Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines executives couldn’t have been happier when Spanish soccer champions FC Barcelona faced English champions Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in the UEFA Champions League final in May 2011. The global carrier is the main sponsor for both teams!
“I still cannot believe that we managed to do this,” says Hasan Mutlu, general manager of Turkish Airlines in Japan. “No other airline in the world has the biggest teams in the world, and used them in their advertisements. The 2011 Champions League final definitely helped us!”
Since actor Kevin Costner praised the airline with the tagline, “Feel Like a Star”, in 2009, Turkish Airlines has enlisted world-famous celebrities and sports teams to boost brand value, promote visibility and expand into new markets.
The airline now promotes itself under the logo “Globally Yours”, and a set of high-profile advertising campaigns is designed to help the Istanbul-based airline achieve its target of becoming a top-three European airline and top-10 global airline by 2023 – the centenary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey.
The ad campaigns – which include sponsoring basketball teams in Greece, Spain and Turkey – have been a notable success, especially in the African and the East Asian regions, where there have traditionally been fewer Turkish expats than in Europe.
The airline operates a Boeing 777 aircraft emblazoned with images of the Barcelona soccer team, which creates quite a stir when approaching the terminal building at Narita Airport. “So many people in the terminal take photos of the aircraft,” says Mutlu. “This is something you couldn’t get even if you paid them! You achieve it by presenting the public with something they like – a team, a player, a singer.”
When the airline planned to launch a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Istanbul in 2011, it enlisted Kobe Bryant in a humorous scene where the two-time scoring champion of the NBA challenges the airline’s Flying Chef to switch roles – and each gains new respect for the skills required to do the other’s job.
“I think Kobe Bryant was the best choice,” Mutlu says. “We are doing great in LA, and will most probably have daily flights in 2012.”
Passengers on new routes are likely to have helped Turkish Airlines become the 8th largest airline by number of destinations – with more than 190 cities – in 2011. The airline plans to expand to more than 200 destinations worldwide by 2013, and to be number five in terms of cities.
Flights from Istanbul to Tokyo commenced in 1989, and the airline expects to fly to Tokyo on a daily basis starting this year, up from six times a week in 2011. Turkish Airlines also flies to Osaka’s KIX five times a week, and hopes to add Nagoya’s CENTRAIR to its Japanese international airports in the future.
The modern Turkey-Japan relationship goes back to the 19th century, when the Turkish frigate Ertugrul sank in a typhoon off the coast of Wakayama prefecture after carrying an envoy from the Ottoman Empire to the court of Emperor Meiji. Of 690 passengers and crew, only 69 survived, and Japanese naval vessels were ordered to escort them back to Turkey. This was an act of grace reciprocated in 1985 during the Iran-Iraq war, when Turkish Airlines airlifted stranded Japanese civilians out of Iraq.
Mutlu was posted to Japan in September 2011, after stints in Nigeria, Lebanon and Kazakhstan, and says that Turkish Airlines crews enjoy serving Japanese passengers, who are known for their low-key on-board demeanour. “We respect them, because they respect us” is a typical crew comment, according to Mutlu.
Turkish Airlines aims to appeal to passengers on flights to and from Japan by offering onigiri (rice balls) at any time between the first and second meal, and serving Japanese sake and the popular distilled beverage shochu. As on certain other long-distance routes, a “Flying Chef” onboard prepares meals for those in Business Class.
A sponsor of J-League soccer team Cerezo Osaka for the 2011 season, Turkish Airlines is now looking to recruit a Japanese celebrity to further promote their brand image in Japan. Mutlu is tight-lipped on the identity of the spokesperson likely to be involved from 2012, despite being peppered with questions about the candidate’s gender and entertainment field, and whether or not he or she is an anime character.
“It is somebody that the Japanese like, and the Turkish people like,” he says with a twinkle in his eye, stoking the mystery. This writer is still trying to pin the GM down while being ushered out of the interview room, but Mutlu only laughs good naturedly and, like those movie clips introducing upcoming attractions, says: “Coming Soon!”