American Airlines has parlayed the news of its rebranding, website redesign, and planned merger with US Airways into big gains in followership across social media platforms.
AA has seen a jump in its YouTube subscribers, from 7,400 at the start of the year to 11,000 today—which is a 49% spike.
Peter Claridge of Unmetric, a social media benchmarking company, says the explanation is the quality of the company’s videos on its rebranding and merger.
The most popular of these videos was Behind the Scenes – Creating American Airlines New Look, Logo and Livery, which attracted 194,727 views.
The video tells the backstory behind the rebranding, a category of content that other brands have also seen perform well.
American has seen growth for its Twitter account @AmericanAir, too. AA had 481,910 at the start of the year, which has since blossomed to today’s 510,270, or about a 6% jump.
The growth has been driven by features such as a live tweet chat with its vice president of customer care, plus the use of custom URLs that reinforce the company’s branding message when its links are shared, such as aa.com/arriving.
Meanwhile on Facebook, the brand’s fan page has grown since January 1st, soaring from 538,000 to 577,500.
Major changes in a brand’s look and level of service can frighten customers, but the balance of sentiment on the social platforms has been positive, thanks in part to the airline’s deft handling of customer concerns.
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About Sean O'Neill
Of all of the rebranding that I’ve seen over the years, this one gets a big “BRAVO”. As a former American Airlines employee, I believe that Future Brand has honored the company’s heritage.
I believe that Future Brand has NOT honored the company’s heritage, they have erased it. They have killed the iconic AA and the Eagle. It looks more like American Airlines was taken over by British Airways and the US Postal service.
US Airways might restore the Eagle or the AA according to Doug Parker after he reviews the company.
The marketing campaign seems like a rush job driven by AA management’s desperate attempt to hang onto their jobs. They are spending money on all the wrong things like mood lights in the cabin, expensive gadgets for the crew members and new paint rather than paying a bit more to their crew so they are not mean to the customers, more comfortable seats and in-flight entertainment. As a frequent flier, I really dont care about the paint on the outside but comfort in the cabin, entertainment from boredom, punctuality and attentive crew.
Interesting take, Nya.
Thanks for your comment.