We explained our process in an interview for Ninja Marketing. The first thing to mention is that, like any planning activity, a digital restyling project is a complex activity in its own nature.
It’s even more so when you have to work on the digital restyling of an airline like Meridiana, involving a great number of factors to consider: time-to-market, content migration and anything else that might impact on the project success. Here, we’ll try to outline the journey that brought to the renewal of Meridiana digital assets.
What creative process and approach did you take for developing the project?
The first question we asked ourselves was how we could overcome the classic features of an airline platform and transform the simple sale of plane tickets into an experience that would take the customer to their ideal destination. Our approach was based on personalization so as to build the user’s experience around their real needs and interests.
We started with digitalizing Meridiana’s brand identity by creating a style guide that would ensure visual consistency of the brand. We chose to give great emphasis to emotional and impactful images that would make the user fall in love with their next destination even before setting off on their journey. Our modular approach proved successful, seen it’s pretty impossible to anticipate the numberless scenarios that can stem from the users’ surfing on the website. In this respect, the integrated work between our creative and technical teams and the client made things a lot easier.
The website UX is extremely seamless and clear, and you also mentioned the idea of “experience”. What were Meridiana’s requests in terms of customer experience?
The biggest effort was made on the website usability, as we wanted it to be more immediate, simple and secure, especially the purchase process. This was clear since the briefing stage, together with the upsell of complementary offers and the need of boosting specific seasonal destinations.
Let’s now focus on the core of your digital campaign - social networks. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are only some of the media where Meridiana is present. What strategies and future developments will you implement to increase users?
This aspect was both strategic and technical. The website was developed by our technical partner, Diamantea, by using Sitecore®: an Experience Platform allowing to offer users customized content based on the context and interests shown through their browsing choices.
For instance, if you select destinations linked to “trips”, next time you visit the website you’ll receive recommendations on similar destinations. Similarly, the ancillary services suggested will be relevant to the route you purchased. In this way, we succeeded in creating a customized user experience, while rewarding recurring customers and communicating with each individual user in a clearer and straightforward way. We created a platform that supports the user on a one-to-one basis and integrates with Meridiana’s marketing activities.
Our digital project focused on providing a UX that would be as experience-based as possible so as to drive engagement also towards new clients.
The strategy was also supported by the airline’s social media channels, very active and ready to attract new followers. This follows a very clear approach: showing users the place where, thanks to Meridiana, they could be tomorrow.
