Press Release
Gatwick is social media award winner
2 June 2011
Gatwick is social media award winner
2 June 2011
- The airports' ‘talk to Gatwick’ campaign wins prestigious industry award
- Gatwick’s innovative campaign puts it at ‘the technological cusp of communication and customer service’
Gatwick Airport last night (Wednesday 1 June) won the prestigious award for its 'talk to Gatwick' strategy at the CIPR 2011 Excellence Award for Best Practice in Social Media, recognising innovative and effective use of social media.
Selected by a panel of industry experts, the judges said of Gatwick's campaign that it ‘was a thorough, creative, innovative and insightful programme putting Gatwick at the technological cusp of communication and customer service'.
Gatwick actively invites passengers to feedback on Twitter by placing physical prompts around the airport. Information screens around the terminals carry messages, suggesting how comments can be fed back to the airport via the micro-blogging platform. Integrating the airport's social media and customer service operations means Twitter is now being used as a feedback tool round the clock.
Last year, Gatwick became the first airport worldwide to use 'Stickybits' giant mobile barcodes to help communicate its £1 billion investment programme to passengers. While most of the work is out of sight, hidden behind hoardings, passengers who have downloaded the free stickybits mobile application can now go on a coded ‘Gatwick Discovery Tour’ and take an audiovisual peek behind the scenes to see how their London airport is changing.
Most recently, location-based Qype, has been integrated into www.gatwickairport.com to offer users a way to rate and review the shops and restaurants at the airport via smart phones.
Commenting on the award, Gatwick's head of airport communications, Sam Holgate said: 'With all of our social media initiatives, we start by asking ourselves what will genuinely make a difference to our customers. Introducing new and innovative ways to talk to our passengers in real time has allowed us to act on their comments quicker.
“We're delighted our efforts have been recognised by the judges and we're looking forward to sharing more new ideas with our passengers soon.'
Short listed initiatives for this award included Facebook: 2010 General Election (Facebook), GMP24 - Twitter Day (Greater Manchester Police), Make mine Milk (Milk Marketing Forum) and Popcorn (St John Ambulance).
Gatwick continues to work with specialist agency, Rabbit, on its social media strategy.
