Digital Dreamliners

Written for the Airline Passenger Experience Association – APEX.aero

APEX insight: With prospective customers scattered across the globe, Boeing has found that providing high-quality web access to their aircraft can be both an effective marketing and sales tool.

Earlier this year at the Paris Air Show, Boeing test pilots put a 787-9 through its paces in a spectacular aerial demonstration. The new Dreamliner was decked out in the blue and gold livery of Vietnam Airlines, but the people attending the airshow weren’t the only ones to see the amazing maneuverability of the latest version of the 787. Prior to the show, when the pilots practiced their routine at the Moses Lake WA’s airport, Boeing had a high-definition video of the session shot and produced.

Over 18-million web viewers (and counting) have seen the two versions of the video; one shot from the air, and one in which viewers can select a camera view from the ground, in the air or on the flight deck.

These videos are just one part of a Boeing’s strategy to engage a broad audience through its enterprise-wide Boeing.com website, a site that averages 85,000 unique visitors per day. The site’s extensive 787 content is part of the Commercial Aircraft section, which is “intended primarily for our global airline customers, aviation enthusiasts, frequent flyers, our employees and the communities we serve,” according to Boeing’s Branding Team.

But does the time and expense to produce videos and maintain the website, sell more airplanes? Perhaps it does, suggests the Branding Team: “Given that we have our airline customers and target audiences scattered across every country in the world, the website becomes a very important and cost effective means to communicate and engage with them. Our proprietary research indicates that it is the number one source for information about the Boeing Company and our products and services.”

Boeing research indicates Boeing.com is the number one source for information about the Boeing Company and their products and services.

To promote the Dreamliner, Boeing is active across its social media channels. The company has conducted campaigns specific to the 787, and also supports its airline customers’ entry-into-service promotions, inaugural flights, new route launches and special or new livery rollouts. Boeing’s team is excited about working with 787 launch-airline ANA “as they unveil their 787-9 in an R2-D2 Star Wars themed livery.” The R2-D2 airplane will take its first flight this fall, prior to the release of the seventh instalment of the Star Wars series, The Force Awakens.

Read the original story in APEX Daily Experience

Watch the amazing 787 video: