Flying the Digital Skies with Southwest

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By John Cantwell

Things may not be going so well for the airlines right now, but at least there’s one bright spot – Southwest Airlines has a great, multi-pronged digital marketing campaign going.

The discount airline, famous for its cheap flights and “Wanna get away?” television spots, has entered the digital marketing space in the right ways, shrewdly establishing a digital footprint across a number of platforms while extending its core image as an affordable, easygoing alternative to the major airlines.

Southwest’s blog, Nuts About Southwest, is a example great of how corporate blogging can extend brand identity and spur action. Employees from all different areas of Southwest post on the site, talking about the company’s culture and the ways they’re improving the airlines. The posts are short, personal, entertaining and – perhaps most importantly – never feel forced. Notably, “Nuts” looks like a normal blog, not a slickly produced corporate affair. The cumulative effect of content and design make the blog accessible and engaging.

Just as Southwest’s blog shows how to reach a general market through digital marketing efforts, the company’s Facebook page shows how digital marketing can be used capture a more focused demographic. Geared toward college students, the page features updates on campus recruiting and internships, merchandise and various goings-on at Southwest. Users’ relationship with the page and the brand is the important thing here – actual flight information is hardly discussed. The page is a big success – so far more than 40,000 people have registered as friends.

The digital marketing efforts get more comprehensive still. There’s the Southwest Twitter page (Company Bio: “The LUV Airline”), which features blog posts and promotions. There’s the Wanna Get Away video contest (also featured on YouTube) that gave fans a chance to send in their own commercials, with the winning commercial being featured during the NBA Playoffs.

And then there’s the Ding widget, which sends discount offers directly to users’ desktops.

Southwest’s multilateral digital marketing efforts allow them to establish relationships with different customers by reaching them on different platforms. Internet users have a bunch of favorite sites and social networks – if you can reach them in their favorite places (and make your own site one of their favorite destinations) you can build a far deeper relationship. Southwest doesn’t overthink their digital marketing. They know who they are, they know who they want to reach. They make it all seem so simple.