RyanAir: A Brand Doesn’t Require Influencers? ✈️

Hey!

I’ve landed up in your inbox with yet another edition of Morning Rush. 🛬

Which other brand can pull off ‘Catch flights, not feelings’ on their Instagram bio?

Perhaps only Ryanair, AKA Europe’s no.1 budget airline apparently. 🫢

Ryanair's marketing playbook is anything but conventional.

From controversial advertisements to cheeky social media campaigns, the Irish low-cost carrier has consistently made headlines for its bold approach.

Unlike other airlines that focus on glamour and luxury, they’ve built the brand on the promise of affordable travel for the masses.

But can it really be said that it doesn’t require influencers to promote it?

Let’s discuss.

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The Game of Tones

While we can be quick to assume that Ryanair is yet another brand trying their hand at an ‘unhinged’ tone of voice, their head of social and creative, Michael Corocan says:

Michael is almost trying to tell us that they’ve ‘earned’ the right to do social the way they do it because of the brand’s ethos and beliefs.

Other marketers and creators have started to observe this too.

That has only added more fuel to fire for them to pull off passenger roasts. Passengers/users want to get roasted because they trust the brand to come up with some zingers.

And they always deliver.

Read: Ryanair Is the Only Genuinely Funny Airline on TikTok

But wait, what about influencers? Do they have a (middle) seat at Ryanair’s marketing table?

Not really.

Why Ryanair Doesn't Need Influencers

Here's three reasons why I think the brand doesn’t really require influencer marketing:

Notice how celebrities, who’re often used as symbols of the ‘high-flying class’, are often the butt of the jokes with Ryanair’s social team.

The New York Times wrote a splendid article on how brands started to develop a ‘funny persona’ in the late 2010s because they wanted to emulate influencers, who clearly had a better grip on the audience than the brands who had a more simple and ‘uncontroversial’ tone of voice.

Many brands have tried, many have failed. But Ryanair’s marketing continues to make us chuckle from time to time. Without ever relying on anyone else to lean on.

So I don’t think Ryanair should really worry about working with influencers anytime soon.

What are your thoughts?

I’d love to hear them @shreevz or @tf_dao on X!

That’s it for this week! We’ll be back with another story next Tuesday. 👋🏼

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