The end

Hello everyone! Unfortunately, that is our last post here. We want to thank all our users for their support during this campaign. We have run a successful campaign for our college project. Once again thank you guys for your feedback, all likes and tweets, it helped us a lot in the past weeks.

Aleks, Asim and Nayha members of Digital Presence of Airlines team

Wait a second, we prepare a special movie, in which we are going to show you, how you come to our blog, thanks to our campaign.

New marketing campaign for LOT

Written by Aleksander Stempowski

Note: This campaign is being created for Emirates Airlines for a class assignment. Emirates Airline does not have such contest.

 Introduction

In previous posts, you can read that Qatar Airways has much more supporters on all social media platforms, but LOT has a higher/bigger number of active users. In this post I am going to describe you, what LOT can/will do to catch up with QA without losing active users. Of course the best way to gain new supporters in internet world is to be active nonstop without any breaks.

Idea

To begin with LOT need to post content on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube regularly, 2 posts for FB per day, 1 for TW per day, and 2/3 video per week. Increase amount of content required to create new series, because if we stay with what we have, we will immediately exhaust these topics. Also it will be boring for supporters, when they will see the same stuff nonstop. So I am going to create special competitions (1 per week should be enough) in which active users knowing well our company will have a chance to win a special prizes, like special discounts up to 40%, and small gifts like mascot, or some office stuff with our signs. Other series could be a special survey in which we will ask passengers which city would they like to visit with our plane. Of course this place cannot be in our current offer. This sequence can run 2 times per week and answers with the most common number of votes will be sent to main directors, whom decide where to open new flights.

 Goal and execution

By adding these type of content, my goal is to enhance youth people (18-35) to visit our social media accounts, and to keep them active through participating in our games. We are planning to start with this action with beginning of June. That is the best time, because people are looking for nice place for vacation, or for weekend visit. We are planning to run with these series as long as they will be successful.

LOT vs. QA on other influencers and inbound link

For my analysis of informal social media websites, I have chosen the same pages for both airlines. My selection embraces influencers and inbound links.

LOT Polish Airlines:

(2016, https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/40uwgn/lot_airlines/)

Reddit.com includes a post regarding ticket prices and quality of service. All of the comments are either positive or very positive. The message is that LOT is relatively cheap carrier offering good services.

(2016, https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Airline_Review-d8729112-Reviews-Cheap-Flights-LOT-Polish-Airlines)

On the tripadvisor.ca the entries are polarised. On the one hand LOT is recommended for its low prices and good planes, on the other hand it is criticized for poor quality of services.

(2016, http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/lot-polish-airlines/)

On the Airlinequality.com customer rating from 176 reviews is 6/10. The highest satisfaction gives to clients’ seat comfort. The lowest grade is for inflight entertainment. 

Qatar Airways:

 (2016, https://redd.it/4ki3f4)

On the reddit.com visa issue for Asian countries is discussed, the users are positive with flying Qatar Airlines with Canadian passport.

(2016, https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Airline_Review-d8729134-Reviews-Cheap-Flights-Qatar-Airways)

On the tripadvisor.ca the users’ opinions are mostly very good. The title of the first comment adequately summarized all opinions: “Comes close to being best”.

(2016, http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/qatar-airways/)

On the Airlinequality.com customer rating from 762 reviews is 8/10. The passengers appreciate the high quality of service.

Summary

My own investigation on above mentioned websites proves that Qatar Airways has much more opinions than LOT. QA is perceived as a high quality company for big money, where as Polish Airlines offers reasonable value for reasonable money. The deference between both carriers is shown for example by the access on board to Wi-Fi. You can get it free with QA (you have already paid a lot for the ticket), meanwhile you do not have it with LOT unless you pay additionally for it.

Written by Aleksander Stempowski

Analysis of LOT Polish Airlines and Qatar Airways accounts on YouTube

Written by Aleksander Stempowski

LOT Polish Airlines on YouTube

LOT does its posts one video per 5 weeks on average. Their films are generally about commercial, and industry related events. LOT does not follow 50/50 rule; in their case this looks like 83/17 rule (Examples below). In description they give us summary of the film and sometimes we can find there link to their home page.

                                

(2015, youtube.com/watch?v=rr1ea8ZULUo)   (2016, youtube.com/watch?v=QnJkA3fkuys)

The most successful video has 21 369 views and 181 likes and 20 comments, it was a commercial spot about new TV series about LOT on Discovery Channel cold “Operation LOT”. They have 4 954 subscribers, 2 322 847 views and 168 uploaded videos.

Qatar Airways on YouTube

QA publish 2 videos per week. They touch on diversified topics staying close to 50/50 rule. Their videos are about commercials, news and event. (Examples below) In every film description QA types short summary of film and provide to viewers link to their homepage and all their official social media accounts.

(2016, youtube.com/watch?v=13fmOFtn2ys)

Looking at their video list we can see that all of their films have similar statistics, and there are two videos which have much more views, likes and comments. First one has 14 807 views, 14 comments, 130 likes, and 14 comments, and it shows Pilot’s view of Sydney, Australia, where second video has 12 812 views, 159 likes and 20 comments and it give us a chance to watch a first touchdown in Adelaide in QA history. The Qatar Airways channel is subscribed by 35K people and it has 29 083 147 views and 210 uploaded videos.

Comparison of both ones

As we see QA has again much more subscribers than LOT, but again Polish Airlines has higher activity of viewers, the average shows that their 1,05 users view, 0,01 users like and 0,009 users comment their videos, when in QA 0,156 fans view, 0,002 fans like, and 0,00017 fans comment their video. Another interesting fact is that on YouTube account of QA we see new videos two times per week when LOT is posting their films just one per month.

Comparison between LOT Polish Airlines and Qatar Airways profiles on Twitter

Written by Aleksander Stempowski

LOT Polish Airlines on Twitter

LOT does its posts one time per week on average. Their tweets are concentrated mainly on promotional sphere, staying far away from 50/50 rule (88/12 on average). Most of their entries have a promotional nature (examples below).

Keyword hashtags: #visit: …  

(2016, twitter.com/LOTPolish)

The most successful tweet has 4 likes and was about special valentine day discount. It looks like that it is interesting to people to know about new discount. The LOT profile is followed by 479 people. The average post is liked 1,4 times, retweeted 0,24 times.

Qatar Airways on Twitter

Qatar Airways tweets news on daily bases. They are posting notes focused generally on their own company. QA do not follow the 50/50 rule (9/91 on average). Almost all of their posts were settle on promotional content (example below).

Keywords hashtags: #…together

(2016, twitter.com/qatarairways)

The most successful posts, first has 611 likes and 181 retweets was about inaugural flight to Australia to Adelaide, second has 383 likes and 219 retweets and it was condolences to the family of those on board Egypt Airlines MS804. It shows that people unite together when there are happy and bad moments for airlines business. The Qatar Airways account is followed by 957K people. The average post is liked 270 times, retweeted 86 times.

Analysis of both ones

At first glance without any detail analysis one can see a huge difference in number of followers in favor of QA. Qatar Airways’ followers are liking 193 times more and retweeting 358 times more than LOT. However, airline from Poland has higher activity of followers, the average shows that their 0,0029 users like and 0,0005 users share their tweets, when in QA 0,00028 fans like, and 0,00009 fans share their tweets. Another important fact is that twitter account of airline from Qatar is working on daily bases, when LOT is posting their stuff rarely couple tweets per month.

Analysis of LOT Polish Airlines and Qatar Airways profiles on Facebook

LOT Polish Airlines on Facebook

LOT does its posts four times per week on average. They touch on diversified topics staying close to 50/50 rule. Most of their entries have a promotional and how-to nature (examples below).

Promotion – keyword: battle of cities/places I How-to – keyword: how to say/pronounce in polish

                             

                                 
      

(2016, facebook.com/LOT)                                        (2016, facebook.com/LOT)

The most successful post, 134 likes was a note about MCC training on the highest-tech simulator in Poland during the final stages of pilots’ recreation process. It looks like that it is interesting to people to know about high tech pilots’ simulator. The LOT profile is liked by 166k people. The average post is liked 54 times, shared and commented 4 times.

 Qatar Airways on Facebook

Qatar Airways posts news three times per week on average. Their notes are just about their own company, so they do not follow the 50/50 rule. All of their publications have a promotional nature (example below).

Keywords used: flights to… on the board …

(2016, facebook.com/qatarairways)

The most successful post, 31 000 likes was a message about first QAs’ plane who flew to Australia to Adelaide. It seems that people are interesting in flying to the Kangaroo and Koala continent. The Qatar Airways profile is liked by a big number of 11,5M people. The average post is liked 8446 times, shared 456 times and commented 194 times.

 Comparison between both ones

At first glance without any detail analysis one can see a huge difference in traffic between the above described two profiles. In the last 25 posts QA recorded 156 times more hit like button than LOT, 124 times shares and 52 times comments. It is interesting that Qatar Airways has millions of funs, even though they talk only about themselves and consequently do not follow the 50/50 rule. The most successful posts regarded different topics. QA raised a big interest of its funs describing a new connection to Australia, while LOT’s story about pilots training was the most popular on their Facebook account.

SEO Audit Of LOT Polish Airlines and Qatar Airways

LOT Polish Airlines versus Qatar Airways

Writter: Aleksander Stempowski

SEO is an important consideration for marketers because people does not spend a lot of time on research, most people just look at first page in Google browser, so it is important to make our best to locate our page on top of the website. In the flights industry, LOT Polish Airlines and Qatar Airways. Using keyword sentences throughout their sites like “flights to Qatar/Poland” In the quest of the Best Airlines we see that it is hard to compare companies which have different target market, and objectives. The objective is to determine which of the two sites when compared has a stronger SEO.

SEO Considerations

SEO Considerations	LOT Polish Airlines	Qatar Airways
Picture
1. URL:	http://www.lot.com/ca/en/	http://www.qatarairways.com/ca/en/homepage.page
2. Page Title	LOT Polish Airlines Canada | Book on the official website | lot.com	Qatar Airways | Book Flights from Canada
3. Meta Description	Finding convenient international flights and cheap flights to Poland has never been that easy. Book your tickets now, check-in online and enjoy your travel with LOT Polish Airlines!	Travel from Canada to more than 150 destinations worldwide with Qatar Airways, a world-class airline - Book your flight online for exclusive fares.
4. Meta Keywords and   Monthly search volume:	flights to Poland, international flights, cheap flights to Poland, polish airlines	-
5. Structural elements: H1, H2, H3	-	Spring deals • Experience our brand new A350 • Subscribe to Qatar Airways' newsletter • Book • Offers • Where we fly • Booking information • Corporate solutions • Baggage • Qatar Airways experience • Airports • Travel information • Special services • MEMBER BENEFITS • EARN QMILES & QPOINTS • REDEEM QMILES & QCREDITS • OFFERS & NEWS • OUR PARTNERS • Contact us • Baggage assistance • Privilege Club • Travel alerts • Holidays • Great value fares • Quick Links • News • Our destinations • Visa and passport requirements • Newsletter
6. Strong tags	-	Spring deals • Experience our brand new A350
7. Alt Text	cookies • Payment methods • Facebook • Pinterest • YouTube • lot a star alliance member	Select Language • del • bkk • del • bkk • A touch screen with options
8. Page Load Time	8.19 sec	4.34 sec
9. Observations Regarding Page layout:	Search box is in the middle of website; By being on main page I can immediately start booking a flight;	Search box is in the top right corner; By being on main page I can immediately start booking a flight;
10.  Observations Regarding Visual Content:	There are pictures of monuments / cities which you can visit by using their service; Small icons of social media accounts are at the bottom of the website;	There are pictures of monuments / cities which you can visit by using their service; Small icons of social media accounts are at the bottom of the website;
11. Call-to-action	XXXI World Youth Day Fly to Cracow or Warsaw	Spring Deals Book now & save
12. Anchored Text:	lot lot polish airlines lot logo blue	qatar airways click here www.qatarairways.com
13. Moz Established Links:  # to Root Domain	5	9
14. Moz Established Links:  #Total Links	2336	70
15. Top 3 inbound links.	1. www.europenow.ca 2. http://mindprod.com 3. http://eutorontofilmfest.ca	1. travel.gc.ca 2. willtravelforfood.com 3. jamtravel.itsolution.asia
16. Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes	Yes
17. Content is “shareable” (Like, Tweet, Pin, Blog, etc.)	Yes	No
18. Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page	Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube	Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr Google +, LinkedIn, Flickr, Instagram
19. SERP ranking results when using keywords from this table: (placing or page number)	2nd page 3rd position	1st page 3rd position

Google Trends

Google Trends Insights:

This graph shows us that Qatar Airways is a company with better offers for people living in Canada. It also confirms that there are more immigrants from Arabian region in Canada rather than from Central Europe. When people are trying to find flights, they are usually typing names of airlines rather than country of destination.  

 LSI Keywords 

LOT Polish Airlines: 

• See my reservation
• Ticket LOT
• Polish Airlines LOT 

American Airline:

• Manage booking
• Book a flight
• Online check in

Most of the keywords from generator are on the website but just a couple of them are entirely equal.

 Summary & Conclusion

Both companies offer flights many flights to many different places. LOTs’ strengths are cheap prices and high comfort quality. When QAs’ offers to his customer safety trips and also high comfort quality.  The keywords   sentences “Safety, price, comfort” are found on the homepage where both companies describe their service.

By living in Canada we have limited options, because cities like Toronto are just one of many which are offered, so to go to other cities just using these airlines, you will have to transfer flight. In overall LOT website is working slower, but it has much more established links. I am of the view that LOT has better SEO, because planes are still the most safety type of transport between places, there is a fact that you have more chance to die during the way on airport in car, rather than flying on plane.

Bibliography

Google. (May 2016). Google trends. [LOT Polish Airlines, Qatar Airways, Flights to Poland, Flights to Qatar]. Retrieved from https://www.google.ca/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F0lxfc%2C%20%2Fm%2F029tr_%2C%20flights%20to%20Qatar%2C%20flights%20to%20Poland&geo=CA&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B4

LSIGraph. (May 2016). LSIGraph keyword generator [Long Lash Mascara]. Retrieved from http://lsigraph.com/

SEOmoz Inc. (May 2016). MozBar. Retrieved from https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbar

LOT Polish Airlines (1997). LOT Polish Airlines Canada. Retrieved from http://www.lot.com/ca/en/

Qatar Airways (1997) Qatar Airways Retrieved from http://www.qatarairways.com/ca/en/homepage.page

The Research Team!

Nayha Hamid

Nayha is a 3rd Year Marketing student at Sheridan College. Has past experience in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Indesign. 

Aleksander Stempowski

Aleks is a 2nd year student at Sheridan College. He is 21 years old and originally from Poland. He has a love of marketing and his dream is to to work as a marketer for a tourism company from his home country.

Asim Mustafa

Asim is a 2nd year marketing student at Sheridan College. He is experienced in Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Dreamweaver CC, and Adobe INDesign CC.

This Blog is designed to examine the digital presence of 8 airline brands. We will be examining and comparing several airlines brands and their digital presence.

They are:

Emerates Airline

American Airlines

LOT Airlines

Qatar Airlines

Air Canada

Air Transat

Singapore Airlines

West Jet