Gulf Air wins effectiveness in marketing award

Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, alongside Mindshare, a media agency dedicated to innovative brand development for its clients, were recently awarded a Silver Effie for their campaign to promote Gulf Air as a ‘family friendly’ airline at the GEMAS Effie MENA Awards 2012. The GEMAS Effie MENA Awards 2012, an extension of the original Global Effies, took place on November 21st at the Armani Hotel in Dubai, with the goal of celebrating the very best marketing campaigns and recognizing effective marketing ideas that achieve quantifiable results for clients from across the MENA region. Recognised in the travel, tourism and transportation category, Gulf Air was only one of two airlines to be awarded an Effie this year. Gulf Air’s target group for their family friendly campaign was families with young children. The campaign conveyed Gulf Air’s unique awareness of the challenges of flying with children and showcased the airline’s kid-centric services through an effective outreach program that promoted the ‘Sky Nanny’ concept across the Kingdom of Bahrain via venues that Mindshare identified as excellent touch points for interaction with the campaign’s target group. The outreach program saw Gulf Air’s professionally trained Sky Nannies dispatched to various malls and day-care centres to interact with parents and lead fun, educational activities with children. Within the first week alone, parents’ awareness of Gulf Air’s Sky Nannies increased dramatically and by a month’s end trustworthy relationships were forged between Gulf Air’s Sky Nannies and both children and parents. The outreach program was complimented by the integration of Sky Nannies into the airline check-in experience at Bahrain International Airport, where a special check-in counter was introduced just for kids. Following check-in, parents are given the option of leaving their children with a Sky Nanny who can play with and engage them in a designated kids’ play area. This convenient service gives parents the opportunity to visit the Gulf Air Falcon Gold Lounge, duty free shops and airport cafés in a leisurely manner. Mr Shehab Saeed, Senior Manager Marketing Gulf Air commented on the carrier’s win: “One of the key Unique Selling Points for Gulf Air and something that truly differentiates us from our competitors is the importance we place on families. Our “family friendly” message is integral to ensuring an important emotional connection with our passengers where it matters most. At Gulf Air we promote family values both internally and externally, so for this campaign to win an award for its effectiveness in marketing is a great achievement. Our agency Mindshare has a reputation for ‘thinking out of the box’ and, in helping us win against some of the larger carriers in the region, they reinforced their creative thinking.” “We thought this was an excellent way for our client to differentiate itself from competitors,” stated Mr Johnny Khazzoum, Managing Director of Mindshare Bahrain. “Our work developing the concept of the ‘Sky Nanny’ and aggressively introducing it to our target audience has reinforced Gulf Air’s position as the leading airline when it comes to recognizing the extra needs of families with young children. The fact that parents are accounting for most of the increase in enrolment in the Gulf Air frequent flyer program attests to our success in this effort.” Founded in 1950, Gulf Air is the national airline of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The airline operates scheduled services to 46 destinations in 28 countries across the GCC, Africa, Asia and Europe and is a member of the Oneworld global airline alliance. Gulf Air operates out of Bahrain International Airport and major destinations include London, Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai, Karachi and Mumbai. Mindshare, part of the WPP global communications group, was launched in 1997 and now has over 100 offices around the world. In October 1999, Mindshare MENA was the first independent agency launched in the region. Today, Mindshare has over 13 offices in 10 countries across the GCC, Levant and North Africa.