Traveling Blog Talk
02/09/2006
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of talking blogs to the savvy marketers of the Eugene OR AMA Chapter. I knew that Eugene, OR was a road less traveled from Hot'lanta when Janis Ross, the program chair and vp convention marketing for Lane County CVB, routed me via Salt Lake City. Thanks for your hospitality and the OR vino and chocolate..what a great combination. By the way the Eugene Airport has Free Wifi!
Atlantans are pretty snobbish when it comes to direct flights. This one was totally sold out. In fact, Jon Huntsman, Jr. the Governor of Utah, was in the far back cabin with his wife and body guard. Or at least that's what the Delta pilot that I was seating next to told me. Sidebar: I thought it was a rule that politicians had to fly first class.
The Delta pilot turned out to be a pretty cool guy 'cause we chatted about blogs .. of course..what else would you expect of me ;-) Anyway, my pilot seatmate quickly got it and we began spinning ideas.
Did you know that it's a marketing tactic for Delta's pilots to stand at the door and wave bye-bye to passengers. Seems Delta's research found customer satisfaction increases 19% when passengers have direct contact with pilots. The pilot and I wondered how many percentage points customer sat would increase from a pilots' blog? Hell, Delta doesn't have a lot to loose. Traditional marketing doesn't seem to be working. Why not begin a few Conversations from the Cockpit? And while you're walking on wild side Delta, might as well throw in some podcasts and a few vlogs too.
In the corner of the blogosphere, 
there is of course, a village for pilots and folks who love aviation...read some pilot blogs and listen to a few podcasts at Thirty Thousand Feet.
[Update: The Pilot sent me a very cool podcast blog - Flying with Joe. Joe tells the stories about what goes on "behind the galley curtain."]
