Malaysia Airlines piques travel nostalgia with ASMR video of flight experience

With more than a year of lockdowns and travel restrictions, Malaysia Airlines (MAB) is seizing the opportunity to invoke a sense of nostalgia with an ASMR experience on social media. The national carrier launched a 30 minute clip on YouTube with a compilation of sounds that one would normally hear throughout their flight experience. They include announcements made at the immigration, safety announcements, hum of the engines when the plane is in the air, and the captain's announcement welcoming travellers onboard. Snippets of the clips were also shared on its Facebook and TikTok accounts.

MAB's group chief marketing and customer experience officer, Lau Yin May, told A+M that the ASMR video clip of the announcements made throughout the entire flight experience is one of the best mediums to evoke memories for passengers, reminding them of what awaits them when travel normalises. This is part of its aim to constantly satiate its customers with inspirational videos in creative and engaging ways on various platforms. 

"A key part of the initiative has been the work of our social media team covering Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, ensuring consistent and impactful postings regularly. This began with the 'Travel Tomorrow' campaign in 2020 to create the desire to travel and remember Malaysia Airlines, while offering passengers the chance to interact with the airline directly in fun and enjoyable ways," she explained.

Additionally, MAB has also held several online surveys on Facebook to constantly engage with its passengers and obtain insights on their readiness to travel and preferences in the new norm. MAB also carried out a teleprompter duet challenge on TikTok, getting followers to show off their best rendition of its landing safety announcement. 

Aside from its social media activations, MAB also offered consumers the opportunity to enjoy a slice of travel from the comforts of their home by offering its signature MH peanuts and Malaysian satay for purchase via its e-retail store, Temptations. In March this year, the airline also began selling its premium inflight signature items on Temptations, including a pyjamas set, amenity kit and duvet. These were all previously only available to its premium passengers onboard. Its exclusive Business Suite amenity kit which is done in partnership with London-based handcrafted luxury leather goods brand, Aspinal of London, was also made available on Temptations.

It also launched MHartisans, featuring two of its cabin crew - Angie and Wesley - to help grow their hidden talent in handcrafted items, and offer a platform to sell their creations. Meanwhile, MAB's frequent flyer programme, Enrich, has also expanded its partnerships to lifestyle brands in F&B, retail, and pharmaceutical, among others to allows members to earn and burn Enrich Points. Enrich also recently announced the partnership with MERCY Malaysia, Make-A-Wish Malaysia and Malaysian Red Crescent Society, allowing Enrich members the opportunity to contribute their Enrich Points to the community. According to Lau, this further support the airline’s initiative to connect with everyone in a meaningful way. 

Malaysia Airlines (MAB) has tied up with ReveMAX to implement the airline revenue maximisation solution to enhance and strengthen its commercial decision-making and business processes. ReveMAX is a business intelligence and decision support platform for airlines. Its airline revenue maximisation solution is powered by AI and machine learning and offers predictive and prescriptive intelligence, connecting different airline departments and guiding them in making smarter strategic decisions with the aim of profitability and sustained financial good health of the organisation.

According to MAB, the partnership allows ReveMAX to provide it with a comprehensive picture of an airline's revenue and cost ecosystem. The system also enables airline personnel to see a 360-degree bird’s-eye view of their airline’s day-to-day health and make an immediate revenue decision based on fact-based data.

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