KLM has recently come up with a new campaign to “surprise” travellers who check in on foursquare with something personal that might make their travel a little less stressful.

Published: 24 Nov 2010

KLM has recently come up with a new campaign to “surprise” travellers who check in on foursquare with something personal that might make their travel a little less stressful.

When someone checks in on foursquare at one of KLM’s venues at Amsterdam Schipol Airport, their main hub, the airline’s KLM Surprise team goes to work. They do as much research as they can about the person using the information they’ve posted publicly on Twitter and Facebook and find a gift that’s customised to that particular customer. They then attempt to make contact with the person through social networks and other means to meet up with them to deliver the gift.

The airline is using the KLM Surprise campaign as an experiment in using social networks and to see how their customers respond. They’re closely monitoring tweets and Facebook posts about the campaign to see how “happiness spreads” and what kind of conversation develops around it. The promotion runs through the end of November, when it will be evaluated.

Examples of what the airline has done for its customers:

• One customer, Willem, was going to miss his team’s biggest soccer game of the year while on a trip to New York. KLM surprised him with a Lonely Planet guide to New York with the best soccer bars highlighted to make sure he wouldn’t miss the game.

• KLM found that another customer, Perry, was celebrating his birthday and surprised him with a birthday card and glass of champagne. One can see more of the gifts they’ve delivered in their Facebook album from the campaign..