SOURCE: Miami Herald http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8429913.htm?1c Airlines Take Off with Offbeat Ads By Ted Jackovics, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Apr. 13--TAMPA, Fla. - SkyHigh Airlines says it has a deal for you, even though it offers just bench seats and cargo class. If you log onto www.skyhighairlines.com, you can plan a trip from Rattlesnake, Fla., to Presque Isle, Maine, for $3,636.40. The journey would take 27 hours and 56 minutes and require changing planes in Juan Tomas, N.M., and Curry, Texas. Making connections could be tricky, so SkyHigh advises passengers to hail a cart at each terminal and ask the driver to "floor it." Sound preposterous? It is. The nonexistent SkyHigh Airlines and the Web site are part of an offbeat marketing campaign created by Alaska Airlines. The airline's marketing gimmick is aimed at poking fun at competitors and inferior service, but it's also part of a larger trend in the airline industry. Increasingly, airlines are embracing unconventional marketing strategies that elicit laughs or raised eyebrows to help them stand out while keeping advertising costs in check. The trend comes at a time when many airlines are pursuing a low-fare, if not a low- cost, approach to doing business. Some label these offbeat marketing initiatives as "underground marketing," which uses nontraditional media to get the word out, or "guerrilla marketing," a broad term in the advertising world that involves building brand awareness through an event meant to shock or surprise to get people talking. Recent examples: JetBlue crews tossing oranges to commuters at New York's Grand Central Station to promote the airline's flights to Florida, and Ted airline's getting a farmer to let it cut the word "Ted" into a wheat field near the Denver airport to make it seem as though it had appeared mysteriously. Other airlines are using offbeat ads on traditional media, such as television, to stir up consumer awareness. Frontier Airlines, for example, is running a series of funny TV ads featuring the animals painted on the tails of its planes. Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said the TV ads paid off by raising brand awareness in the airline's hometown of Denver to 90 percent from 40 percent. "What we do is not underground marketing, but it definitely emphasizes word-of- mouth," Hodas said. The advertising program was so successful the airline is expanding it to national cable TV programming. It's appearing in places such as Tampa, where Frontier competes with mainstay United Airlines. "Airlines want people to catch on to something in a way they can use a small budget to maximize exposure," said Carol Osborne, visiting instructor in the University of South Florida's college of business administration. Keeping marketing costs in check is one strategy the industry, which Wall Street analysts predict will rack up more than $2.2 billion in losses in 2004, is using to stay alive. The marketing trend also is driven, in part, by airlines needing to distinguish themselves from one another beyond ticket prices. Many airlines match competitor ticket prices on advance sales. "I think you are seeing a trend in the advertising industry and marketing in general to take a more creative and economic approach to reach the customer base," said Jerry Dow, managing director of worldwide marketing communications for United Airlines. United wanted to keep costs in check late last year when it launched its low-fare affiliate, Ted. It also wanted to give Ted a personality of its own. United, not known for innovation, concocted a marketing campaign in Denver to spread the word about Ted without letting on that it was an airline campaign, Dow said. That campaign included leaving 200 pumpkins with the word Ted on them around Denver, and sending marketing people out to buy Denver residents coffee and lunch. Even though a local reporter eventually scooped the airline's schedule for revealing its identity, United created a brand awareness in nine days for $85,000, Dow said. If the airline had tried traditional marketing to create a national brand, it would have cost millions, Dow said. Competitors contend Ted is the same old United with cosmetic changes. However, Ted continues its offbeat marketing strategy, recently launching service in Washington with Ted motorcades circling the Capitol and Ted crews rowing the Potomac River. An interesting example of conventional marketing with a twist, say industry experts, is Southwest Airlines agreeing to participate in the TV series "Airline," broadcast on the A&E cable network. The series aims to show how airline workers interact with passengers, from harried executives to screaming children. Some experts think Southwest took a big risk in letting film crews document their workers. The airline, which has made a name for itself by being unconventional, believes it is getting broad exposure for the airline for virtually no advertising cost. Southwest recently agreed to a second season of "Airline," which films employees grappling with problems such as a passenger who soiled himself to infants' parents battling for free fares. Like other unconventional programs, the payoff is difficult to measure because so many variables play into customer purchasing decisions, Southwest spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said. However, Southwest said it has received three times its normal number of job applications since the "Airlines" segments were aired. In a similar vein, Song Airlines President John Selvaggio spent a week in front of TLC (The Learning Channel) cameras that show him loading baggage and connecting an aircraft's waste system to a lavatory truck as part of the TV series "Now Who's Boss." "Clearly their public relations and marketing people weighed the risks," said Brian Eley, spokesman for TLC. "But it provides an opportunity to show the CEO is human. You could tell from his facial expressions that Selvaggio was having some hard times, but he was not hating it." Though risky, the Southwest and Song cable TV programs rate as conventional public relations efforts, marketing executives contend. JetBlue and Alaska Airlines efforts, however, are known as guerrilla marketing proponents. "We don't take the guerrilla marketing term too seriously, but we do try to put a human face on it and do the unexpected," said Gareth Edmondson- Jones, JetBlue vice president of corporate communications. JetBlue's guerrilla marketing got its start in 2001 when it realized establishing service in Long Beach, Calif., would be challenging, based on the airport's troubled history and pricey Los Angeles advertising. So JetBlue painted nine Volkswagen Beetles blue, loaded them with volunteer pilots, flight attendants and technical crews, and dispatched them around town and to the beaches, where they tossed out JetBlue Frisbees. "Guerilla marketing extends our advertising budget," Edmondson-Jones said. Alaska Airlines, which operates in places where it is overshadowed such as Orlando and Miami, uses conventional advertising it extends through Internet buzz. "The Fly SkyHigh Airlines site is off the wall, and has gotten hits from around the world," said Greg Witter, Alaska Airlines managing director of strategic and corporate communications. "And we have never promoted it." -- David Mueller / MRY dmueller7@xxxxxxxxx http://www.quanterium.com