So, advertising in coach isn'e enough. More greed leads the company to start advertising on First class trays. See below.
By Joe Sharkey, New York Times
Coach tray tables in US Airways planes have carried advertising for a couple of years. After US Airways merged with America West in late 2005, tray tables at coach seats in about 350 airplanes had ads.
Initial worries that such advertising would annoy passengers have been allayed, the airline and its advertising partner say. Research indicates that more passengers than expected like and retain messages from tray-table advertising, they say.
Brand Connections, the New York marketing company that provides the ads for US Airways, plans to expand them to first-class seats this spring.
Travis Christ, the airline's marketing vice president, said ads in first class will create "540,000 new tray-table opportunities per month," in addition to the 6 million now available each month in coach seats.
Many airlines use advertising, but so far only US Airways does so on something as in-your-face as a tray table. Airlines, though, are increasingly placing ads on napkins, ticket jacket folders and even air-sickness bags. In Europe and Asia, some small airlines put ads on overhead bins, and a few even have big ads painted on fuselages.
Airlines in the United States have been watching the US Airways experiment carefully, said Brian Martin, the 34-year-old founder and CEO of Brand Connections, which also does advertising and brand promotion in hotel rooms and at outdoor sports sites such as ski resorts and golf driving ranges.
Thirty-five percent of airline travelers have household incomes over $100,000 a year, nearly double the percentage of the population in general. And passengers on a domestic flight are a captive audience for an average of two and a half hours. Even hard-charging Type A business travelers eventually put aside the laptop or spreadsheets and "chill," Martin said.
About six months ago, Brand Connections bought a small company, Sky Media, which had the exclusive North American patent for "wrapping a tray table" with a heavy laminated ad. Sky Media had the contract with US Airways.
Martin said Brand Connections was talking with other domestic airlines about the tray-table ads.
He and US Airways say the ads have generated overwhelmingly positive reaction, primarily because they are all creatively designed to convey information, often with lots of words rather than the heavily attention-seeking graphics associated with magazines. Clients have included Mercedes-Benz, Bose, Microsoft, Bank of America, Verizon and several national consumer products.
As the ads migrate to the premium seats, many will probably be especially designed for first class, "geared to reaching executives who can pull the trigger" on corporate purchases, Martin said. He said he expected in-flight ads to be integrated into larger campaigns reaching into hotel rooms and airports, sometimes linked to promotional offers and products.
I asked him how far this could go, meaning a captive audience is not just exposed to tray tables -- the whole airplane can be seen as a billboard. And subway cars have been festooned with overhead ads since Teddy Roosevelt was president.
"We would draw the line at things like ads on overhead bins," Christ said.
By Joe Sharkey, New York Times
Coach tray tables in US Airways planes have carried advertising for a couple of years. After US Airways merged with America West in late 2005, tray tables at coach seats in about 350 airplanes had ads.
Initial worries that such advertising would annoy passengers have been allayed, the airline and its advertising partner say. Research indicates that more passengers than expected like and retain messages from tray-table advertising, they say.
Brand Connections, the New York marketing company that provides the ads for US Airways, plans to expand them to first-class seats this spring.
Travis Christ, the airline's marketing vice president, said ads in first class will create "540,000 new tray-table opportunities per month," in addition to the 6 million now available each month in coach seats.
Many airlines use advertising, but so far only US Airways does so on something as in-your-face as a tray table. Airlines, though, are increasingly placing ads on napkins, ticket jacket folders and even air-sickness bags. In Europe and Asia, some small airlines put ads on overhead bins, and a few even have big ads painted on fuselages.
Airlines in the United States have been watching the US Airways experiment carefully, said Brian Martin, the 34-year-old founder and CEO of Brand Connections, which also does advertising and brand promotion in hotel rooms and at outdoor sports sites such as ski resorts and golf driving ranges.
Thirty-five percent of airline travelers have household incomes over $100,000 a year, nearly double the percentage of the population in general. And passengers on a domestic flight are a captive audience for an average of two and a half hours. Even hard-charging Type A business travelers eventually put aside the laptop or spreadsheets and "chill," Martin said.
About six months ago, Brand Connections bought a small company, Sky Media, which had the exclusive North American patent for "wrapping a tray table" with a heavy laminated ad. Sky Media had the contract with US Airways.
Martin said Brand Connections was talking with other domestic airlines about the tray-table ads.
He and US Airways say the ads have generated overwhelmingly positive reaction, primarily because they are all creatively designed to convey information, often with lots of words rather than the heavily attention-seeking graphics associated with magazines. Clients have included Mercedes-Benz, Bose, Microsoft, Bank of America, Verizon and several national consumer products.
As the ads migrate to the premium seats, many will probably be especially designed for first class, "geared to reaching executives who can pull the trigger" on corporate purchases, Martin said. He said he expected in-flight ads to be integrated into larger campaigns reaching into hotel rooms and airports, sometimes linked to promotional offers and products.
I asked him how far this could go, meaning a captive audience is not just exposed to tray tables -- the whole airplane can be seen as a billboard. And subway cars have been festooned with overhead ads since Teddy Roosevelt was president.
"We would draw the line at things like ads on overhead bins," Christ said.
I'm sure you've got a large paycheck coming your way soon for all the hard work you've accomplished.
