We used LinkedIn’s API to create “Mapped Out”, an app that allowed business travellers to map their LinkedIn contacts to their upcoming travel schedules.

Mapped Out told our target who would be where on any given day and allowed them to highlight their executive travel.

First, we promoted Mapped Out via LinkedIn to travellers heading to Abu Dhabi, India and Washington, Etihad’s new routes.

Second, we placed cookies on all users of Mapped Out. This created a pool of ‘lookalike’ targets that were the mirror image of Etihad travellers and/or had carried out research into key destinations, dramatically broadening reach.

Etihad has reached new heights and is now driving heavy acquisition from its competitors.

Our target audience has mapped out more than 205 million miles worth of LinkedIn connections. That’s enough to fly around the world 32,000 times.

We’ve put Etihad (and a useful tool) in front of a hard-to-reach, time-poor audience at 20% the CPM of regular business media.

Awareness is sky-high; brand impression is up 10% and airline consideration +9%.

ROI has increased by 300%, whilst our ‘lookalike’ profiling approach enabled us to triple the pool of LinkedIn business travellers at zero cost.

Now Etihad is really flying.