Watch: United takes playful new tone with 'Big Metal Bird' videos

Ever wonder how an airline chooses a new destination? Or about what goes on behind the scenes after you check your bag?

Those topics anchor the first two episodes of Big Metal Bird, a new series of short videos that takes a behind-the-scenes look at one of the USA’s biggest carriers.

The segments – about 3 to 4 minutes in length – are part of a new promotional effort by United Airlines. But it’s not the buttoned-down corporate video series you might expect.

UNITED AIRLINES: Get the scoop on the new show Big Metal Bird

Instead, United takes a fun and offbeat approach, borrowing a page from the marketing playbook used successfully by the nation’s upstart low-cost carriers during the past decade.

Starring Fox Sports 1 personality Katie Nolan, Big Metal Bird strikes a playful and irreverent tone while trying to make sense of the airline’s complex operations.

In Episode 1, a United executive is zipped inside a checked bag as Big Metal Bird examines the luggage process. In Episode 2, host Nolan can’t stop daydreaming about pandas as United explains a new route to the interior of China.

Mark Krolick, United’s Managing Director for Marketing and Product Development at United Airlines, concedes it’s part of a “change in tone” for United.

“It is not a normal United Airlines 30-second television commercial. It is not a well-crafted press release,” he says in an interview with Today in the Sky. Big Metal Bird “doesn’t just talk about all the things that we do well. It talks about how we respond to things when they go wrong.”

Krolick says 10 additional episodes will roll out in the coming months, part of what United hopes will be a “first season” of the series.

There’s certainly an appeal for aviation enthusiasts. But United hopes the “webisodes” will engage both existing customers as well as prospective ones.

“We find people are actually very interested in the aviation business. They’re interested in how airlines operate,” Krolick says, calling Big Metal Bird a “creative, innovative way to get people behind the scenes access to the airline as well as the ability to be entertained while they’re learning it.”

He acknowledges Big Metal Bird is aimed -- at least in part -- at “the next generation of business traveler”: Millennials.

Krolick says the series has been “designed and created in a way that they are much more used to. There’s a level of honesty and transparency that is really required for the Millennial generation to have credibility in the brand.”

But Krolick believes even more seasoned travelers also will find value in Big Metal Bird, saying the series would help “educate even our most-savvy travelers about some of the behind-the-scenes things here at United that they typically don’t have exposure to.”

More broadly, Big Metal Bird comes during a wide-ranging effort by United to reshape its image with customers. New CEO Oscar Munoz, who took over as the airline’s top executive just this past September, has publicly acknowledged a "rocky" run of things for the carrier's customers since it merged with Continental five years ago.

Munoz pledged to renew the airline’s focus on customer service, and the company has unveiled a number of new initiatives since he took over.

Krolick says Big Metal Bird was already in the works when Munoz took over, but adds: “Oscar had a very clear direction for the company, and I think this fits very nicely with his desire to be more customer oriented and innovative.”

Krolick likened the “change in tone” offered in Big Metal Bird to some light-hearted changes the airline has made recently to its in-flight safety videos.

“We don’t have to be so corporate about it. We can actually look like we’re human beings when we’re delivering this message,” Krolick says.

And, now with Big Metal Bird, “this is just another extension in our change in that tone that we are really trying to create for the new United,” he adds.

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