBlue they were looking for the individuals that made campuses move. When it came to campus selection they targeted the following markets: New York, Boston, DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They wanted to indentify passionate JetBlue fans who are creative, responsible campus leaders.
A focus of the training was to make the ambassadors feel part of the team. They become part of your marketing team and really embrace your brand. They allowed their ambassadors some flexibility in customizing local programs. Sometimes a local event turns into a great idea for a national campaign.
