The Importance of Visual Marketing in the Aviation Industry

Aerospace Bristol was just a concept in desperate need of development as well as funding. The future aviation heritage museum had few assets, but needed more to win over investors. The solution was a creative visual marketing campaign, complete with an identity, posters, and more – which not only gave the project weight, but resulted in receiving more than the needed funding and a 30% increase in funding.

Being in a B2B industry, you might assume that your aviation marketing strategies should focus on numbers – performance comparisons, safety statistics, and satisfaction ratings. While this information is valuable, decision-makers are influenced by more than numbers.

Although you’re selling to companies rather than consumers, the buyers are individuals who are more influenced by a combination of information and visuals than text alone. Aviation industry branding campaigns that use visual elements to complement statistics can more effectively reach and engage your target audience. Boeing is yet another example, using dramatic imagery and video to refresh its established brand. By including photos, infographics, and videos, you can improve the results of your marketing efforts by clarifying statistics, emphasizing key information, and introducing a human element.

Clarifying Statistics

Statistics that reflect the benefits and value of your product or service definitely deserve a prominent place in your marketing and branding. By turning this data into visual elements such as attractive charts and graphs, you will make the information significantly more accessible to your target audience. This visual illustration of your statistics will make the advantages of your product or service even clearer than tables full of numbers. By creating a unique style and your company’s branding with these charts and graphics, they can also help set your brand apart from the competition. In their infographic on drones, Aerospace Industries Association effectively combines industry data with their brand colors and style to create a compelling and informative design.

Emphasis Matters

Another way visual branding can boost the results of your aerospace marketing strategies as a B2B brand is by emphasizing key information. The right imagery can make your business values more compelling and memorable when used consistently throughout your marketing campaigns – from your website to social media to print materials. Graphics can also be used to effectively highlight the key points of your longer-form content such as reports, case studies and catalogs. The most important factor to making this visual strategy work for your brand is by using quality imagery that complements the information you wish to share. One example from aviation comes from Qantas Airlines’ tie-in mobile app for their loyalty program. The main screen of the app features the airline’s logo and branding style while using a consistent look and imagery to emphasize the program’s main benefits.

The Human Element

Even when adding visual elements to your aviation industry branding and marketing, it’s important to understand that all imagery is not equally effective. Indeed, visuals that introduce a human element have a much greater impact. It’s much easier to identify with a picture of the engineer who designed a particular airplane part than an image of the plane or the individual part. Even without realizing it, we connect with others on an emotional level, something that doesn’t always happen with photos of objects and landscapes. The more authentic an image is, the more effective it will be, so custom images are usually a much better choice than most stock photography. Atlantic Aviation does an excellent job of employing this technique, with genuine-looking images of people throughout their website and marketing as well as a focus on employees on their website’s “About Atlantic Aviation” page.

Image matters, even for the aviation industry and B2B marketing in general. Creating a visual identity for your brand that clarifies statistics, emphasizes key benefits and employs the human element will make your company more memorable and result in more effective and innovative aerospace marketing.