Finnair and Helsinki Airport launch Quality Hunters 2013
(Warsaw 04.04.2013) Finnair and Finavia, the Helsinki Airport operator, have launched Quality Hunters 2013 in order to seek out practical ways of improving the air travel experience. This time, they will look to the extremely active and inventive online community that formed around the previous Quality Hunters initiative and whose keen interest in improving the quality of air travel has kept the discussion going ever since.
Quality Hunters 2013 follows two award-winning crowdsourcing initiatives run by the two companies. The 2010 Rethink Quality initiative inspired Finnair and Helsinki Airport to find new ways of looking at quality and in 2011, Quality Hunters Season 2 proved the power of a great community in creating innovative ideas to improve air travel.
The Helsinki Airport Book Swap, which opened in summer 2012 and the vegetarian meals introduced on long-haul flights later in the autumn are both examples of successful ideas co-developed by the Quality Hunters community, Finnair and Helsinki Airport.
Where the previous initiatives mapped the passengers’ notions of quality in air travel, Quality Hunters 2013 takes a more practical approach in making the passengers’ visions a reality. Community members will be invited to share their views of what makes a travel experience great, and identify points of improvement along the passenger’s journey. The initiative aims at ideas that are easy to put to use and support the business goals of the two companies, as well as improve the passenger experience in a tangible way.
“After two successful runs, we want to incorporate the Quality Hunters initiative into our service development process. By inviting the community to work with us we can ensure that the ideas gained are feasible and serve both the customer and our business”, says Peter Gabrielsson, Finnair's Vice President Inflight Customer Service.
“By inviting our passengers to take part in our product development, we hope to come up with practical ways of adding that little bit of extra to make travelling via Helsinki even smoother and more enjoyable, while strengthening our position as the leading long-haul airport in Northern Europe,” says Johanna Metsälä, Customer Experience Manager at Helsinki Airport.
Anyone can join the conversation by following @qualityhunters on Twitter. The blog at qualityhunters.com will discuss the ideas suggested by community members and follow their development process while sharing news about the initiative’s progress. The initiative can also be followed on Facebook at facebook.com/qualityhunters.
While the majority of work will be done through the Twitter channel, the blog and facebook page, active and involved community members will also be handpicked to test and develop Finnair and Helsinki Airport’s services in person.
For more information:
Dagmara Düm, Confero Consulting, tel. 602 462 177; info@conferopr.com
Aku Varamäki, Social Media Manager, tel. +358 400 342 234; anna-kaisa.varamaki@finnair.com
Antti Nieminen, Director Consumer Marketing, tel. +358 50 393 07 49; antti.nieminen@finnair.com
Finnair Media Desk, comms@finnair.com, tel. +358 9 818 4020
Finavia Media Desk,comms@finavia.com, tel. +358 20 708 2002
www.qualityhunters.com
facebook.com/qualityhunters
twitter.com/qualityhunters
Background information
Quality Hunters 2013 follows two successful crowdsourcing initiatives carried out by Finnair and Helsinki Airport: Finnair’s 2010 Rethink Quality Campaign and Quality Hunters, Season 2, launched by Finnair and Helsinki Airport in 2011.
The previous initiatives employed Quality Hunters to travel the world and seek out ideas and to engage with the public in discussion on quality on their website and on Twitter, along with YouTube and Flickr. In 2011, Quality Hunters, Season 2 reached over ten million people through Twitter. Recognising the power of a great community, the companies decided to give social media a more significant role in 2013.
Both initiatives went on to receive a European Excellence Award in the Travel & Tourism category, with Quality Hunters, Season 2 also winning the IPRA Golden World Award for the best international PR campaign in 2012.
Together, Finnair and Helsinki Airport offer the fastest and shortest connections between Asia and Europe, and both companies seek to expand their business in the East. For Helsinki Airport, the quality of service and the extra value offered to passengers becomes more significant as transit airports play an increasingly important role in travel decisions.
Finnair (www.finnair.com) is specialised in fast connections between Europe and Asia via Helsinki. The airline carries more than eight million passengers annually and connects 13 cities in Asia with more than 60 destinations in Europe. The airline, a pioneer in sustainable flying, operates a modern fleet and is the first airline named to the Leadership Index of the worldwide Carbon Disclosure Project. Finnair has also won Skytrax’s World Airline Award for Best Airline Northern Europe for the past three years running. Finnair is a member of oneworld, the leading quality airline alliance.
