Live from Promo Live: Airline Promotion Gives Flight to A&E Shows
A&E is mid-way through a four-month promotion with Southwest Airlines that promises to leave 200 million impressions with air travelers at 16 airports.
The campaign, which began in July and continues through November, is to hype the network’s original shows.
Southwest’s planes don’t offer in-flight entertainment, but because it’s common for both business and now leisure travelers to carry their laptop computers onboard, plans called for getting CDs into traveler’s hands before boarding, said Seth Grossbard, director of Civic Entertainment, which devised the promotion.
CDs containing complete episodes of four A&E shows, “Criss Angel Mindfreak,” “Dog The Bounty Hunter,” “Gene Simmons Family Jewels” and “Flip This House,” are being passed out to passengers at 13 airports.
In addition, A&E also set up wi-fi demo stations at three airports, where passengers can download compete episodes prior to boarding their flights.
“The possibilities vary by each airport. They don’t have the same rules and regulations,” Grossbard said.
No money changed hands between Southwest and A&E regarding the campaign.
A&E spent $500,000 to $1 million on the promotion. A large portion of the budget was staffing the wi-fi stations eight to 10 hours a day seven days a week.
In addition, the Southwest.com Web site links to an A&E microsite specifically tied to the promotion.
In terms of measuring campaign effectiveness, A&E views the physical presence at the airports for four months as more important than how many people actually download episodes, Grossbard said.
A&E enjoys an exclusive arrangement with Southwest during the duration of the promotion, after which Civic is likely to go back to both partners and figure new ways to work together, he said.
A&E was Civic’s first client when the New York-based promotions agency launched in 1999. Southwest previously had sponsored an A&E show called “Airline.”
