Planning and delivering high-end branding for the next 30 years. And beyond.

Lufthansa experienced substantial growth and transformation, becoming one of the world’s leading airlines.

Awarded as a five-star airline in 2017, Lufthansa was already positioned among the few leaders in the premium sector, reflecting an emphasis on service quality and innovation.

‘On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the crane, every detail of the Lufthansa brand was reworked — to meet requirements of the digital age. The new Lufthansa appearance gives the individual elements a new, modern quality to sharpen their impact. The designers found great importance in taking up the unique design tradition of the Lufthansa brand and leading it into the future.’ – Lufthansa, 2018

The challenge

The ad agency DDB and Lufthansa hired Marcus Podorf to interim-lead transition, interpretation and implementation for the new brand identity across its digital touch points and the below-the-line marketing activities. Each plane of the Lufthansa fleet alone consists of approx. 50,000 brand-relevant elements; not including the multiple Lufthansa Lounges and physical touch points around the globe.

Just 9 months before the launch in February 2018, the agency group won the account – with almost no people aboard, individually ready for a massive brand transformation journey. Lufthansa’s ‘New Premium’ brand refresh was already planned for 3 years at this point.

When Marcus Podorf provided expertise and leadership in the transition for 10 months in 2017 and 2018, DDB built and set up a team of around ±50 members in parallel, fully dedicated to the brand, its global work, and with a scope of around 1,000 tasks to be planned and delivered in the weeks ahead to make the new premium brand refresh a full success.

The solution

Marcus Podorf’s work included the establishment of key performance indicators for the development, requirements, and management of all related projects, too, without compromising the goals and profit of the organization. A brand is a core equity of a company — and a refresh is a huge investment.

The full scope of work covered brand and digital strategies, platform concepts, the unique Lufthansa tone of voice, crucial CRM activities, new contents, a new imaginary language, culture change and an additional transformation process for the Lufthansa Group Airlines as the holding company of Lufthansa.

Overall impact

The new Lufthansa brand was launched on 07 Feb 2018.

Over the following years, Lufthansa and the Lufthansa Group strengthened their leadership position in the premium airline and aviation industry, revenue peaked at an all-time high in 2023.

Responsibilities

Senior Advisory
Leadership for brand and integrated marketing excellence
Collaboration with Lufthansa and Lufthansa Group agencies (e.g. Martin et Karczinski, Kolle Rebbe and Valtech)
Budgeting, scoping and team planning for UX/UI, CRM and BTL redesign
Tone of voice for the Lufthansa airline and the Lufthansa Group Airlines division
Building the new Lufthansa service, product, destination and CGI imagery pool with ±10,000 images
Guideline development (integrated CD/CI, styleguides, imagery) for digital and BTL measures
Know-how building and brand knowledge transfer
Continuous documentation

Scope of work

Delivered in 2017/18
10-12 months project TAT

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