Even More Airline Advertising

A quick follow-up to Wednesday’s post on airline ads. What the heck, why not just paint the whole airplane?

On Ideoblog, Larry Ribstein’s posted a picture of a plane he rode, emblazoned with the Highland Park distillery logo. Apparently, if you ask they’ll give you a small bottle of whiskey.Here’s hoping the pilot wasn’t partaking…

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Fly the Cluttered Skies

If you’ve been thinking that there are just too many messages coming at you from every direction… and you should just jump on a plane to get away from it all… think again.

  Assuming that your airline hasn’t just laid off the flight crew, here are a few things you can expect:

  According to the Wall Street Journal, five different airlines will be selling advertising on your boarding pass, courtesy of a marketing company called Sojern, Inc. “Sojern says the online check-in process will remain essentially the same until the boarding pass appears on a computer screen. Then the traveler will be able to click on the various ads and suggestions. When travelers print their boarding passes, the ads will automatically be printed, too. Fliers can, however, click a box to prevent the ads from being printed.”

  The New York Times tells us that US Airways “offers advertisers spots on ticket jackets, cocktail napkins and even air-sickness bags, [and] has, until recently, been one of the few airlines running tray-table ads.” More airlines are considering the tray-table ad idea. Meanwhile, the Times reports, JetBlue is selling advertising on the screens of their seat-back TV’s. (Thank you to Deborah Brody for the tip).

  USA Today reports that the baggage carousels at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport will have advertising on the conveyor belts. According to the article, “the baggage carousel provides advertisers a captive audience of travelers who ‘wait 15-plus minutes for their luggage to arrive,’ says Tracy Zwahlen of DoubleTake Marketing, which is selling and producing the ads.”

 Enjoy your trip.

 

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Advertising Rule Of The Day: Get The Details Right

A couple of weeks ago a Portland radio station ran commercials for four straight days for an auto dealer — and got the name of the store wrong. This past weekend, another Portland radio station ran an entire weekend’s worth of commercials for a financial advisor — with incorrect contact information.

The good news, from my perspective, is that neither I nor my stations were involved in either campaign, and I got to be the one who pointed the mistakes out to the clients. But I can still remember the day several years ago that a remodeler called to say he’d appreciate it if we got his phone number right the next time we recorded a commercial for him.

The lesson, for all of us — read it before you record it. Listen to it before you air it. As the carpenters say, measure twice, cut once.

Details matter.

 

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What’s Wrong With This Promotion?

Driving to the office today, I heard a radio ad for a local X-Rated merchandise establishment — Fantasy for Adults Only. They are having a Tent Sale. And like every good tent sale, free hot dogs will be served.

Would you eat a hot dog at an adult shop?

 

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“We Had A Really Nice Ad”

I subscribe to Roy Williams‘ view that campaigns rarely fail because they use the wrong medium; they fail because they deliver the wrong message. But it’s an uphill battle — one of the most common objections an advertising salesperson hears is “We tried [name of medium here] and it didn’t work.”

The other day a jewelry store owner told me he wasn’t interested in meeting with me because “we tried radio once and it didn’t work. We had a really nice ad, and it didn’t bring us any business.”

If it didn’t bring you any business, I asked, what made it a really nice ad?

“Several people called us,” he replied, “and asked where they could buy the music.”

The most depressing part of the conversation is that he delivered the line completely without irony. Someone in my profession convinced him to spend good money on a campaign whose most memorable feature was the music.

Years later, this business owner still believes that this ineffective commercial is how a jewelry store radio ad is supposed to sound. And that — Tom Shane and Woody Justice notwithstanding — radio won’t work for his store.

If he’d been willing to meet with me, I might have showed him what a really, really nice ad sounded like. An ad that sells jewelry, not music.

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