TAG – You’re It In DFW Airport’s New Holiday Marketing Campaign

Back when I covered the airports beat, I always enjoyed getting story pitches from Dallas/Fort Wort International Airport.  Their pitches were always well thought out, they always got you access to the executives you needed to speak with and, most importantly, they respected a deadline.

Last week I got a pitch via Twitter on a new marketing campaign designed to offer travelers discounts at the airport’s food/beverage and retail outlets using Microsoft Tags.  Megan Bozarth, DFW’s manager of consumer marketing, says the airport found that passengers were getting there earlier because they weren’t sure about the timing for ticket and security checkpoint lines.

Photos courtesy of DFW Airport

“We saw a lot of people sitting at gates on their smartphones,” Bozarth recalled.  “So we did some marketing research and found that 85% of passengers at DFW use smartphones.  We wanted to figure out how to utilize that technology and provide information to passengers in a non-intrusive way.”

DFW did the research and chose Microsoft Tags over QR Codes or other tag technology, said Bozarth.  “We knew there was a lot available.  For us, tags are highly customizable and use colors, while  QR codes are pretty standard,” she states.  “And tags provided us the most robust analytics, including where passengers scan the tags, what offers they loaded and if they redeemed them.”

The information DFW is providing through the scans that are non intrusive, says Bozarth.  ” Passengers can be in control of the information they want by scanning the tags,” she explained.  “They get offers from the concessionaires  near their gates.  We see it as an unexpected gift for DFW holiday travelers and a way to  spread holiday cheer.”

DFW has 270 concession outlets and currently, 50 are participating in the tag program, says Bozarth.  Vendors include Starbucks, Auntie Anne’s, Papcitos, the FOX News Channel news stand and the La Bodega winery, one of my personal favorite airport outlets ( my review of it, posted on Jan. 18,  is here).

The current offers will last through the end of the year, says Bozarth.  “Then we’ll ask concessionaires again when we do our next campaign in 2012.”

Top Five Most Interesting Aviation Stories Of The Week

So I managed to finish my first week on the new job. LOVED it!!  Now, onto the week’s aviation news.

1. Ted Reed of The Street.com wrote two interesting airline pieces last week.  In the first piece, he writes about how the lack of a deal between American Airlines and its pilots could cause the Dallas-based carrier to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the last of the legacy carriers who have avoided this fate.  In his second piece, Reed notes that Phoenix-based US Airways has two goals for 2012: cut its presence at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and upgrade its aging fleet.
2. Plans for a supersonic business jet have been floating around for decades.  The latest player to enter the market, U.K.-based HyperMach used last week’s Dubai Air Show to tell Aviation International News that its 20-seat SonicStar will be able to fly at speeds up to Mach 4.0, allowing to fly from New York to Dubai in only 2 hours 20 minutes.
3. Regular readers know I am  a fan — and student — of all things dealing with first and business class travel, as witnessed by the Facebook group I created: I Love Sitting In 1st/Biz Class (my Dec. 15 blog post about the group is here).  So I’m passing along Jaunted’s review of Delta Air Lines’ Economy Comfort product.  My view? I’d pay extra for the room.
4. My 6-year-old daughter has become addicted to video Skype.  She loves chatting with her grandparents and her aunt.  So I’m betting she’d love being able to check in for her flight via Skype, which you can now do at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, reports the Wall Street Journal.
5. Trust me, I am NOT a regular reader of Perez Hilton.  But I could not resist when I saw his hysterical rant about Spirit Airlines pop up on my Google Alerts.  He rambles on about all the fees charged by Spirit.  You won’t see me flying on that airline — ever — but I admire their business model.  They charge ultra low fares, but charge fees up the ying yang.  Don’t like the fees? Don’t fly the airline.

I’m a bit behind on my Airplane Geeks episodes, but I thoroughly enjoyed Episode 171, which featured former Air Force pilot Mark Jones. He had some great stories about training at Edwards AFB. At one time, my dad was deputy base commander there, and my sister worked on the flight line, so I was reliving all that when Mark was chatting.

And finally, I am a sucker for aviation/airline commercials.  When they come on, I stop and watch in rapt fascination.  Recently I saw one featuring the folks who build GE Aviation engines, where they got the chance to fly to Boeing Field Seattle to see their product hung on the 787 Dreamliner and actually fly on the 747, my favorite plane.  And yes, I got a tear in my eye as they watched the fruits of their labor in total awe.  Enjoy!