In October 2010, Etihad Airways launched a Facebook competition to celebrate its new daily Ho Chi Minh City flights and its partnership with celebrity chef, Luke Nguyen. Etihad Airways ran a ‘Vietnam Eats’ competition in which fans were asked to upload photos of their favorite Vietnamese food for the chance to win a pair of Coral Economy Class flight tickets to Ho Chi Minh City from any point on the airline’s network. Whether it was a home-cooked meal, a dish from their favorite restaurant or fresh produce, fans were encouraged to get snapping and uploaded their best Vietnamese cuisine-inspired image. Fan could upload and vote for their favorite foodie photos via a ‘Vietnam Eats’ Facebook application throughout October 2013. At the end of the month, a panel of judges chose the winner from the top 10 most popular photos as voted by Etihad Airways’ Facebook fans. The foodie-focused competition celebrated the new Vietnamese-themed menu on Ho Chi Minh City flights which has been designed in partnership with Luke Nguyen, the celebrity chef who is a host on the TV series, Masterchef Vietnam. The Etihad Airways ‘Vietnam Eats’ Facebook competition was an overwhelming success and over the course of four weeks created Etihad Airways’ largest collection of user generated content from the audience. The competition was promoted through a multiple media channel distribution strategy. For the awareness phase, traditional delivery vehicle of print media, direct emails and social media channels were used. For the engagement phase, a social content re-heat strategy, company website, Facebook promoted posts and influencer outreach were used. The competition resulted in: • Over 15,000 page views • Over 3,400 page invitations sent by other users • Over 1,100 entries • Over 20,000 interactions • Over 800 shares • Most entries came from the UAE, Australia and United Kingdom
Etihad Airways currently has in excess of 850,000 fans across it active social media channels consisting of Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.