Emirates continues to engage with its fans far and wide as it becomes the first airline to hit the coveted one-million-follower mark on Instagram. The remarkable achievement positions Emirates as the largest transportation brand on the photo and video-sharing platform.
Recently named the world’s most valuable airline brand, Emirates launched its Instagram channel in 2013. In less than three years, the airline’s diverse and engaging content on Instagram has generated over 5.8 million likes and comments.
From sports, lifestyle and travel, to adventure and food, Emirates uses the channel to tell visual stories that embody what the brand stands for: connecting people with what they love. Creative activations such as its popular Emirates Cabin Crew Instagrammers campaign – where six members of the airline’s cosmopolitan cabin crew community took over the Emirates Instagram channel to showcase their life, travels and experiences – generated over a million likes and comments in less than two months.
“As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Instagram is a great platform for us to share inspiring visual content about our people, interesting aspects of our operations, places to see and things to do while travelling. Emirates has grown its Instagram following organically, and we are proud to hit the one-million milestone,” said Boutros Boutros, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president, Corporate Communications, Marketing and Brand.
Emirates has also become the first airline to hit 500,000 followers on LinkedIn. This positions it as the most followed travel brand on social media as well as the most followed brand in the Middle East. With a combined community size of over 11 million users across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram, Emirates has set the bar for engagement not only in the airline category but among other lifestyle brands.
“Our engaged and growing audience on social media reflect the deep-rooted connection our customers and fans have with the Emirates brand. We would like to thank all our fans for their support. We will work hard to continue surprising and delighting them with relevant, entertaining and inspiring initiatives,” Boutros added.
To thank its one million Instagram followers, Emirates has launched a month-long global competition on Instagram with flight tickets and goodie bags up for grabs. To participate, users need to upload a photo or video on Instagram featuring Emirates, using the hashtag #ILoveEmirates and mention @emirates for a chance to win a pair of economy class tickets to any one of Emirates’ 150 destinations, or one of five goodie bags featuring products and merchandise from the airline’s official store.