United bids for attention with ads

By Jim Kirk
Chicago Tribune

As reliant as the airline industry is on advertising to fill seats, it has been easy to forget United Airlines, given its lack of ads over the past year.

Having pulled much of its $75 million advertising budget after the Sept. 11 attacks and throughout its bankruptcy, United has been a miserly spender, sporadically taking out tactical newspaper ads.

But on Thursday, all that changed in a big way.

That's when the airline, which has whispered lately that it might emerge from bankruptcy this fall, launched its biggest advertising campaign in nearly two years with a print campaign aimed at the most lucrative segment in the industry: business travelers.

Part of United's battle to lure business travelers is an offer of a free ticket to frequent flier club members who fly three round-trip flights, an offer essentially matched by Northwest Airlines and American Airlines on Friday.

United's advertising campaign, the first under new marketing chief John Tague, was launched with three full-page ads in newspapers in all of its major hubs and in national publications, including USA Today and The New York Times, and offers a free round-trip ticket after three other round trips have been purchased.

"We're introducing a word that's been forgotten in this economy: more," reads one ad from United's agency, Fallon Worldwide. "At a time when other airlines are doing less for their customers, we're doing more. Because we understand that being a business traveler is hard enough already." The ads continue the "We are United" theme.

The $5 million launch of the campaign — its first targeting the business customer in two years — is a significant move for the airline, which has risked losing customers by not running advertising.

Because United has several competitors flying in several of the same markets, decisions on which carrier to fly can be based on things as simple as the customer remembering the last ad he or she saw.

And during the past year, competitors haven't pulled back on their advertising to nearly the degree United has.

That United has been so quiet makes the job of luring back business customers from other airlines even more difficult, some consultants say. United said it took that into account as it got set to roll out its new campaign.

"The good thing about this is that it's not a one-shot effort," said Jerry Dow, United's director of worldwide marketing communications. "This is the kickoff of a sustained effort."

The decision to go after the more profitable business traveler comes as most of United's competitors, including American, concentrate largely on the leisure market in their advertising.

And United executives say there are indications, albeit slight, that things might be turning around.

"We have some early indications of improvement," said Scott Praven, senior vice president of marketing at United. "For that reason, we think the timing is right to re-engage."

For the first four months of 2003, United's market share was 16.3 percent, behind only American's 18.8 percent, according to Eclat Consulting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.