London City Airport

London City Airport opened in 1987, is the only airport actually located in London, but it’s often overlooked. Thanks to its location near Canary Wharf in Royal Docks, its operations are restricted and its growth limited. No airplane larger than an Airbus A318 can use the airport because of its steep approach and runway length, and noise restrictions limit their operating hours to 06:30-22:30 Monday to Friday, 06:30-13:00 on Saturdays and 12:30-22:30 on Sundays.

There is also a perception that London City Airport is just for business travellers rather than families and holiday makers.

Endeavour was challenged to help increase awareness, loyalty and revenue (digital and on-site). Research showed that the leisure market for London City Airport was growing and somewhere they could compete effectively. From there, we worked on their two most prominent marketing elements: website and advertising.

We worked with the airport’s internal marketing department and marketing agency Bright across all projects.

Website

Increase awareness of the airport, passenger loyalty, revenue (both digital and on-site) and user’s satisfaction of the website

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Advertising campaign

Raise awareness of London City Airport, increase the number of passengers and position it as not just for business travel

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Website

Increase awareness of the airport, passenger loyalty, revenue (both digital and on-site) and user’s satisfaction of the website

↓

Advertising campaign

Raise awareness of London City Airport, increase the number of passengers and position it as not just for business travel

↓

Website

CHALLENGE

Increase awareness of the airport, passenger loyalty, revenue (both digital and on-site) and user’s satisfaction of the website.

SOLUTION

From reviewing their website, we concluded it felt incredibly dated; its appearance was very tired and functionality was lacking compared to its main competitors (it wasn’t responsive for mobile users, for example). From there we worked on a business case for the website to be completely redesigned and rebuilt, which involved financial projections on passenger spend, distilling the passenger data down into key personas, and tiers of desired functionality.

With key passenger types in mind, we reviewed the content needed for the site and started to create more specific user journeys, ensuring key information was always at hand such as pre-booking, booking, travel to the airport, check-in and flight status.

Next we went through the same exercise for the corporate side of the website and its various stakeholder requirements such as employment, community relations, advertising and environmental regulation.

Once these were agreed on, we created a new concept for the website with a ‘look and feel’ point of view that was easier to use at every stage, more visually appealing and allowed more digital transactions to take place. We then worked with their development agency, Amido, to turn these ideas into reality.

SERVICES

→ Conceptualisation
→ Branding
→ UX / UI
→ Web design
→ Workshops
→ PPT presentations

Advertising campaign

CHALLENGE

Raise awareness of London City Airport, increase the number of passengers and position it as not just for business travel.

SOLUTION

Exploring the key benefits of London City Airport, we saw that its proximity to the city centre reduced travel times from home or work to the airport compared to competitor airports such as Gatwick and Heathrow. This allowed passengers to spend more time where they wanted to be – either at home or at their destination – rather than sitting on a train to the airport. This mean they could better maintain their regular lifestyles, whether that meant socialising, holidaying or getting home for their children’s bath time. And thanks to London City Airport’s location on the tube and DLR, travel is easier, quicker and less of an ordeal.

From our research and passenger persona exercises, we put together a series of user journeys and stories that we captured through informal photography. The accompanying copy, with tagline ‘it’s about time’, emphasised the concept of passengers spending their time how they wanted to, rather than on travel to the airport. The campaign ran across a range of media including out of home and print, and we then developed the creative into a series of tactical adverts promoting specific routes and destinations which ran digitally.

Since the launch of the new website and advertising campaign, the number of leisure passengers has increased from 47% to 55% and continues to grow, especially as more routes are opened up through Europe. This has taken the overall number of passengers up by over half a million (a 13% increase) whilst also reducing the number of flights by around 2,500 flights a year. This makes it far more profitable and environmentally friendly.