Air ticket blind box event operation routine!

As the trend of "everything is a blind box" spreads and the tourism market gradually recovers, major airlines and travel platforms have recently shown their talents and launched "blind box of air tickets" activities.

The prices of this type of blind air ticket boxes are extremely attractive, with prices as low as 66 yuan. If users are not satisfied, they can get a full refund.

By launching such an activity, airlines and travel platforms seem to be losing a lot! But is it really like that?

We have started a discussion on this topic, let’s take a look at the answers from our friends.

1. You may make a small profit, but the organizer will never lose money

1. For OTA

For OTA, this cost is actually very low, and is basically paid for by cooperation with airlines. All OTA needs to pay is the cost of publicity and event implementation.

After talking about the cost, let’s talk about what it can bring.

Among the four known OTAs (Ctrip, Tongcheng, Qunar, and Fliggy), except Tongcheng, all those who want to participate in the event must obtain qualifications through sharing. Especially for Qunar, you can increase the number of destinations by continuing to share. Then here comes the benefit point. The efficiency of acquiring customers through fission is extremely high, especially the efficiency of attracting new customers, which is very impressive. The "new customers" brought by fission can easily break even the ROI.

As for Tongcheng, perhaps due to different strategic perspectives, they did not adopt the form of sharing to obtain qualifications. So for them, the most important points are:

• The first is brand promotion. For example, compared with Ctrip, Fliggy, and Qunar, Tongcheng’s brand is not yet well-known enough. This can be better understood by considering Tongcheng’s promotion on “The Debaters” some time ago, where it even put itself on WeChat.
• The second is the traffic-generating APP. One special thing about Tongcheng’s blind box is that the APP and the mini program record the number of times separately, and the APP will have an extra session in the evening. Tongcheng has already acquired a large number of customers through the mini program. Considering the current background, this approach is undoubtedly smart and cost-effective.

2. For airlines

First of all, whether the 66 yuan ticket is a loss-making or profitable business for the airline can be divided into two situations:

First case:

After the ticket was issued, it was used.

Starting with air tickets, the tickets issued in blind boxes are often one-way tickets, and the flight time is fixed in advance. These are all available in the air ticket database in advance. Why?

This depends on the data held by the airline. Is every flight full?

Not necessarily. In that case, these empty seats (tickets) can be used as prize tickets in the blind box. After all, they are empty anyway, and the weight of a passenger has little effect on the fuel consumption of the aircraft.

Once you get a one-way ticket (we will not discuss the extremely small probability of Tongcheng's round-trip blind box, in fact, the time point of that round trip is quite awkward and almost useless), you always have to buy a return ticket.

Airlines are very clever in their design. Airlines participating in the event often have a high share on that route (or have more friendly times), so you will have a high probability of buying a return ticket from the same airline.

You never imagined that, after all the twists and turns, your entire journey was with the same airline!

Second case:

After the ticket was issued, it was not used and I applied for a refund.

There is definitely a time difference between the time the user pays, the time the blind box is opened, and the time the user is dissatisfied and applies for a refund. Within this time difference, the money can be used to do a lot of things.

Secondly, cash flow is also generated, which is the book data. These book data can attract more capital to enter, thereby making the pie bigger.

2. Marketing methods that kill many birds with one stone

1. User perspective

In the form of a blind box of air tickets, the blind box of air tickets is suitable for young people or other groups who are full of novelty and ready to go. The activity itself is eye-catching and in line with a trend of blind boxes.

Taking advantage of the blind box popularity for marketing, the current user demand for blind boxes is in a seller's market, and the decision-making power lies with the seller. The air ticket blind box fully satisfies the user's lottery psychology and the advertising effect of the blind box product.

The majority of the audience behind this time's air ticket blind box are young people, representing the group in China with the greatest willingness and ability to consume, and the most courageous to actively cater to new things.

Eccentricity is one of the characteristics of the group. The unknown, excitement and uncertainty of blind boxes, coupled with a spontaneous trip, can meet the core demands of young people for fun, interest and value.

When you find that everyone is discussing this topic on WeChat Moments, TikTok, Weibo, and Zhihu, you will definitely be curious about what it is, and you decide to take a look.

Then you find out you have to pay, and you think, what if I don’t like what comes out?

At this time, the organizers are very considerate and remind you that if you don’t like it, you can get a full refund. Then it is likely that everyone will go once, wanting to know where their own party will go, and then post a dynamic to show it. Word of mouth spreads from one person to ten people, and from ten to a hundred, creating a sensational effect.

In a large group, there will always be a part who will decide to take a spontaneous trip because of this special opportunity, and then there will be a conversion.

——This is the first transmission.

Regardless of whether the trip is good or bad, most people will post it on WeChat Moments or Douyin, which is a disguised way of promoting the event.

——This is the second spread.

One activity can stimulate two rounds of active dissemination by users. The advertising effect of the 66-yuan air ticket blind box is far higher than the advertising effect of the airline on other platforms. For airlines, it is an extremely cost-effective product design.

2. Boost local tourism

The epidemic has made many tourism markets quite bleak, and some tourist cities are also trying every means to attract tourists.

The blind box of air tickets is a good way of promotion.

The local tourism industry can cooperate with airlines to increase the proportion of blind box air tickets.

You spend 66 yuan to come to our city, so you always need to eat, live and have fun, which boosts the local city's GDP.

In fact, the air ticket blind box is not just an air ticket blind box. Behind it is the comprehensive result of multiple factors, none of which can be missing.

Conclusion

This time, the 66-yuan air ticket blind box seems to be a profit for me, but in fact the organizer of the event did not lose anything.

Do you think it earns the money from your 66 yuan plane ticket? Then you are wrong. By attracting traffic and increasing topics, what you earn is the advertising and product activity behind the traffic.

Brand promotion + word of mouth, and acquiring new customers are the core interests of OTAs and airlines.

So, would you buy a blind box of air tickets?

What do you think about the question "What is the organizer's idea of ​​selling the 66 yuan air ticket blind box?"

Author: Tiantianwen

Source: Tiantianwen