IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) - Innovation in Brand Renovation / Re-Branding
Name of Organization / Company: IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd)
Category: E01 - E12 - Award for Innovation in Marketing > E02. Award for Innovation in Brand Renovation / Re-Branding
Entry Title: Lean, clean flying machine
Post-lockdown, Maslow’s hierarchy for airline passengers had changed, all they were worried about was hygiene, cleanliness, and sanitation rather than additional frills like leg space or variety of food. Overall, there was a strong negative sentiment around travel and flying among consumers, trade partners and even to some extent our staff. Fliers were anxious and worried about contacting the virus while travelling and did not want to travel for any reason.
Being the market leader, we had the most to lose and hence it was up to us to build confidence in the minds of the customer and trade partners that it’s safe to fly again. This was also an opportunity to maximise our market share by ensuring that IndiGo is every traveller’s preferred choice throughout the pandemic recovery.
IndiGo’s on-time record and hassle-free service meant that the brand had a reputation for being trustworthy and super-efficient. However, we were in the “new normal” and not only customers, but our staff (27000+) wanted to understand how we were taking care of their health and hygiene. To address these concerns, we rebranded IndiGo as the “Lean, Clean Flying Machine”. A super-efficient machine with customer and staff safety as the highest priority. The tone of voice was kept inspiring, relevant, and true to our brand even during the pandemic.
This rebranding was done in an integrated manner across each consumer journey touchpoint – from point they book the flight to time they travel to even post journey. The new branding was also used internally to act as a rallying cry for our staff, a common purpose that gives them confidence, courage, and direction to scale up the operations amidst demotivating industry news.
We rebranded the airline in a way that had a distinctive narrative from the other airlines who also focussed on cleanliness and hygiene. Communication strategy was created to stand out from the cookie cutter language of COVID communication in general across industries. We wanted to retain the brand’s tone of voice of being cheeky and quirky to address the serious issue of safety and hygiene of the customers at every touchpoint of their journey.
All of this was accomplished with very limited marketing spends (overall ~ 30 lacs) due to the covid-19 situation however, we still managed to make a difference by doing creative and innovative things. We leveraged our internal channels, airport assets and inflight experience to create an impact without any investment.
Basis the above we saw:
o Significant increase in our market share from 48% in pre-covid times to ~ 54% now, as per the DGCA report (Dec 2020).
o 16-point increase in customer confidence in IndiGo’s ability to take care of customers health and safety (81% in Dec 2020 vs 65% in May 2020).
o Our NPS score improved from 41 to 54 during this period.
o The campaign on social media resulted in an overall reach of ~14,098,425 and ~23,367,162 impressions.
o The campaign hashtag #LeanCleanFlyingMachine got over 100 million impressions on social media.
o Reached over 20 million people through successful influencer activations.
o 97% of the conversations on this topic have been positive and neutral. Such testimonials were plugged in on social media.
o Lot of happy customers have travelled and shared their experiences with us that they had a safe and hassle-free journey when travelling with us.
o Internally, our 27K+ strong staff has rallied under the “Lean, Clean Flying Machine” banner to continue to provide highest order of customer service despite the new protocols.
o Received media coverage leading to over 15 positive stories in publications like ET, Hindu Business Line, Travel Trade Journal and Media4growth to name a few.
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