Communication theory based on Aviasales

A metasearch engine that became a cultural reference point.

Aviasales is a Russian metasearch engine for flights and travel deals, founded in 2007. By the mid-2010s it had become the dominant flight aggregator across the CIS market, processing millions of searches per month. Its core product is functional and reliable — but functionality alone does not explain why people follow Aviasales on social media when they have no plans to travel.

Primary audience: 18–28 year-olds. Digital natives who grew up in meme culture, who can detect a corporate tone within three seconds, and who will scroll past anything that doesn’t feel real. For them, authenticity is not a preference — it is a filter.

Secondary audience: budget-conscious travelers of all ages who use Aviasales as a tool. Even they eventually get pulled into the brand’s orbit — because the brand doesn’t act like a tool.

Tone of voice as a competitive advantage.

Most flight aggregators compete on price algorithms, load speed, and UX. Aviasales competes on personality. Their tone is: sarcastic, self-aware, borderline rude, deeply fluent in internet culture. They swear in captions. They mock their own users. They reply to every comment — not with a customer service script, but with something that makes the next person laugh too.

This is not an accident. It is a deliberate and sustained strategy that has been built over years of consistent, risky communication.

This project applies two communication theories to Aviasales' brand strategy. The analysis uses visual evidence: screenshots from social medias and brand collaboration materials.

*belongs to Meta, an organization recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation.

15 seconds to make you feel something.

Aviasales' TikTok is fast, absurd, and built on one rule: never be boring. A typical video opens with funny sound and absurd text or video. There is no price comparison. No feature highlight. Just a punchline that makes you share it.

But the real performance happens in the comments. Aviasales replies to virtually everything. Not with templates — with jokes. The comment section becomes a show in itself, and users come back not to ask questions, but to see what the brand says next.

When a user attacks the brand, Aviasales does not delete the comment or issue an apology. It fires back with something absurd — and defuses the anger into laughter. Fans observe this and learn: aggression from Aviasales is intimacy. The brand treats them like friends who can handle a joke, not customers who need to be managed.

Most brands would take the safe path. Aviasales doubles down — and its fans defend them for it.

The Be Free × Aviasales collection is pure lifestyle positioning. It is not about flights. It is about identity. Buying a piece from this drop signals membership in a community of people who share a specific sense of humor and self-awareness. The brand is no longer a utility. It is a cultural reference.

Aviasales operates almost exclusively on the peripheral route. Their content does not argue that they have the cheapest flights. It makes you feel good about the brand — and that feeling does the persuasion later, quietly, when you open a browser to search for tickets.

ELM predicts that peripheral processing is especially effective when the audience has low motivation to think carefully. Most people booking a budget flight do not compare cost-per-mile across six platforms. They go somewhere familiar, somewhere that feels comfortable.

Aviasales spends years building that comfort through peripheral cues — humor, absurdity, scarcity, cultural relevance — so that when the moment of decision arrives, the brand surfaces effortlessly.

Kent & Taylor argued that organizations should build genuine dialogue with their publics — not just broadcast at them. Their framework includes five principles. Aviasales practices all five — most visibly: risk and commitment.

Kent & Taylor identified specific features that enable genuine online dialogue. The most critical: the dialogic loop — the ability to query the organization and receive a real response. Most brands have a loop in theory. Aviasales runs theirs at full speed: real replies, real humor, real time.

Users no longer come just to ask questions. They come to see what the brand will say next. The comment section becomes appointment viewing — a form of entertainment the brand creates for free, every day.

ELM (peripheral cues)

Captures attention and creates positive brand attitude — without requiring the audience to think. Works at the point of encounter: the scroll, the video, the meme.

Dialogic Theory (genuine two-way communication)

Converts that positive attitude into a lasting relationship — through consistency, risk-taking, and mutual respect. Works at the point of loyalty: the return visit, the merch purchase, the comment left not as a question but as participation.

ELM mechanism

In 2024, Aviasales placed stickers inside airport bathroom stalls with messages like «Finally, we are alone». This is pure peripheral‑route persuasion. The audience is in a state of low elaboration likelihood — tired, distracted, unable to process rational arguments. Aviasales activates peripheral cues:

• Contextual incongruity
• Positive affect through humor
• Low‑involvement processing
• No central‑route arguments about prices

Dialogic mechanism

Mutuality: The brand speaks to the user as an equal — not a complaint ticket to be processed. Propinquity: The reply is near-instant. Risk: The joke could land wrong. They post it anyway. Dialogic loop: User comments → brand responds → user returns to see what happens next. The loop is not just open — it is entertaining.

You recognize Aviasales before you see the logo.

Same blue. Same tone. Same willingness to be weird. Across every platform, the brand is recognizably itself — even without the logo visible.

ELM: Familiarity is a peripheral cue. The audience’s brain categorizes Aviasales as «the funny travel brand» — a positive label attached effortlessly, through repetition.

Dialogic: Consistency is commitment — Kent & Taylor’s fifth principle. It signals to the audience: we are the same entity in every room you find us in. That reliability is the silent foundation of trust.

Is it working? Spectacularly.

Attempting to replicate Aviasales' tone without their history is dangerous. The audience tolerates — even celebrates — Aviasales' edge because years of genuine interaction have built enough trust to absorb the risk. A brand that starts swearing in comment sections next week, without that foundation, will read as forced. Authenticity, paradoxically, cannot be performed. It has to be earned. Dialogic Theory explains why: trust is built through sustained commitment over time, not through a single viral moment.