Repositioning Airlift: From Mass Transit to 30-Minute Delivery
How I repositioned Airlift from mass transit to 30-minute delivery and took it into a new market.
Campaigns are shown as they ran at the time.
In March 2020, COVID shut down public transport in Pakistan. Airlift's buses stopped overnight, along with the 50,000 riders who used them every day.
As product marketing manager, I owned the repositioning and go-to-market for Airlift's move from mass transit to quick commerce.
I led a team of about 30 across paid social, in-app, OOH, influencers and PR. I set the new positioning and messaging, segmented launches by customer need and localized the GTM for South Africa.
Airlift Express went live in two months and grew to 10,000+ daily orders and 1M+ downloads.
One product, three value propositions.
“Revolutionizing mass transit.”
Mass transit · Pakistan
“30 minutes delivery.”
Quick commerce · Pakistan
“Makes life easier.”
Quick commerce · South Africa
A better commute
Airlift launched in 2019 to build the world's first decentralized mass transit system. Riders booked a seat in the app, boarded at a fixed stop and got off at their own drop-off.
I wrote the first positioning and messaging guide. I positioned the product on purpose as well as convenience. One Airlift bus could take up to 21 cars off the road, so every ride came with a greener, calmer city.
Keep the name, change the promise
The problem
COVID stopped the buses. Customer trust in the Airlift name survived, but the value proposition was gone.
What I did
I repositioned Airlift from mass transit to quick commerce. I kept the Airlift name and rebuilt the value proposition around one measurable promise: everything delivered in 30 minutes. I worked with the product team on the in-app copy so the app made the same 30-minute promise as the ads.
Speak the customer's language
The problem
Formal English messaging created distance with our core audience.
What I did
I built the messaging in Roman Urdu, the way customers text. “Download the app aur order karo” (download the app and order). “Ab grocery ghar mangwao” (now get your groceries delivered home). I ran Roman Urdu against English and mixed the two by audience and channel.
Roman Urdu outperformed English-only creative, so it became a core part of the messaging mix.
Launch by customer need
The problem
“Pharmacy” was too broad to market. Customers shop by need, not by category.
What I did
I segmented the pharmacy launch by need, like heart and BP, cough and cold or vitamins, with its own message for each segment. One promo code, PHARMA100, ran across every segment, and free delivery lowered the barrier to first purchase.
Localize for a new market
The problem
After the $85M raise, Airlift entered South Africa. The value proposition had to travel, but the offer had to feel local.
What I did
I led GTM and localization for the launch. I kept the core value proposition, 30-minute delivery, and localized everything around it: the tagline, the creative, pricing in rand and an R50 acquisition offer backed by a referral program.
What it added up to.
Growth and trust move at different speeds.
Airlift shut down in July 2022. When acquisition outruns the trust you've built, the positioning can't hold.
The trust built early made the repositioning work. Growth that outran it is what hurt us.