Everybody dreams
of flying at some point in his or her life. This is a dream most often realized in
the pressurized cabin of a commercial airliner, watching the world 30,000 feet
below the wing through an 18x10-inch window. Eric Swanson, owner and chief
pilot of EasyRotor really wants to change that.
Owning and
flying a helicopter for hire means doing work, like flying a camera for Kid
Rock's most recent music video, "Born Free," or providing an aerial
platform for TV and still photographers. Dressed in a flight suit and EasyRotor ball cap, Swanson eschews aviator glasses for Oakleys, still looking the
part of a pilot when he walks through the hangar at Rapid Air. Swanson is
passionate about bringing helicopter flights to everyone, and 'everyone' is
certainly more people than just those with very expensive cameras filming music
videos.
"Everybody
would like to get that bucket list sort of experience. They've never been in a
helicopter before. What's it like?" says Swanson.
Swanson is an accomplished pilot and flight enthusiast with 6000 amassed flight hours on multi-engine, turbine, turbojet and helicopter aircraft. He formed EasyRotor, LLC in 2005.
With such a
public predilection for flight, it's easy to assume that EasyRotor helicopter
rides would sell themselves, but initially, that wasn't true. To share the message of flights for everybody,
EasyRotor invested resources on traditional marketing, as well as web
development, with little success. Being the only
helicopter charter in West Michigan should have helped EasyRotor, but in this
case, the lack of competition simply obscured that a charter helicopter service
even existed. This made things difficult for the EasyRotor brand.
"It doesn't
occur to people to get a helicopter ride for a kid's birthday or spouse, that
it can be a something for a special occasion," said Swanson.
But good things
often come from unexpected places. In the case of Eric Swanson and EasyRotor,
the Internet coupon company Groupon.com came up in conversation to fantastic results.
Groupon offers single day coupons with steep discounts, published online
and sent to subscribers via email or mobile app. Groupon works by using collective buying power. That is, if a retailer can get a large enough group of people to purchase the deal, the company turns a profit, despite the low price. The retailer sets a minimum number of deals that must be bought, and the Groupon only comes to fruition if that number is met. Groupon often works: 22 million Groupons have been sold since the company launched in over 400 markets in 2008.
Groupons typically offer deals on food and drinks, spa services, tickets, apparel and other retail. One of the more unique Groupons, EasyRotor offered a helicopter
ride with up to three passengers for $159.
"Per
person, this is the cheapest deal offered on Groupon for helicopter
deals," Swanson says.
Before going all
into the new services, Swanson first did research into the promotions done
across the country by other helicopter companies, of which there were several,
with various amounts of success.
"One
company in Boston was selling a single class to learn to pilot a helicopter,
and they thought that they would sell a few hundred, signing up 10-20 new
students. They begged Groupon to end the promotion when they had over
2600 people sign up," Swanson says. "These people weren't interested
in learning to fly, they just wanted to go up for a little bit. It went a
little too well for them."
Learning from
that experience, Swanson tailored his Groupon to offer specifically what people were most interested in -- rides.
One of the
strengths of a Groupon promotion is how easy it is to share with social
media or spread through email. Using Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media to spread the word, customers that
were targeted with more traditional marketing to no result responded to Groupon.
"We had
regional airports that we sent stuff to years ago who were emailing and
calling us, telling us that they just found us through Groupon," Swanson says.
In total, Groupon sold 144 rides for EasyRotor, but also dramatically changed their
visibility in the region. According to Swanson, several charities are now in
talks about partnering up to sell rides, with the non-profits getting a
percentage of the fees generated. There are other more custom projects that
have come along as people discover that Easy Rotor exists, and that the
gift of flight is a gift that can be given.
While the
promotion was an unqualified success, there was one distinct snag along the way. Of people signing up on Groupon
for the first time to purchase helicopter rides, several did not note that it
was a single day promotion. This led to many concerned phone calls and
disappointed people contacting EasyRotor, upset that they had missed the promotion. As a result, Swanson has extended the offer longer and
posted it on his website for interested parties.
Motivated by their recent Groupon and social media success, Easy Rotor is now offering passengers a
cockpit cam shooting HD video of customers' rides that can be posted on Facebook
or Youtube, and images that can be captured and shared. In this new
social marketing environment, content is king, and will help create happy
customers, share the message of flight and continue growing the EasyRotor
brand.
"Our
visibility keeps on getting better," Swanson concludes. "We've
crossed a critical threshold of awareness."
Adam Bird is a photographer and writer who makes pictures that tell
stories, writes stories that share pictures and who is insatiably
curious about how everything works. On twitter, @AdamBirdPhoto, or on Facebook.
Photos:
Eric A.Swanson
(3)
Aerial views of West Michigan (5)
Photographs by
Brian Kelly -All Rights reserved