This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx Major Airlines Increase Advertising April 2, 2003 By STUART ELLIOTT IRLINES are slowly beginning to step up advertising despite the war, because the war may be the least of their problems. The slowdown in air travel since the war against Iraq began is only one difficulty confronting the airline industry, which is suffering through what is widely considered the worst time in its history. Advance domestic bookings have fallen 20 percent from a year ago, according to the Air Transport Association. That has left the supply of seats far above demand, which has been cut by the stagnant economy, the threat of terrorist acts, concerns about the financial health of many large carriers and now the war. And to add illness to injury, there are increasing worries that air travel is helping spread a mysterious pneumonia-like disease, which led California officials yesterday to quarantine an American Airlines plane arriving at San Jose International Airport from Tokyo. The additional ads in the last few days, from online sellers of airline tickets as well as the carriers themselves, reflect the industry's perilous condition. There is a widespread perception that, as the saying goes, in good times you should advertise, but in bad times you must. "The war is having enough of a suppressing effect on bookings and traffic that we didn't need to compound it by making ourselves invisible," said David Messing, a spokesman for Continental Airlines in Houston, so the airline decided to continue "with our regular activities." "We want travelers and potential travelers to know we're ready when they are," Mr. Messing said, unintentionally echoing an old slogan of a competitor, Delta Air Lines. The Continental efforts include print and outdoor ads by the Kaplan Thaler Group in New York, part of the Publicis Groupe, which carry a theme that seems particularly appropriate: "Work Hard. Fly Right." At Delta, "because the war was slow-building, we developed a war contingency plan," said Carter Etherington, United States manager for marketing communications. The plan included television, radio and print ads in regional markets like Atlanta, Boston and New York. "The majority of our advertising is geared toward how Delta is making travel safer, more efficient and more enjoyable," Mr. Etherington said, "and especially in New York, we're touting security and technology." "If we were to stop our advertising, it would be a knee-jerk reaction," he added, "rather than to show support of the United States and the economy" by trying to stimulate business. At Orbitz, the online ticket broker owned by a consortium of major carriers, "We started to see a definite decline in demand, especially in international travel, a couple of days before the war started, so we decided to pull back some marketing support," said Michael Sands, the chief marketing officer, in Chicago. Those cutbacks included newspaper ads and so-called pop-under ads on Web sites, he said. "But now we see demand as coming back, so we're going to be aggressive in advertising," Mr. Sands said. "It's hard to countervail the American people's desire to travel, and people want to book their summer travel plans, particularly for early summer." The pop-under ads on news Web sites, which were eliminated because "it would not have been appropriate to be there in the early stages of the war," he said, are returning this week; some came back yesterday. That sensitivity to the national mood is prevalent throughout the industry. "We may be taking a much closer look at consumer perceptions, hour by hour, so to speak, instead of day by day," said Eric Webber, a vice president at GSD&M in Austin, Tex., the Omnicom Group agency that has long created campaigns for Southwest Airlines. "So far we're moving ahead and aren't making any changes," Mr. Webber said, other than "moving away our commercials from some news programming" after the war started. "In fact, we just shot six new spots in the last couple weeks," he said. Another low-fare carrier, JetBlue Airways, also filmed commercials in the last two weeks. "JetBlue went off the air for 48 hours after the war started, then went back on with a regular schedule," said Brian Flatow, senior vice president at the Ad Store in New York, the JetBlue agency. The new spots will be in the same humorous vein that has characterized the Ad Store's work for JetBlue, Mr. Flatow said, because "we feel our message is positive and uplifting." One commercial, meant to show "that you come off a JetBlue plane a happier person," he added, presents vignettes that include "3-year-old twins pushing their mom in a stroller and a dog kissing a cat." Another carrier known for humorous campaigns is Virgin Atlantic Airways, part of the Virgin Group. Virgin Atlantic has continued its lighthearted pitches in "below-the-line channels like e-mail marketing, the Web and public relations, the sharpest tool in our marketing drawer," said John Riordan, the vice president for marketing in North America, in Norwalk, Conn. Virgin Atlantic has not been running the more costly television and print ads, Mr. Riordan said, because the company is conducting a review for its creative and media account, with billings estimated at $12 million to $15 million. "We have to balance market stimulation with cash conservation," he added. "We will choose the right time to get back in, and get back in we will." Also husbanding its resources is US Airways, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. The carrier is going ahead with limited ad plans, said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the US Airways Group in Arlington, Va. Those include e-mail marketing and newsletters for members of the US Airways frequent-flier program, called Dividend Miles. As US Airways emerged from bankruptcy, American Airlines, the unit of the AMR Corporation that is the world's largest carrier, reached tentative concession agreements with three major unions, helping avert a bankruptcy filing. American "put advertising on hiatus," said Tim Kincaid, a spokesman, "to monitor how things evolved," and plans "to resume sometime in mid-April." United Airlines, part of the UAL Corporation, has primarily been communicating with customers through e-mail, though it is also moving ahead with ads to which it has made long-term commitments. "Right now, we're somewhere between not running ads and needing to drive revenue by starting to get butts into the seats," said Alex Leikikh, worldwide account director on the United account at the carrier's agency, Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis, part of Publicis. "We're monitoring this on a daily basis, and we plan a meeting with the client this week to figure it out." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/02/business/media/02ADCO.html?ex=1050295310&ei=1&en=66e3f9beefe97854 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company