KLM’s Trip Whisperer “Care Tag” Offers Location-Specific Travel Tips
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APEX Insight: KLM wants to tag along on your next trip to Amsterdam. Who better to show you around?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a local in your back pocket dispensing “good to know” advice in real time as you make your way through a foreign city? Useful nuggets would include where to lock your bike based on your location, how much the taxi from the airport should cost and where you should be extra careful with your bags.
In September, KLM launched a limited edition gadget that does just that. Travelers who had booked their September vacation in June were given the option to order an audio device with a built-in GPS module that could be attached to their bag to help guide them through the city. Dubbed “Care Tag,” the free device was loaded with more than 300 insider tips all recorded by the airline’s crews. Based on pre-programmed GPS locations, the tips would come into play when the user was within five meters of a location. For instance, at the bike rental shop, Care Tag might remind you to always double-lock your bike – useful in a city where bike theft is rampant.
“We really made an effort to give caring advice.” – Frank Houben, KLM
“It’s not only about the standard tips,” Frank Houben, director of Brand and Marketing Communications at KLM, says. “We really made an effort to give caring advice.” Like many airlines trying to extend their reach beyond the airport and airplane, KLM introduced Care Tag as a way to enlarge the customer journey and do something special for passengers at their destination, Houben adds.
For the first installment of this marketing campaign, around 1,000 such devices were available in English, but there are plans to launch a total of 6,000 more in Portuguese, Chinese, German and Russian later this year. The idea proved to be quite popular – the devices were snapped up in just two weeks, but there aren’t any plans to extend Care Tag to other cities. “It’s really about Amsterdam,” Houben says. “I really think it’s a novel experience.”
“KLM’s Trip Whisperer” was originally published in the 7.5 December/January issue of APEX Experience magazine.