Halfhearted marketing in the skies
On a recent flight to Washington DC on US Airways, I was unable to fall asleep and searching for something to do. Stupidly I did not bring a book so I was forced to read one of those airline magazines. As I was opening the tray table to hold the magazine, I noticed an ad (see the pic). I'm not sure how long this type of advertising has been around, but I had never seen it before; being an ad junkie I had to spend a few moments to see what was going on. Overall, the image made sense - two guys whose heads were megaphone but the women was content listening to her Sony Noise Canceling Headphones. Nothing revolutionary, but it made the point. And, I was actually interested in trying these out as I was stuck on the flight with nothing else to do (bravo, Sony, for capturing my attention). However, Sony had developed a piece that only teased me: the URL at the end of the ad meant nothing since I would never remember it after I landed, and there were no headphone on the flight itself to try out (honestly, how easy would it have been for Sony to equip all US Air flights with these headphones so passengers could try them?). If Sony was too cheap to outfit the plane with their product, at least give me an easy way to learn more. Don't expect me to remember a website, and don't think that i am going to call an 800 number; however, a mobile component would have been a great option - text blah blah blah to learn more details and we'll send you the URL so you can explore online. None of this seems too hard for marketing and advertising companies to do, yet the fully integrated marketing campaign is still a rarity. And, I'm writing this quickly, so I'm sure there are other ways Sony could have made this even better.
Thoughts?
I'm with you, Jake. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a similar post on outdoor marketing campaigns.
Most print and outdoor ads don't inspire me to take action because what they want me to do is unreasonable.
Most ads want you to:
1. Be into what they're selling.
2. Be enough into it so you pull out a pen/paper.
3. Remember to go to their site later.
It's too much. Give me something immediate.
(Sorry for the duplicate posts, folks! Having some HTML issues here.)
Posted by: Daniel | February 11, 2008 at 09:59 AM
I'm with you, Jake. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a similar post on outdoor marketing campaigns, essentially.
Most print and outdoor ads don't inspire me to take action because what they want me to do is unreasonable.
Most ads want you to:
1. Be into what they're selling.
2. Be enough into it so you pull out a pen/paper.
3. Remember to go to their site later.
It's too much. Give me something immediate.
Posted by: Daniel | February 11, 2008 at 09:56 AM
I'm with you, Jake. I , essentially, a couple of weeks ago. Most print and outdoor ads (what I was kvetching about) don't inspire me to take action because the action they want me to do is unreasonable.
Most ads want you to:
1. Be into what they're selling.
2. Be enough into it so you pull out a pen/paper.
3. Remember to go to their site later.
It's too much. Give me something
Posted by: Daniel | February 11, 2008 at 09:53 AM
Another fine example of Urban Spam.
Posted by: Piers Fawkes | February 11, 2008 at 09:43 AM
I saw one of these tray ads on a different US Airways flight. My reaction was much less courteous. The ad was for some sort of broadband service or something and I found it to be very tacky captive media. No other airline to my knowledge is doing these tray wraps.
I suppose the next step will be to put ads on the underside of the tray so that when your tray is up you are forced to see an ad for hours!
Posted by: sean miller | February 10, 2008 at 10:43 PM