Your Products are Boring: How Delta Airlines Can Help

Keith Griffis

What Delta Airlines can teach you about marketing your boring product:
So you think you can’t possibly make your boring products interesting. You think you are doomed to mediocrity and the same old status quo old marketing. Here is a genius way that Delta changed up their boring processes to reinvigorate their customers and make their topic noteworthy.

Delta Airlines Adds Wit to Safety Information Videos

Anyone who has flown on airplane before has seen the safety information video or speel from the flight attendant. If you are a road warrior like myself you hear it up to 10 times a month. After a while you tune it out and find ways to entertain yourself. The most amazing oart is that the FAA has tried to do things to make you pay attention to this life sacing information for the past twenty five years. Unfortunately people just stopped caring because even the flight attendants are falling asleep while giving the talk.

How did Delta change this? They decided to take a new approach to the same old safety information video. They were still required to discuss all the standard safety procedures so it is not that the information could change (this is an important point to remember). So they were still required to tell me to buckle up, where the flotstion devices were, how to put on the oxtgen mask, and all the other standard stuff.

So now ou should be saying, what the heck did they do to make THAT interesting? They tweaked their video imagery. Here is a short list of the things they did in the video to make it interesting.

1. When asked to power down electronics, they showed a robot sitting in a seat who shuts himself off.
   
2. When asked about the ability to perform the duties necessary for the exit row, they show three people (two of which are twins) the third person says they can’t perform the dutues and switches seats with someone who ends up looking exactly like the twins (they were triplets or at least the same guy in triplicate).
   
3. When asked to look around you for the exit, they show the whole flight looking backwards while one little girl stays facing forward with an awkward stare.
   
4. When asked to stow luggage under the seat, they show a tiny roller bag (size of a deck of cards) being put under the seat.
   
5. When mentioning turbulence then show a large man reaching for an old woman’s hand who is sitting next to him because he is scared (he plays it off).
   
6. When told that you can ask any questions, they show a man reading a Quantum mechanics book and then raising his hand to ask a question about it.
   
7. We told to finally stow all items before takeoff, they show a man playing an accordian in his seat and then stowing it under the seat in front of him.

There were even more random things to keep your attention that were subtle, like the steward who was narrativng the video would constantly have a warddrobe change or glasses added each time they cut back to her.

All of these small changes didn’t affect the core message, but they competely changed the engagement of the audience (airline passengers) and it branded Delta as a “fun” company.

How do you think you could use this same method to spice up some content or marketing that your are creating? How about changing up your marketing graphics, writing style, or perhaps what you share on social media to give an interesting twist?

A simple method to try this is by creating some content (blog post or videos) that have a fun, scientific, wacky, or serious tone (not everything needs to be funny, just interesting and unexpected) and putting it out there. Don’t be afraid to take a chance, but be sure not to hide behind your logo. Social media has out the person front and center. Let your freak flag fly as they say and be yourself. People will love you for it.

This video may not have made up for Delta’s issues when i checked my bag, but it certainly made me reconsider my normal ban on flying their airline (i am normally a United or Us Airways guy). They took a customer exoerience that was not aimed at new customers and made it interesting. Try doing the same and you will thank me.

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