Wheels Up For Japan Airlines Marketing After Two Years Of COVID Restrictions

When the pandemic struck, Japan Airlines (JAL) global marketing team saw its budget disappear overnight.

"It didn't work," said JL CEO Minako Kent. "We basically lost everything."

Kent and his team had to work together to meet contractual commitments with existing suppliers and announced a small number of routes JL operates between the United States and Southeast Asia. Just like in Japan itself, the roads are non-stop.

To be honest, there wasn't much to mine during the outbreak.

Although Japan opened its borders in October, the country has been completely closed to non-residents since April 2020. All tourism and flights are suspended.

future violence

But get ready for 2019 and Japan Airlines has rethought its entire marketing approach.

The airline plans to streamline its global marketing efforts across all regions, develop a more integrated marketing approach, introduce new marketing-related competencies and break down internal departmental silos.

Kent joined Japan Airlines in 2019 as part of a reorganization of EightBar, the Ogilvy/GroupM group formed specifically for IBM's business, and his appointment marks a major change for JAL.

Rather than hiring new employees, JL hires new graduates each year and trains them as employees on courses that can last three to five years with the company. Tuition and salary are determined based on the results of the promotion exam.

Kent was the first Japanese employee in the company's history to be recruited from this mentoring system.

Quickly create a multi-channel marketing strategy that includes a combined focus on online branding, execution and sales. JAL began spending more on brand advertising in overseas markets, something the company had never done before.

And then... the plague struck.

Japan's borders soon closed, and Kent and his new team finally made it.

"We thought... what do we do now?" said Kent. But there is still a lot we can do.

refill fuel

Despite some setbacks, Kent and his team jumped at the opportunity to redesign JAL's international marketing house and prepare for Japan's reopening day.

"We needed a foundation for our marketing structure, we needed to think more about data and platforms — and it wasn't there, and that's what we focused on," Kent said.

One of the first things they did was review the JL experience on the site so people would be directed to the right page when looking for flights outside of Japan, which had never been done before. JAL has partnered with Conductor to help with SEO.

But another top priority is building a martech team capable of supporting a global marketing organization.

JL has introduced several components to Salesforce Marketing Cloud including Email Studio, Journey Builder for Lifecycle Marketing, and Audience Studio. JAL now uses Nielsen Visual Intelligence software for marketing intelligence and market mix modeling, and Adobe Experience Manager for web content management.

JAL also works with EverMundo, an airfare shopping platform that helps update ticket prices when content marketing promotions are featured.

Executive lounge

And while it all plays out in the background, Kent re-evaluates JL's 30+ agency relationships in international markets.

"The adjustment was inevitable," said Kent.

JAL is currently majority owned by WPP, Mindshare overseas, Ogilvy in Southeast Asia and Dentsu in Japan.

After two years of restructuring JL's agency and agency infrastructure, Kent was ready to get started.

At the time of the outbreak, JAL had not committed any funds to brands. A very small budget is used for performance marketing.

However, that all changed in October when Japan Airlines launched a global multi-channel marketing campaign to coincide with the end of border restrictions, which were lifted on October 11. The airline has now resumed international flights to and from Japan.

The Where Dreams Go campaign, which will run until the end of the year, has already been launched in 19 different markets, including the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Italy.

JAL manages paid media through automated programming, CTV, video, social media and out-of-home. He has created an in-depth “Japan Guide ” on his website, as well as a landing page with vacation packages and travel planning tips.

The aim of the campaign is to sell plane tickets and the demand is very high, over 1,000% since the borders opened, although it is close to zero. But Kent is trying to raise awareness outside of Japan.

"I strongly believe that brand presence correlates with market share," said Kent, who was recently promoted to managing director from executive director of corporate brand strategy and global marketing.

Now that the foundations have been laid - and the Kent side are back on budget - the sky's the limit. (As you read in articles about the aviation industry, "the sky is the limit").

"For two full years, our team has been hard at work behind the scenes, which some might find less than exciting," said Kent. But now we can use what we build, see the results, and finally do some real marketing, and it just feels good.

Hide and find your color