On the 14th April 2010 something big erupted in the travel industry, or as one of our clients called it: an ashtrocity! The Icelandic volcano, called Eyjafjallajökull, ejected volcanic ash to heights in excess of 30,000ft and few could have predicted the chaos and millions of pounds it would cost the travel industry and the economy. With huge amounts of ash in the atmosphere, controlled airspace in the UK was shut down for fear of damage to the aircraft engines. By the 17th April, there was a no fly zone in the airspace of more than 25 countries. This resulted in the largest air traffic shut-down since World War II and caused millions of passengers to be stranded not only in Europe, but across the world. Airspace was closed for six days; a decision which was later criticised by most airlines who were suffering huge financial losses. According to Giovanni Bisignani, the Director General of The Air Transport Association, the ash crisis cost the airline industry up to £130...

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As I'm sure Richard Branson would agree, social media can be a bit of a monster at times and a rather difficult beast to tame. The scope and speed offered by networks such as Twitter and Facebook, coupled with the ever expanding blogosphere, allows user-generated content to travel faster than a transatlantic flight to New York City. Whether it be a poor customer experience, a brand simply getting it wrong or rogue staff playing a prank - social media has given a voice and a platform to everyone with a keyboard and mouse: and they're certainly not afraid to use it! Here is a collection of some recent high profile examples of the staggering power of social media from the last few months, highlighting the potentially damaging effects it can have on big brands: Read the rest of this entry...

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This week saw the culmination of a 48 hour Twitter popularity campaign between British Comedian Russell Brand, and the US talk show host, Jimmy Fallon. (Watch the tv interview here) Before the campaign began, Fallon began with a distinct 200,000 follower head-start but it was Brand that actually achieved more in the build up to his TV appearance on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' where he plugged his US stand-up and book signing tour. A combination of blog posts, tweets, retweets, Facebook updates and video pleas resulted in Russell increasing his followers by 23%, that's an additional 17,000 people he can now directly inform of his latest tour, book, movie etc. Read the rest of this entry...

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