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Abstract
This document seeks to point out several patterns and movements over the art of the last five years of advertisement for American Airlines.
American Airline’s media mix
For a legacy airline in the first decade of the 20 hundreds American Airlines had already drifted with the rest of its industry through all the other larger movements in advertising across the preceding decades.
After 9/11 (2001) the industry found itself having to spend considerable time and resources reassuring the general public in the midst of having to integrate a complicated and evolving set of security relationships. By 2006, enough dust had settled that it could get back to the business at hand of communicating its brand (American Airlines Post 9-11 Ad Campaign (Part 1), 2010)(American Airlines Post 9-11 Ad Campaign (Part 2), 2010).
However, while it had never taken its eye off the ball of needing to become ever more tech-savvy (Orbitz was born in 2001), relationship sales (a new plateau in the evolution of sales technology in general) had meanwhile merged with technology. It was no longer enough to collaborate with the other consequential airlines and put up a muscular website where the consumer could feel empowered making their own purchasing decisions. Forums and blogs were having a growing impact. Social media sites were having their own impact. MySpace outdid Friendster, eventually out done by Facebook. Soon others would want a piece of the online voice, and hybrids were born (four square, delicious, LinkedIn), and we would soon “tweet”. Social media now commanded everyone's attention.
Among the initial questions (in relationship to social media) would necessarily include where to have a presence, how to have a presence... what worked and what did not. GRPs (gross reach points) and TRPs (targeted reach points) became bandied about. Consulting organizations, such as Search Engine Marketing Association (SEM), International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and Keynote Systems (NASDAQ:KEYN; a global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring) were all weighed. In short order American Airlines had several Facebook fan pages (the main page, and a pair of specialty pages), a Twitter account, its own channel on YouTube and a series of its own apps for the open mobile platform Android (American Airlines, 2011)(Plummer, Rappaport, Hall, & Barocci , 2007).
Meanwhile, part of the fallout of all this intimacy is that whatever had been one enormous market was now unpacked. In its own corporate website (and elsewhere), among its advertising and media self reference pages, we find that it now has advertising specific for the “General Market, African American, Asian, Hispanic, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Advertising and Promotional Requests (AA/Komen Partnership, Disabilities, etc.)” (American Airlines, 2011)(Lazare, 2010)(WebMediaBrands Inc., 2009).
It appears American Airlines is rather thorough in finding and speaking to these niche markets. After all, if you speak to all of the niche markets it is “just another way” of speaking to everyone (as they once did). In one of its more recent ad campaigns American Airlines targets and/or celebrates America's men and women in uniform. This author confesses literally being moved to tears by the sheer dignity of these two ads (American Airlines commercial ’Putting Them First’, 2010)(American Airlines commercial ’Thank You’ , 2010).
Impact of Changes in Media
Categories continue to include print, outdoor, interactive and TV, yet dollars shifted from television and put into online media. Perhaps the most unfortunate constant throughout this new decade for this industry has been the nagging, consistently thin margins. In a recent paper, Price Satisfaction is Most Important Aspect of Overall Customer Experience for Online Air Travel Sites - Latest Research from Keynote Systems Reveals, the consumers literal bottom line is pounded home once again.
Concluding thoughts
American Airlines has a corporate DNA that indeed leaks into its branding and other advertising communications. The magnificent 9/11 pieces, with the Enya-like music, seems so noble. The mini documentary acknowledging its efforts in the wake of the Haiti earthquake (January 12, 2010) maintain humility by being straightforward. In addition, this author has already told on himself as regards the recent elegant armed service related ads. All this continues to speak well for a company constantly running after the business-class demographic.
Yet it has other seats to fill, and the cheap seats usually connect with a different message. About the same time as the recent military associated ads, the other twin campaign came out. It spins the creepy tagline “We know why you fly” to an omniscience. Unfortunately, we are talking white bread here (American Airlines commercials ’Win-Win’ & ’Late Nate’, 2010). The point is, when you're as large as American Airlines in may be hard to be nimble, and credit where it's due they've certainly demonstrated keeping up (some of their targeted print media demonstrates magnificence both in the elite and the pedestrian) (Legname, Polignano, Sanchez, & Salvarredy , n/a)(Livi et al., 2007)(Santander, 2007). One supposes that if, in these days of decoupled markets, their Achilles heel is the general masses, and then they have accomplished quite a bit.
References
2010 Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort & American Airlines. (2010, ). 2010 Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort & American Airlines [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkI9wRnh_U
American Airlines Post 9-11 Ad Campaign (Part 1). (2010, ). American Airlines Post 9-11 Ad Campaign (Part 1) [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V64IMaou8lU
American Airlines Post 9-11 Ad Campaign (Part 2). (2010, ). American Airlines Post 9-11 Ad Campaign (Part 2) [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzDOa6HEGYI&feature=related
American Airlines commercial ’Putting Them First’. (2010, ). ’Putting Them First’ [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6iAMiJUu5g
American Airlines commercial ’Thank You’ . (2010, ). ’Thank You’ [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-peCyr5ALJU
American Airlines commercials ’Win-Win’ & ’Late Nate’. (2010, ). American Airlines commercial ’Win-Win’ & ’Late Nate’ [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ARsRUUnUU&feature=autoplay&list=PLA67E3FBC26F6480D&index=54&playnext=2; and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIinwOGQwN0
American Airlines. (2011). (Social Media sites) (leveraged relationship marketing). Retrieved from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Android Market: http://www.facebook.com/aa; http://twitter.com/americanair; http://www.youtube.com/americanairlines; http://market.android.com/
American Airlines. (2011). Welcome to AA.com’s online press guide, your American Airlines and AA.com resource for marketing information (Press Guide ). Retrieved from Press Guide & Ad Campaign’s: http://www.aa.com/i18nForward.do?p=/aboutUs/pressGuide/pressGuide.jsp&v_locale=en_US&v_mobileUAFlag=AA; http://www.whyyoufly.com/whyyoufly.jsp; and http://www.aa.com/i18n/amrcorp/newsroom/advertising.jsp
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Davis, F. (2011). [personal writings] [Online exclusive].
Lazare, L.. (2010, November 2). American Airlines launches new Hispanic ad campaign [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blogs.suntimes.com/media/2010/11/american_airlines_launches_new.html
Livi, J., Macias, L., Astolpho, F., Degen, P., Vasconcelos, C., Mascaro, C., & Setboun, M. (2007, February). (2) Novo Mundo Tourism: Moscow & Machu Picchu (print media ads). Retrieved from WebMediaBrands Inc.; Ads of the World: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/novo_mundo_tourism_moscow; and http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/novo_mundo_tourism_machu_picchu
PR Newswire . (2011, March 24). Social Media Professionals Host Dallas4Japan Fundraiser (academic). Retrieved from proquest: http://search.proquest.com.wf2dnvr14.webfeat.org/docview/858381636/fulltext?source=fedsrch&accountid=34899
Planning Studies; American Airlines, Kraft and Subaru. (2003, March). DoubleClick/Nielsen//NetRatings/IMS Cross-Media Reach and Frequency. Retrieved from www.doubleclick.net; http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&sqi=2&ved=0CCkQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.grabers.com%2Flibrary%2Fimc%2Farchives%2Fsupport%2FonlineReach.pdf&ei=g6uRTZbhGtCgtwev9Yhh&usg=AFQjCNEq3hZ3azVemh4J6IqPgG-EcLFVzg&sig2=RLcVyjsmUaw7Fki5AUHKAg
Plummer, J., Rappaport, S., Hall, T., & Barocci , R. (2007). The online advertising playbook: proven strategies and tested tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation. In The online advertising playbook: proven strategies and tested tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=x8zjTq2vWesC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=American+Airlines+media+mix&source=bl&ots=_J0_o7ELKo&sig=8vpqukVzSzlJomIMKcP556lyFjM&hl=en&ei=g6uRTZbhGtCgtwev9Yhh&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
Santander, T. (2007, June). American Airlines Apple (print media ad). Retrieved from WebMediaBrands Inc.; Ads of the World: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/american_airlines_apple
Thorpe, A. (2010). We tried this, and it works... (pdf archived article ISSN: 00253650 ). Retrieved from Proquest:
Vintage Ad Browser. (2011). Airlines and Aircraft Ads of the 2000s (reference). Retrieved from Vintage Ad Browser: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/airlines-and-aircraft-ads-2000s
WebMediaBrands Inc.. (2009, August 7). American Airlines, AADP Launch Advertising Award for Positive Portrayals of People with Disabilities (blog post). Retrieved from Ads of the World: http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/american_airlines_aadp_launch_advertising_award_for_positive_portrayals_of_people_with_disabili
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