KLM wants faces of Facebook fans on the side of an aircraft

April 28, 2011 By 10 Comments

Okay, officially the most bizarre travel social media campaign of the year… perhaps. Dutch airline KLM is to cover an entire aircraft with faces of fans from its Facebook page.

KLM tile

The idea behind the Tile & Inspire campaign is to tap into the once popular tradition in the Netherlands of placing ornate blue ceramic tiles – known as Delft – around a person’s home.

Ordinarily painted with pictures of windmills, fishing boats and other typically Dutch scenes, KLM’s effort uses a Facebook application to allow fans of the airline’s page to place their face on a tile.

KLM tile2

An “inspirational” message can be placed on the tile and, ads per usual, the final image shared around a fan’s network.

KLM, inevitably, will be taking project one step further and eventually painting a Boeing 777-200 aircraft entirely with “tiles” gathered from those made on the Facebook page.

Gimmicky? Of course it is.

But this is not the first time KLM has tried a slightly off-kilter approach to making use of its Facebook page and involving fans (175,000 and counting) in a fun initiative.

In November 2010 the airline launched KLM Surprise, an initiative to reward Facebook fans that check in at various locations with a present related to their final destination.

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Kevin May About Kevin May

Kevin May is editor of Tnooz. He joined as a co-founder in August 2009 after spending nearly four years as editor of UK-based business publication Travolution.

Passionate about the business of travel and the internet, Kevin played a major role in establishing Travolution in print, online, events and with an annual awards programme, as well as becoming a regular speaker and moderator at industry events.

Prior to Travolution, Kevin was web editor at Media Week (UK) and also worked in regional newspapers for two years at the Essex Enquirer. He started his career in journalism at the Police Gazette at New Scotland Yard in London.

Comments

  1. Troy Thomspon says:
    April 28, 2011 at 11:48 am

    Gimmicky, but brilliant. I expect nothing less from KLM.

    - Troy

    Reply
  2. fiona says:
    April 28, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    Dumb idea – imagine the PR disaster should that airplane every be in a crash. Sure the chances are low – but is the risk worth taking?

    Reply
  3. Ruby says:
    April 29, 2011 at 12:15 am

    Fiona, IMHO, there wouldnt be a difference if it were any other KLM plane that crashes. what exactly did you think would be different if it were this Facebook Fan plane that crashed?

    I think it’s a good move actually. It’s pretty funny and it would be pretty cool to have my face on the side of the plane cruising in the sky.

    Reply
  4. Orchid says:
    May 4, 2011 at 3:47 am

    Whats next? – Travelers photo on the plane – real time!! :)

    Reply
  5. Elizabeth Moore says:
    May 8, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    I must agree, this is a very interesting take on marketing. It appears to be effective nonetheless!

    Great article!

    Visit my website at http://loyalq.blogspot.com/

    Thank you,
    Elizabeth Moore

    Reply
  6. mural painters says:
    January 4, 2012 at 10:14 am

    This is pretty amazing, I wonder how effective this was for them. I wonder how long it took to paint all that too!

    Reply

Trackbacks

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    April 29, 2011 at 11:17 am

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