The Brief

Although there is support for Cardiff Airport from the people in Wales, they still needed to raise awareness of the number of destinations that they currently fly to and from. The perception was that the Airport was restricted, and in reality they fly to over 50 direct destinations and 900 via a one stop connection. Therefore, Cardiff Airport’s mission was to re-educate people with their new website so that they could clearly see the variety of flying options available to them.

The website had two key target audiences. The first would be those actually at the Airport who are arriving, departing or waiting for an arrival, and the second are the people considering flying from the Airport. It was important that both these audiences were addressed as they will help to achieve Cardiff Airport’s objectives.

The objectives that the Airport set out for the website were that it will help to change people’s perceptions, showcase all destinations clearly and promote airport facilities. They were also keen to increase car parking bookings from the website to reduce the amount paid on parking commission. Cardiff Airport also wanted the website to adhere to their current brand guidelines and incorporate their latest marketing campaign, ‘Take me to…’, whilst illustrating a positive experience for the user that would also be transferred offline.

Finally the brief stated that the website needed to be bilingual as they are incredibly proud of their welsh heritage.

The Solution

We were aware that Cardiff Airport had some big ambitions that needed to be fulfilled, but we were confident that a new website would be the perfect tool to further the Airport’s success.

The first objective we tackled was changing perceptions. The Airport currently flew to a variety of destinations but many people were unaware of these flights, so we felt that this was the information that needed to be clear when the user landed on the Airport’s homepage. Fortunately the ‘Take Me To…’ marketing campaign was already putting this message into practice and we felt this was the perfect imagery to use in the homepage header. Consequently when you land on the Airport’s homepage the user can be whisked off to Italy, France or even New York with the campaign’s stunning imagery.

However, the Airport also had commercial objectives that needed to be fulfilled so we worked with them to ensure that the user could easily book car parking and the executive lounge via the homepage. We were also keen to make the website a touch point for all customers to find the information they needed. This meant that they would need to see live flight information so we worked with third parties to ensure that this element could be implemented.

Customer involvement was a long-term ambition for the Airport as they felt that this would help them to build relationships both online and offline. To start creating this dynamic we decided that user generated content would be the perfect way to interact with existing and potential Airport customers. We did this by creating a module in the destination content whereby users could upload their holiday photos and top tips. Spindogs supported this content by generating the information on the destination pages and sourcing user generated images to encourage customers to participate.

The new website fulfils Cardiff Airport’s initial objectives, and it’s innovative and interactive elements mean that the Airport’s exciting new phase is illustrated effectively. 

What the Client said:

“You had so much knowledge and we trusted you. It was great to be able to work collaboratively around a table and discuss issues openly, with the added reassurance that the Spindogs team would always consider everything before coming up with a solution- it worked really, really well!”- Rhiannon Jenkins, Marketing Executive.