APEX in Profile: PaxLife

The Airline Passenger Experience Association boasts an envious group of cutting-edge companies ranging from OEMs to Hollywood’s head honchos. During the APEX EXPO, we caught up with Tim Letheren, vice-president Advertising, PaxLife, to give you a glimpse behind the suits, ties and formalities and delve into the nuances the company’s story. 

PaxLife’s business model is betting on the BYOD, or the bring-your-own device trend. Why do you view this as the way forward for in-flight entertainment and engagement? 

The first question to ask is, do enough people have their own devices for BYOD to be viable? The answer is clearly ‘Yes’. Our recent research tells us that the overwhelming majority of regular flyers travel with a smartphone, over half with a tablet and 2/3 with a laptop. This is phenomenal growth from even a few years back, and you can bet that growth will continue. We think that the ubiquity of devices, means BYOD is a really strong proposition on so many levels.

The BYOD option also allows for a much richer advertising and retail offering – by reaching people on their own devices it means we can target and optimize campaigns and people will have a higher propensity to shop and book destination services. And we can also carry on the conversation on the ground.

Will the PED kill the seatback screen? Is there room for both? How does PaxLife view it?

Our view is that certainly in the short to medium term, there is room for both the seatback and BYOD solution. On long-haul flights that have seatback, wireless can be something that complements current embedded offerings. We believe people are much more likely to engage with social media and pay with credit cards for example, on their own devices. Where there is an absolutely vital role to play is in the short and medium haul carrier space, whether that be LCCs, chartered or even the flag carriers. I think you would be hard pushed to find someone willing to put seatback systems on those shorter hops, but people still want something to do and this is where PEDs and wireless IFE come into their own.

In-flight digital advertising lags behind its on-the-ground counterpart. How does PaxLife’s Cloud10 app and focus on advertisers address this? 

This is a big focus for us and that is why we brought on a team of global media experts right in from the start of product development. We know the challenge is the balance: we want to make this a great offering for passengers, which they want to come back to again and again, but also a great revenue opportunity for airlines. We have done a lot of research in the global media industry, as well as with passengers themselves and have taken their comments onboard.

What we have found is that passengers welcome advertising if it is relevant to them, and they understand the value exchange – this is how the web works, after all.

On the opposite side of the fence, the media industry love the in-flight audience, but find it difficult in this digital age to justify spend in a world where there are few metrics and no chance to optimize. We took that onboard and have ensured we allow the most premium video, native and branded content formats with demographic targeting which allows us to report on campaigns and optimise in near real time.

“What we have found is that passengers welcome advertising if it is relevant to them.” – Tim Letheren, PaxLife

We are confident that on our app, Cloud10, we have struck a great balance between entertainment and revenue generation potential.

With the ability to better target advertisements based on user data and analytics, are there any plans to use this data to personalize IFE offerings? So, for example, if it’s a younger user, you might suggest movies appropriate to that demographic. 

The possibilities are endless when it comes to how we optimize our platform – and down the line we will certainly look at how we can not only target ads, but also optimize the platform for all users, and particular passengers. As we move forward, we expect to learn a great deal more about how people want to be engaged in-flight.

There’s an app for everything, but Cloud10 only needs to be downloaded once and then can be used on any airline supporting your app. What are the advantages of that to you, advertisers, passengers, airlines? Is the consolidation and movement toward alliances in the airline industry a thought in this sense as well? 

We have so many apps on our phones and tablets, and there are all sorts of facts out there telling us (a) how difficult it is to get your app on a user’s phone in the first place and (b) how it’s even harder to stay on it (most are only ever used once and deleted). So we think it makes sense to have one that passengers use again and again.

This has numerous benefits for everyone.

It’s great for the passenger – she just downloads one app, Cloud10, but when she is onboard the different partner airlines, upon opening the app, it is all delivered in that airlines’ livery, so the passenger remains in that particular airline’s holistic brand experience

It’s great for airlines, because they join a global network, which will allow them to access a global network of passengers and media. Advertising-wise, if we can move from airline-specific media buys to media buys by demographic audiences across whole regions, then we are making it easier to cope with the way media is increasingly being digitally bought these days and widening the budgets that will be invested in inflight. So in the end airlines get a bigger piece of a bigger pie, so to speak.

As we grow we envisage Cloud10 being seen as a major customer benefit and something that people look for when booking flights, in the same way consumers have looked for Intel on PCs or Dolby on stereos before now.