How Scoot Airline Won 'Marketer Of The Year’ 2 Years In A Row

There is no shortage of low cost carriers servicing Southeast Asia, but Scoot stands out from the crowd with its bold and fun-loving identity.

The Scoot team are champions at marketing, having won one of the most prestigious awards in Singapore’s advertising industry, the “Marketer of the Year” consecutively in 2014 and 2015.

Scoot is known for its unconventional and eye-catching campaigns and their successful use of social media to engage their customers. Here are some the strategies employed by Scoot that helped with their success.

1. It’s all about the hype: Scoot won over customers from the start of its operations, creating what was to be the beginning of a huge social media following

Scoot actively generates brand awareness and interest in their company.

Months after Scoot was newly formed, the company invited members of the public to suggest a tagline that would capture the fun and playful spirit of the airline.

The result is the punchy, “Get Outta Here” - a tagline that’s tongue-in-cheek and gets straight to the point.

The best part? Although there were two winners who submitted the exact same tagline, Scoot generously gave both of them free tickets on EACH of their inaugural flights as a reward. Perfect PR response indeed.

2. Embracing the trolls: When the internet throws lemons at you, make lemonade!

Scoot was the subject of a popular satire website, SGAG (Singapore’s 9GAG). SGAG uploaded various photoshopped pictures of trains looking like Scoot Aircraft and named one Scoot plane “Bo-eng”, local slang for not having anything better to do.

Instead of sulking away at the being the butt of SGAG’s jokes, Scoot rose to the occasion and organized a wildly successful Facebook marketing campaign by challenging SGAG to attain 1000 likes on a certain Facebook comment.

The response was overwhelming, drawing 10,000 likes on that particular comment. SGAGgers (or SGAG users) played a huge part in liking and sharing their posts, spreading the brand name through online word of mouth, in turn bringing views to Scoot’s booking page and Facebook account.

3. Regularly exciting customers with competitions and promotions

Scoot regularly organizes “Nominate your Friend/Wife/FamilyMember” Competitions, which require users to nominate their favourite persons to win free Scoot tickets.

This is an excellent way to draw traffic to Scoot’s page and promote the brand. Who could be a better brand ambassador than someone who just won free tickets from the airline?

Whenever the airline launches a new route, giveaways are sure to follow, which is a great way to build awareness of the launch and increase its popularity.

4. Trying to be funny: A little humor doesn’t hurt

Scoot understands the “human” side of social media well, making good use of it to further their image as a young and playful airline. It is also one of the best places to engage in banter.

After hitting an initial milestone of 20,000 fans on their facebook page, Scoots Commercial Head posted that he would run down Orchard Road in swimming trunks and potentially offer promotions to those who caught him on camera. What a way to make a statement about your airline!

Just a reminder - how did Scoot achieve its success?

1. Hyping the brand from the beginning
2. Making use of internet communities to generate traffic
3. Regularly holding promotions, competitions and giveaways
4. Having a good sense of humor

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