Hong Kong Airlines

How to turn a crisis

into a soaring success
 Hong Kong Airlines: How to turn a crisis into a soaring success
Talkwalker & Hootsuite helped Hong Kong Airlines detect an emerging crisis, and through
active social listening and a strategic response, turned it into a PR win.

Hong Kong Airlines is a full-service airline firmly rooted in Hong Kong, committed to
delivering an exceptional customer experience with the unique flair of its home base. It
boasts an ever-expanding international network covering nearly 40 destinations across
Asia Pacific and North America

“When we see what is happening in “real time” on social media we are better
prepared to make timely and informed decisions, and communicate those
decisions well. Social listening and analytics tools are critical to success. In this
case, we managed to turn what could have been a damaging issue, into a fantastic
PR opportunity. With 4,900% more engagements created in a one week period.”
Dennis Owen, General Manager of Branding and Social Media, Hong Kong Airlines

CASE STUDY HONG KONG AIRLINES

 How they did it

Established alerts to detect issues before they become crises

Hong Kong Airlines have established a Hootsuite & Talkwalker dashboard that allows them to
monitor their social media conversations. Alongside this, they have set alerts, to inform them if
any issue was generating more conversation than usual.

These alerts activate if -

• A person with 5,000 or more followers commented with a mention of the brand
OR
• There was a sudden increase in posts on a topic.

On August 16, 2018, the first alert was raised, as conversations were peaking. A flight from Los
Angeles to Shanghai had been mispriced at just $561, and the buzz was getting louder. In 24
hours, it had gathered over 229 mentions, up 104.5% from the previous day.

The buzz from the mispriced tickets caused a huge increase in mentions,
engagement and reach.

CASE STUDY HONG KONG AIRLINES

 Created a strategy based on knowledge gained from competitor analysis
By monitoring the situation as it happened, the Hong Kong Airlines team had all the information
to hand when it came to strategizing how to react.
They were also able to compare how other companies had handled similar issues, and what
impact that had had on their brand. When British Airways faced the same issue in June 2018,
they decided not to honor the incorrect price. This created 2.2k mentions in 24 hours (up 73.9%),
with a peak negative sentiment of 91.4%.
With that in mind, Hong Kong Airlines made the decision to honor the price, within 24 hours of
the issue being raised.

On June 20, British Airways had a similar issue. But they didn’t honor the incorrect
price. This caused mentions to soar, and sentiment to sink.

CASE STUDY HONG KONG AIRLINES

 Actively engaged in the conversation to shape the story
Using a combination of Hootsuite and Talkwalker, Hong Kong Airlines kept track of all the
conversation about the pricing issue. By constantly engaging with the audience, they could
shape the conversation to fit the business needs.
The Hootsuite integration tracked the conversations that mattered most, and ensured that
anyone discussing the issue was positively engaged. This helped to keep the conversation
positive and far-reaching, driving additional PR stories.

Monitor the conversations to measure the impact

To see how successful the strategy was, Hong Kong Airlines was able to monitor the campaign
conversations to assess the full impact.

CASE STUDY HONG KONG AIRLINES

 Results

• They saw a growth in mentions of Business Class, which helped boost their positioning in
this market place. With 35.1% of brand conversations mentioning the term.

• Mentions of Hong Kong Airlines increased 268.1% in the US. With 105.5% global increase
in potential reach.
• The brand sentiment continued to be positive for the following months, as consumers
traveled with the brand.
• At no point did the brand have a negative sentiment spike.

The net sentiment of the brand was consistently positive following the issue.

CASE STUDY HONG KONG AIRLINES

 Impact starts here.
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