The Challenge

Establish a meaningful connection with international travelers for OpenSkies, British Airways' new subsidiary, not only before the carrier took its first flight (June 19, Paris to New York) but also in advance of an ad campaign, "This is not . . . a plane . . . a flight attendant . . . a passenger," via Taxi, New York, set to launch in early summer.

The Plan

Interactive agency Huge, New York, worked with the carrier to tap into a pool of potential online customers. Dale Moss, OpenSkies' managing director, introduced a blog in January at the then blog-only Web site, FlyOpenSkies.com, discussing the new airline and inviting visitors to submit their "thoughts on how are we doing" in the carrier's mission to elevate customer care. Moss' subsequent entries detailed such planned perks as the in-flight menu, the amount of legroom in the Prem+ seats and that passengers in Econ economy class seats would have access to a personal audio and video entertainment,

food and wine service. Readers responded with questions ranging from seat pitch to expanding service.

The Results

When the airline's full Web site launched in May, it contained all of Moss' previous blogs. The blog has helped the site to increase its number of unique visitors by 50% each week to the point where it now has three times the amount of its starting traffic, said Gene Liebel, partner and director of user experience at Huge.

Also, the search engine optimization program executed by Huge to complement the blog resulted in the Flyopenskies Web site coming up as the No. 1 Google search result for the key search term "open skies" just one week after the Web site launch.

Moss has since added to his blog on a regular basis, including one describing the aforementioned inaugural flight: "We invited Randy Peterson, the founder of FlyerTalk.com, and 20 members of the frequent flier community to join us on our inaugural New York-Paris flight and enjoy the OpenSkies experience first-hand. These are the type of fliers we had in mind when we launched OpenSkies: globetrotters who really know the ins and outs of flying."