5 Travel Brands Winning on Social Media for the Week Ending September 26, 2014

Every dog, city, and rainbow has its day to shine.

Travel brands are bullishly pushing their fans to dream and consider travel by strategically publishing contests and promotions with highly engaging content on social media. Much of the activity this week played out on Instagram and Facebook, with some residual acquisitions seen on Twitter.

Each Friday, we call out travel brands that have stronger than usual activity on social media. Using SkiftIQ, we’re able to track current performance versus past (60-day averages, unless otherwise noted) as well as notice spikes in activity that demonstrate a brand either has a viral hit on its hands, or a public relations mess to clean up.

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The latest social activity on SkiftIQ for the week ending September 26, 2014:

1. KLM on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook

This Dutch airline dominated this week on three platforms. A dog named Sherlock was hired to pose as a “team member” for the Lost and Found group, skyrocketed its YouTube channel Subscribers to the stratosphere, 6,700% increase above its daily 16 Subscribers/Day. The video garnered 4,500,000 views since it was launched three days ago.

A 15-second clip was also posted on Instagram of this video and it grew this account by 320%, that’s 730 more Followers over its 229 Followers/Day Average. In addition to the content caused the jump in Instagram Followers, their social media team posted about fake Instagram account warnings. Its community appreciated it.

On Facebook, it was natively posted — not a YouTube link upload — and it garnered 3,000,000 views, 88,200 Likes, 184,000 Shares, and 9,500 comments. On September 23, its one-day Page Likes soared by 19,300, a 235% jump.

The revelation that Sherlock doesn’t really do the things he does in the video in real life didn’t diminish most people’s enthusiasm for the pup.

2. Virgin America on Facebook

The flash sale of Virgin America’s $99 flexible one-way ticket was posted with a great shot of its Main Cabin Select seats got its fans clamoring. On the same day, it also promoted its #ShareTheLove contest — new airport destination Dallas Love Field campaign — to reward a lucky contest winner with a well-curated trip complete with an in-flight performance by singer/songwriter Kacey Musgrave. On Facebook, it attracted 400% new Followers and on Twitter it got nearly 40% rise in Followers.

3. British Airways on Instagram

Again, British Airways retains the third spot for the same platform activity. It excited its fans for holiday travel with a 100-day countdown to New Year’s. The post featured a photo stitch of four cities, New York, London, Barcelona, Berlin and asked which city its fans would pick to celebrate 2015. Its Instagram account grew by 137% gaining 853 new followers on September 23 and 24.

4. Condé Nast Traveler on YouTube and Twitter

This travel magazine tweeted a slew of noteworthy content that ranged from announcing their October Food issue; a monthly contest that could win a lucky entrant a trip to Antarctica and a gift certificate to Abercrombie & Kent; and the most atypical honeymoon locations. Although it only gained 23% more Twitter Followers, its viewership on YouTube rose by 65% despite having the last video published four months ago.

Can you guess where this is? Email your answer & you could win a HUGE trip from @AKTravel_USA http://t.co/QpUPyqyJNg pic.twitter.com/oXX1VjU29j

— Condé Nast Traveler (@CNTraveler) September 23, 2014

5. Lufthansa on Instagram

Even though Lufthansa didn’t post as much last week, this airline steadily gained roughly 250 Followers/Day from September 20 to 24. The last time the airline popped up on our weekly winners radar was on July 25 for an increase in Instagram Followers. A striking photo of its livery was uploaded with a musical description and received double the likes from the previous post. The following day, it published a photo from an Instagram user of its plane with a rainbow in the background.

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