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Part Five Developing the Integrated Marketing Communications Program
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
Exhibit 13-14 United
Airlines’ passengers can
watch SKY-TV in flight
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
13. Support Media © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
distributes over 1 million of its Hemispheres magazines each month and estimates
potential exposures at 1.7 million. 47
• In-flight videos. In-flight videos have been common on international flights for
some time and are now being used on domestic flights. Commercials were not
originally included in these videos. Now about $18 million in commercials is booked
on flights per year ($12 million on international flights). 48 While not all airlines offer
in-flight commercials, companies like Japan Air Lines, Delta, American, and British
Airways are participating. Some of these commercial messages are as long as three
minutes. For example, SKY-TV has features on United, TWA, and US Airways, with
a bonus feature on broadcast.com included (Exhibit 13-14). American’s CBS Eye on
American is broadcast in English and Spanish.
• In-flight radio. USA Today’s in-flight radio is run by the same people responsible
for publishing its newspaper.
• In-flight catalogs. Twenty domestic airlines (as well as Amtrak) now offer in-flight
shopping catalogs, with more than 90 percent of passengers having access. The catalogs
usually range from 160 to 180 pages and include products offered by Sharper
Image, Magellan’s, Lego, and Hammacher Schlemmer, among many others. 49
Advantages and Disadvantages of In-Flight Advertising Advantages
of in-flight advertising include the following:
1. A desirable audience. The average traveler is 45 years old and has a household
income over $83,700. Both business and tourist travelers tend to be upscale, an attractive
audience to companies targeting these groups. Many of these passengers hold top
management positions in their firms. Hemispheres reaches over 4 percent of business
professionals and estimates that almost 71 percent of the magazine’s readership are
professionals. Other demographics are favorable as well (see Figure 13-12). 50
2. A captive audience. As noted in the discussion about ticket covers, the audience in
an airplane cannot leave the room. Particularly on long flights, many passengers are
willing (and even happy) to have in-flight magazines to read, news to listen to, and
even commercials to watch.
3. Cost. The cost of in-flight commercials is lower than that of business print media.
A 30-second commercial on United Airlines that offers exposure to 3,500,000 passengers
costs approximately $27,500. A four-color spread in Forbes and Fortune would
cost double that amount. A full-page ad in American Way costs from $16,474 to
$19,154 depending on the number of placements. 51 The SKY-TV videos mentioned
earlier cost less than a half-page ad in The Wall Street Journal.