Airlines as marketing venues?

When a major world airline loses more than £100 million in a quarter, naturally it starts to think of new ways to raise money – such as moving into the advertising business.

There is no evidence so far of any advertising agencies showing the slightest interest in moving into the airline business but BA is now planning to offer advertising slots on its boarding cards, the first major scheduled airline to do so.

This boarding card is brought to you by… Ryan Air? Probably not.

But it does represent an interesting piece of opportunism in difficult times. After all, over the year millions of the little cards containing a well crafted commercial message could be thrust into the hands of ABC1 travellers and they will pay attention for at least a 30-second slot as they check out their seat numbers.

A brief engagement can be almost guaranteed, in the way that advertising on the back of toilet doors in supermarkets or motorway service stations inevitably cuts through the clutter.

There is, unfortunately, a slight problem with the timing of BA’s decision. The best days of boarding card advertising may already be over before it has barely begun. More and more boarding cards are becoming electronic. There is no need at all to see any paper to get on a BMI flight. The necessary information – bar code and seat number – are simply downloaded to iPhones and that display is what is shown to stewards on the way into the plane.

Already we are into a microcosm of the great print – electronic debate. If you are a company advertising on paper boarding cards is there a danger that you are investing in a declining universe? And if you migrate to the electronic version isn’t there the worry that your advertising simply might not have the same impact?

Whether any advertisers show up for BA boarding cards, and there may be some novelty value, the new micro-medium is unlikely to do anything noticeable for the bonus of BA chief executive Willie Walsh.

However, the initiative does focus attention on how important the airline/airport environment is for marketing and advertising.

In these days of personalisation and fragmentation of media the time spent in the clutches of airports and airlines is very valuable indeed for reaching consumers.

The experience may not always be wonderful or stress free but an audience which is more likely than average to be relatively up-market is trapped for significant amounts of time – as all the luxury shops in airports testify.

But you are really, really trapped when you get on-board and susceptible to the marketing messages targeted at you. There are of course other distractions.

Some travellers get drunk, sleep, read books or watch movies but it is also a great environment for reading newspapers. At least until the use of mobile phones and online computers become more prevalent in flight.

Many in the advertising community raise an eyebrow or two at the mention of bulks and fear they are being conned by artificial attempts to boost circulation. In the case of foreign sales where papers can be dumped without any need to prove readership they almost certainly are. With hotel bulks the case is more marginal. The papers are probably picked up but the opportunity for intensive reading is often missing.

With bulks sold to airlines – sold but usually only for pennies – a much stronger case can be made that these papers are not only read but could amount to premium communication. If they are not properly distributed and sit around in unopened bales that amounts to a scam on advertisers too, although that is not my personal experience.

On planes the time is available for a thorough read and newspapers are particularly valuable on return journeys as re-entry aides, bringing you up to speed on what has happened while you are away.

Anyone who has ever travelled by air has seen the eagerness with which such bulks are seized on and virtually shredded by news deprived travellers.

It is slightly surprising therefore that the Guardian and the Observer have dropped bulk sales, including airline bulks. In the past, Guardian executives have defended their bulks of around 10,000 a day on the grounds that it was a low proportion of total sales and represented a genuine marketing opportunity. Certainly their bulk activity was small compared with the Daily Mail‘s 130,000 or the Daily Telegraph‘s 93,000.

The decision will “purify” the Guardian‘s sales and save the company money initially. In the longer run they may have to spend more on other ways of maintaining their presence in the market.

Perhaps the answer is that the Guardian should advertise on BA boarding passes and make sure there are bins of papers in the lounge areas available for purchase – at modest discounts.

Do you agree with Raymond? Send us your opinion – news@mediatel.co.uk