Team Building Exercise 2010
Seems the new Delta campaign (credits) already has a second spot (or is this one the first?) Visually, this one has much more impact than the other which, while beautifully shot, was a little generic. In terms of the content, though, “Human Factor” is a lot less daring. It turns out the challenges Delta faces are not of its own making—they are “every airline’s reality.” Don’t blame Delta.
There are two ways to look at this spot.
The first way is through the eyes of the consumer. Delta seems to be saying it has better people than United or American. Not that there’s anything wrong with United or American’s people, they’re just… inferior in some way Delta can’t quite put its finger on. Just not up to Delta’s standard of awesomeness. Consumers have heard this claim before, from just about every airline, and short of measuring every Delta employee’s smile with a ruler there’s no way to substantiate it.
The second way is through the eyes of an even more important audience: 75,000 Delta employees. They watch TV too. For them I think this spot works better. Times are tough for the airline industry (when aren’t they?) and this spot gives Delta staff a reason to feel better about themselves and their airline. Happy airline employees lead to happy airline passengers. Who knows, maybe on your next flight to Atlanta a flight attendant will toss you an extra bag of peanuts or a gate agent will go the extra mile to rebook you.
Because this spot isn’t kidding about how important employees are in addressing an airline’s problems. Unless line employees buy in to what management is trying to do, those plans are doomed to fail.
So team spirit actually does count for something. Just ask Southwest Airlines.
Well, Delta might not be there yet. But it’s a start.