Dive Brief:

• Lufthansa rolled out the latest installment in the airline’s efforts to give flyers an unfiltered look into crew members’ lives and what goes into the flight experience, according to Media Post.
• The campaign, Lufthansa Crew Stories, launched in September 2016 and highlighted behind-the-scenes Snapchat videos from flight preparation to lift off and landing. The airline saw an 800% increase in views on Snapchat since Crew Stories debuted. 
• The airline’s latest effort, Crew Connections, expands to two events where pilots and flight attendants interact with people face-to-face in San Jose, CA, last week and New York City on May 24-25. The crew’s exact locations are unveiled on Snapchat for people in those cities hoping to meet some of the Lufthansa team and win prizes, including airline tickets.

Dive Insight:

In Lufthansa’s campaign, it’s turning the camera around on itself in a mission to position itself as a transparent brand that consumers can connect with on a personal level. The airline ditched the common tactic of partnering with an agency and is instead putting the execution of the campaign in the crew’s hands to engage with consumers in a more direct and authentic fashion.

The airline saw an 800% increase in views on Snapchat since Crew Stories launched in September, the company reported, as well as a flood of queries about how to apply for a job at Lufthansa. So it’s no surprise that the airline is now rolling out a second phase of the promotion. Airlines are under pressure to build more positive relationships with consumers as the entire industry has been in the spotlight in recent months following several incidents that painted them in a very negative light — from United dragging a passenger off an overbooked flight in April to Delta booting a family with two toddlers off another flight and threatening jail time a few weeks ago.

Now, the German-based airline is bringing its consumer engagement from Snapchat to real life, but it's smart to keep the digital platform part of the mix as this is where many young consumers are sharing experiences. Lufthansa’s not the first airline to take its engagement strategies offline. Last January, JetBlue set up a mini faux beach at the Jamaica train station in Queens, NY. A few passersby won a trip to the island of Jamaica. Even those who didn’t get free tickets chatted with JetBlue employees, kicked their feet up on lounge chairs and left the small slice of paradise with a positive perception of the brand.