A&E Samples Entertainment on Southwest

#11 Best Interactive Promotion

TAKE OFF & TUNE IN

AGENCY: Civic Entertainment Group

CLIENT: A&E Television, Southwest Airlines

A&E had seen its ratings gradually slip over a few years and was looking for a novel approach to spark viewership through sampling.

It huddled with its agency, Civic Entertainment Group, and the two developed a strategy with Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest air carrier, which doesn’t offer in-flight entertainment. A&E and Civic struck on a strategy to provide pre-boarding entertainment made portable for viewing in-flight.

A&E created a closed-circuit WiFi network at Southwest gates in three airports, Chicago Midway, Oakland and Phoenix. When travelers turned on their laptop computers to search for a wireless network, the A&E WiFi net was the first thing they encountered.

“We were really looking to do some product sampling in other avenues,” says Stacy Krusch, A&E director of integrated marketing. “We got great exposure to a really captive audience.”

A&E ambassadors were present at branded kiosks during peak traffic hours to answer questions and promote the effort. Gate announcements and signage drove traffic to the informational kiosks.

In 13 other airports, Southwest staff members gave away DVDs of A&E shows, particularly to passengers stuck in middle seats, business travelers going home, or any passenger whose flight was delayed. A&E built awareness with gate announcements, buttons worn by Southwest staff members and signage in the airports.

Southwest passengers were an ideal audience for the initiative because 90% of them make reservations online and carry their laptops with them.

Passengers in Southwest’s waiting areas were able to download full-length episodes and short-form versions of several A&E shows, which were refreshed each month during the four-month promotion. The menu included “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” “Criss Angel Mindfreak,” “Flip This House” and “Paranormal State.” People were also able to download a custom game.

“The idea was to reach as many people as we could,” says David Cohn, Civic co-CEO. “Southwest’s customers are younger and tech-savvy.”

The target audience in this case correlated to A&E’s 18- to 49-year-old target, the traditional “sweet spot” of TV viewership for advertisers.

Access to the A&E content — through a micro-site on www.SWA.com — was provided to passengers when they booked a flight on Southwest. SWA’s confirmation page noted A&E’s download alongside links to book rental cars and hotels.

Ultimately, A&E reached 130 million consumers with the content online. Laptop users executed 30,000 downloads, and 300,000 DVDs were distributed.

“It far exceeded our expectations for the campaign,” Cohn says.

A feature story that ran in the Wall Street Journal drew attention to the campaign, which in turn sparked three cable networks to make inquiries with Civic about conducting similar stunts for their respective networks.

“There was a tremendous amount of interest from other networks,” Cohn says.

And A&E was able to glean information about the consumers who downloaded its content during the promotion, which apparently helped to produce a spike in on- air viewership.

In the end, both A&E and Southwest were pleased with the results.

“They saw an opportunity to give their customers something they didn’t have, and we saw an opportunity to reach their captive audience,” Krusch says.

Ultimately, A&E estimates that the promotion created $1.8 million worth of impressions, and Krusch says the network is mulling the idea of doing a similar promotion in the future.

IDEA TO STEAL: MAKING CONTENT AVAILABLE

for offbeat sampling in an unusual environment can build serious buzz with a captive audience.